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The use of the word “librarian” here seems designed to evoke stereotypes of a short old computer illiterate lady who fought The Man and won. Jessamyn West is no
by ggg9990 8y ago
The use of the word “librarian” here seems designed to evoke stereotypes of a short old computer illiterate lady who fought The Man and won. Jessamyn West is not that kind of librarian — see her Wikipedia bio for more detail.
It would be not more accurate but perhaps more clear to say “Well-known author and activist wins case against Equifax.”
- windows_tips 8y agoLibraries were computerized long ago. Why would you have a stereotype of "a short old computer illiterate lady"?
- coldseattle 8y agoBecause he's prejudiced / a bigot?
- corobo 8y agoHonestly I had that stereotype loaded in mind myself too. I think it's probably because I've not been in a library since the days of librarians being short old computer illiterate people All my book needs were digitised long before our local library caught up, and then of course Amazon happened
- windows_tips 8y agoHow old are you?
- corobo 8y ago30 on the dot this year
- icebraining 8y agohttps://youtu.be/D9tP9fI2zbE?t=2m47s https://youtu.be/D9tP9fI2zbE?t=2m47s
- stordoff 8y agoFor me, it's because my school librarian DID fit that description, and I never met my University librarians (everything was automated).
- windows_tips 8y agoThere was a city library near me. There may be one near you too.
- curuinor 8y agoeven when she was mod at metafilter and writing books and things, she always presented herself 100% as a librarian, though. jessamyn.com starts off with "Hi, I'm Jessamyn./ I am a Vermont librarian." She owns librarian.net.
- ggg9990 8y agoYes, but calling her a librarian is like calling Dennis Ritchie a programmer. It’s 100% true but doesn’t really tell the full story.
- derefr 8y agoIs there a name for this phenomenon, where a category is defined so much by "weakened" examples of it (e.g. your average 1/10th programmer, or your average mostly-just-a-library-clerk librarian) that, upon seeing a central example of the category with all the features the category is denotationally supposed to have, it actually seems non-central (i.e. "not really a librarian" or "not really a programmer")?
- paulie_a 8y agoYes, it's called misrepresentation.
- coderdude 8y agoIt's a mixture of misrepresentation and denigration.
- elgenie 8y agoLessWrong calls it the "non-central fallacy". [1] "Martin Luther King Jr was a criminal! Taxation is theft! Capital punishment is murder! Abortion is murder!", etc are examples of that sort of misrepresentation. [1] https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yCWPkLi8wJvewPbEp/the-noncentral-fallacy-the-worst-argument-in-the-world https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yCWPkLi8wJvewPbEp/the-noncen...
- empath75 8y agoHer dad was also the subject of the book: ‘the soul of a new machine’
- branchless 8y agoA really great book, very entertaining and interesting.
- russh 8y ago"The soul of a new machine" is one of most interesting books I've ever read.
- DrScump 8y agoDo you mean that he was at Data General at the time? The subject of the book was the machine itself (the so-called "bag on the side of the Eclipse", IIRC).
- jhanschoo 8y agoArguably, it is this stereotype that needs to change. She seems to identify with being a librarian, and librarians these days work intensely with digital systems cataloging, digitizing, restoring, and providing access to all kinds of informational media.
- rorso 8y agoOur local librarians are amazing. They help manage/operate the 3D printers including helping you fix/convert your files. They trouble shoot the PCs themselves, help connect people's random devices to the WiFi and manage the network. They know more about the books than I can ever comprehend (oh you're after a book on Japanese wood joinery? Sure 3 aisles down, about halfway down the aisle on the left, 2nd shelf from the bottom!). They're experts on information storage and searching, crafting complex queries in seconds for the various digital databases the terminals offer there. They do kids story times, and manage out of control families and troublesome patrons. All while being the friendliest staff of any Government amenity I've been to. Such an underrated role in the community.
- bonestamp2 8y agoAgreed. I got a library science degree ~20 years ago and it was more about data structures/organization than "libraries" or "books".
- donbright 8y agono, it is the stereotypes that are inaccurate. not the article. it would be more accurate if people stopped believing in stereotypes.
- rmc 8y agoPublic libraries themselves are relatively radical anyway. And librarians have often been defending free speech w.r.t. books being banned, and privacy of who read what.