Recently, I started working two days a week in our Collections Services department as a cataloguer. It's an interesting and rewarding challenge, and although I can find my way around a MARC record, I still have a lot to learn.

One of the interesting benefits of this job is that a lot of books come across my desk--ones which often don't make it into Kirkus or any of the other major publications we use for selection. Actually, having too many books that I want to read seems to be a bit of an occupational hazard. I often get late fines because of this.

Anyway, there have been two books that have come across my desk lately that I find particularly interesting, not that I want to read them, but they raise interesting issues.

The first book is Show it in public : everything you need to know to show a film in public / Graham Peat and Angela Pressburger. The cover tells us (all you cataloguers should make a "500" note) that this is "The companion guide to showamovie.ca." I find it a bit disconcerting that it takes a 222 page book to help some poor teacher show a movie to her class. Frankly, I know a lot of teachers--I'm married to one--and I doubt that many of them go through the process to obtain legal right to show a film to their class. In situations where individuals are profiting from showing someone else's film, by all means, do the paper work and collect royalties, but why threaten schools and libraries with legal action when they're spreading the work about your product. Nobody wants do do less with their media, and convoluted and expensive copyright regulations and DRM only serve to alienate consumers and generate ill will.

The other book that came across my desk is Yes you can! : home repairs made easy / [Amy Wynn Pastor] ... Amy Wynn is one of the carpenters from Trading Spaces, the home renovation show on TLC. The interesting thing is that while her name is all over the cover in such a way as to make one believe that she is the author ("by Amy Wynn Pastor"), she's not; in fact, there is a small note in the T.P. verso listing someone else as the "writer." While Amy Wynn's name might be on the cover and her pictures throughout, I doubt she did little more than pose for the photo shoots. Now, I'm sure this happens all the time... Amy Wynn's name is a brand, and even though she, as a person, may not be able to write a book, she is passed off as the author. I, for one, feel that this is more than a little dishonest. Really, I should be used to being lied to my marketers, but I suppose that I always felt like the author / book connection was somewhat unsullied. In this world where we are increasingly alienated from the production of the goods we buy, it was always grounding to feel as if you know who your reading material came from. You might have no idea where the chicken on your dinner table were raised, or have any idea about the provenance of your iPod, but it seems to me that you could always be reasonable sure about the maker--the author--of the book you were currently reading. I'm sure this sort of thing goes on all the time, but it makes me sad.

Cat!

Given last night's heavy post, here are some obligatory librarian cat pics:

Tonight's soap-box.

I was watching The Hour with George Stromboloupolous, and in a lead up to an interview with David Frasier, the Canadian Brigadier-General in charge of UN operations in what I think can reasonably be described as The War In Afghanistan, George played a clip of Prime Minister Harper saying,

I was very distressed to read suggestions by some Liberal MPs this week at the caucus meeting that they might want to question that involvement, that they might want to have a vote. You do not send men and women into harm's way on a dangerous mission with the support of our party and other Canadians, and then decide when they're over there that you're not sure you should have sent them. That's not the way this government is going to behave. link

Now, as you know if you've been reading the blog, I do not agree with the Conservative party on a number if issues; however, I do support them in some of their policies, such as increased funding for our military, which has been systematically underfunded for years. I also think that Canadian involvement in the removal of the Taliban and subsequent rebuilding of Afghanistan is largely tenable. Harper's comments, though, make me a little nervous. While anything less than a firm resolve when sending soldiers into a dangerous war zone where some of them will die would be reprehensible, Harper's assertion that it's not okay to change your mind or engage in a democratic vote is a little troubling. As a nation we must be willing to admit mistakes when they occur, and take real steps to correct those mistakes. I'm not saying that we've made a mistake, but war and nation building are complex operations, and we're human: mistakes will occur. To remain committed to a course of action uncritically--without dialogue-- is both foolish and dangerous, and when a government makes assertions which uncritically affirm military deployment, and question the patriotism of those who do, I can't but think that we've taken a baby step down the road to fascism.

If Harper's comments represent a baby step, the American government has taken a stride or two in its persistent unwillingness to engage in dialogue, even with its own citizenry, as well as in attempts to institute pervasive surveillance and act unilaterally. As has been said before, there is the feeling of 1914 in the air, and this makes it all the more important to engage in dialogue. While I doubt that the west would crumble before a wave a terrorist attacks if I'm allowed to leave my Canadian passport at home when I visit my neighbors to the south, we do need to discuss security, wherever we live. But the point is that we must discuss: not to discuss leads to the imposition of one ideology from the top down, which so far as I know has never has never given rise to a stable society in which the people have generally been satisfied; rather, it's given rise to dictatorships. Besides, if you're so sure you're right, why not discuss it... You might bring some of your detractors around to your way of thinking.

With that rant out of the way, I think I'll get off my soap-box and go to bed...