In early days, I tried not to give librarians any trouble, which was where I made my primary mistake. Librarians like to be given ...trouble; they exist for it, they are geared to it. For the location of a mislaid volume, an uncatalogued item, your good librarian has a ferret's nose. Give her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You don't want a general houseworker, do you? Or a traveling companion, quiet, refined, speaks fluent French entirely in the prese...nt tense? Or an assistant billiard-maker? Or a private librarian? Or a lady car-washer? Because if you do, I should appreciate your giving me a trial at the job. Any minute now, I am going to become one of the Great Unemployed. I am about to leave literature flat on its face. I don't want to review books any more. It cuts in too much on my reading.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If you have ever watched an artist constructing with bits of cold stone a beautiful living picture you know that he works faithful...ly and carefully on the pattern from the wrong side and while he is working every inequality, every tint a little too dull is apparent to him as his picture grows, but he works on and on. And even when he finishes at last and looks down at the completed pattern he is not discouraged to see here a little crevice and there a little roughness, an open seam here, a tiny patch there where the bit of marble was too small. Now he pours his cement over it and smoothes [sic] it into every seam, and with faith puts his work to dry. Next day the pattern is turned and the perfect whole is given to view, needing only the polishing of a loving hand to make it ready to slip in place. So we should work faithfully on our pattern, cement it together with ourselves, and polish it with human kindness; and lo! the work slips into place seemingly a perfect whole.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The university is no longer a quiet place to teach and do scholarly work at a measured pace and contemplate the universe. It is bi...g, complex, demanding, competitive, bureaucratic, and chronically short of money.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I've been asked to give some words of advice for young women entering library/information science education. Does anyone ever take... advice? The advice we give is usually what we would do or would have done if we had the chance, and the advice that's taken, if ever, is often what we wanted to hear in the first place.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I feel free as a bird. I'm in a unique position because I'm the boss. I buy what I like. I initiate things. I can experiment with ...all kinds of things I think the kids might be interested in. Nobody interferes. For me, it's no chore to go to work. Most people never get to do this at any time in their lives.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Freedom of choice for women, at the expense of the caring, warmth, and sensitivity to others so often associated with them, may be... empty. In the thrust to redefine male and female roles, women must not become men; nor can men be permitted the continual dehumanization of their roles.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »