Over the weekend, while I was jealous about missing out on the LITA Forum, my husband and I went to the 22nd Annual Compassionate Living Festival. The CLF is a gathering of scholars, activists, and others who are concerned about animal issues.
I didn’t think much would happen that would be relevant to my library life, but there were several points where I was reminded about my field.
1. Interdisciplinary work
Over and over people discussed how animal issues are so interconnected. No one used the word interdisciplinary, but presenters framed the issues from philosophy to religion to science to psychology, and at dinner we talked with some folks about how they’re all connected. Clearly interesting work is done in the interdisciplinary areas, and here is one more example of that. This went a step further, too. Where interdisciplinary work in the university is all based around similar types of work, in this group people were approaching the issue from different disciplines (philosophy, science, etc.) and using different work methods (scholarly writing, political involvement, activist work, etc.).
2. Journals
We went to a talk on vivisection and the presenters talked about the use of animals in scientific labs and potential alternatives. The conversation shifted to the scientific community and culture that exists in which students that might prefer to use alternatives can’t because their advisors have always used animals in research. Then, we talked a bit about the tenure process and peer review journals. Apparently there is a group that verifies compliance with the the Animal Welfare Act before an article is published. They’re thinking about getting a librarian involved in this process. This is something I’d like to know more about. Can changes in the publishing process have implications for social movements? If that’s true in the animal rights arena, could it be true for civil rights? Women’s rights? GLBT rights?
3. Ebooks
One presenter, Dr. Michael Greger, spoke on Bird Flu. He’s written a book, which he was selling and signing at the conference. He also has released the book online. Yet another example of people experimenting with publishing models.
4. Research
A few times we heard from speakers about how to do research on animal issues. None were as focused as library instruction, but it was really interesting to hear how non-librarians talk about doing research with government documents, and how to do legal research. Perhaps this is an area (in many different types of movements) where librarians could share their expertise.
5. Changing Presentations
For anyone who has watched me present in the past few years, you know that I’m not a fan of bullet points in presentations, but I am a huge fan of using images to illustrate points. The speakers at this conference overwhelmingly leaned in the images direction and away from bullet points. It was nice to see so many well-crafted presentations.
So, for me the conference was a particularly good example about how librarian skills are useful in the larger world, and how some of the issues we think about are relevant in other arenas, too. It was no LITA Forum, but it was a good time. 
Now… on to the many, many posts I’m behind on reading!
Related posts:
Post a Comment