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I have a better idea about this (will not be specific with this indexical) site that I will probably see again at the beginning of November. (I use “probably” because a type of social action may cause a cancellation of my visit.)
On another front, it seems that I caused a stir on a listserv with my comments on businessese as the “newspeak.” The outside world, or the most potent part of it, defines librarians or information professionals in its own terms, but that is not unexpected. What is, then, unexpected? Hmm, I think it’s our willingness to adopt that language, and make it part of our own, as if we should replace our preexistent language. Somehow, this phenomenon reminds me of entire ethnic groups who were forced to adopt a dominant group’s language as a way to survive. That must be it: we, information professionals, should we wish to survive, will have to forget out identity, since we cannot use our language, so to speak, and adopt a new one, which is defined by the faculty, business world, and others.
We will reformulate identity which is not ours anymore, but that becomes ours since we will speak the language of those who define us. Does this make sense?
I’m reading an article on “genres” in LIS: it is so abstruse right now because it does not seem to clarify what a genre is (will re-read it several times, though). Would need to write a few words about that. Soon.
Pretending that I’m busy, I haven’t written an entry for quite a few days.
I would have liked to be a little bit more open here, but, understandably, various reasons prevent me from jotting down some of my thoughts (another attempt to get away from writing).
As if I have never moved, it felt overwhelming to race against time to fill boxes—filling with vengeance, as someone put it. Not surprisingly, the boxes with books are the heaviest of all. Having the librarian streak, I’ve attempted to group the books by categories, not necessarily connected to an easily definable category, or perhaps to the ones that my own mind invented on the spot, as I almost desperately rushed to impose some sort of categorial order to finish off a daunting job. At the end, I simply gave in to our eternal, invisible master—the Time. In other words, categories that would have, or had, existed at the beginning of my packing simply merged into a huge, bookish Babylon. Up to me to figure out how I will re-place them on the shelves.
