“Each Tentative List includes an email address to which comments on the proposals may be submitted. PSD accepts comments from LC and SACO catalogers, other library and archive professionals, lawmakers, and members of the general public. The comment period lasts approximately one month, beginning with the publication of the Tentative List and continuing until the closing date indicated on the list.”
The following are newly approved headings which I proposed
General Motors Corporation Strike, 1939
Motion comics [LCGFT]
Country life on television
Squirrels are just rats with cuter oufits!
Cryptocurrencies
I don’t know enough Christian art or crypto-nonsense to know which is the Judas. But what out for that one I guess.
Emojis
Okay but does Amazon Mechanical Turk get an access point?
Fantasy fiction–Religious aspects
Hello, it’s me Jesus
Frogs–Counting
Closet guess without going over wins all the frogs
Historic theaters
I hope in the sequel we can go in and it’s Dream Theater’s 2005 Score concert and they’ve animated me rocking out
Historical museum visitors
Technically she was asked to leave, so I guess she wasn’t a visitor
Justice in mass media
Leaves–Variation
There’s a lot of variation in these two leaves
Live-in household employees
Miiiystah Baaaeetes
Pierogi
yum!
Pirates in popular culture
remember this guy? remember the mid-2000s when everything was all pirates this and ninjas that?
“Each Tentative List includes an email address to which comments on the proposals may be submitted. PSD accepts comments from LC and SACO catalogers, other library and archive professionals, lawmakers, and members of the general public. The comment period lasts approximately one month, beginning with the publication of the Tentative List and continuing until the closing date indicated on the list.”
Lots of library content in this one! I know it gets a kind of bad rap in the way that a lot of 90s shows that have a ‘cyber’ episode do. It’s cheesy and a bit dated–
that’s a lot Fritz, that’s an awful lot
But it’s the first episode with Jenny Calendar, so no skipping!
Okay so right off the bat, this is an episode all about books.
I see a lambda, a theta but also a thorn? What character set is this? Eagle eyed viewers will note the set repeats on the opposing page
We got a demon, Moloch, trapped in a book. You may’ve been expecting that this would lead to a student reading an ancient text they shouldn’t’ve been and releasing him and we all learn a lesson about seeking knowledge beyond our ability to control ala Michael Crichton.
But it isn’t!
Instead it’s your standard “tech is scary and maybe bad????” 90’s genre episode! See also X-Files’s Season 1 episode: Ghost in the Machine.
Right, so the Italian monks [are they monks?] trap Moloch inside the book with the ritual of Kayless
Same thing I said when I finally packed away my Ayn Rand for good
Can we just take a sec and appreciate that these monks [again, I assume] spent the time to illuminate the cover of their trap-book with that detailed Moloch etching? I imagine they’d thought of the plan to trap Moloch but one of ’em was all, “no no wait guys I want to decorate the cover with this sick scored relief of Moloch first. then we don’t even need a title page, everyone will just recognize the demon Moloch and definitely not open the book”
It takes longer, but it’s important to enjoy what you do
Flash forward to the present day and you’ll never guess what shows up at the Sunnydale Library
Just what I wanted, thanks so much for coming to my birthday party!
Sure enough, the Moloch book has wended its way to Sunnydale and Giles seems very unconcerned.
Now it’s established later that Giles just didn’t realize that it’s the Book of Moloch but this raises some questions about his acquisitions. Does he have standing orders with various clued-in booksellers to send him rare tomes on certain subjects? Is there a YBP-type company out there providing shelf-ready books on demons and ancient prophecies?
Fritz sets the tone for the episode
Fritz is ahead of the curve! E-readers won’t be introduced until 1998 and he’s already anticipating years of librarian in-fighting
Giles heads off with an easy punchline setup for Jenny, presumably to wander amongst D200 [History (General)—Medieval history—Later medieval. 11th-15th centuries—General works] or 909.07 [History & geography–History–World history–General historical periods–Ca. 500-1450/1500]
With everyone gone Willow is scanning with a sleek hand-held scanner.
SCAN-O-MATIQUE
This is what causes all the problems, Moloch gets “scanned” into the computer and then also the internet!
But wait, *how*? First off Willow is clearly not scanning the whole page, but just the middle 3/4 of each page. Secondly, Giles tells us later that reading the book aloud releases Moloch — how does that translate to scanning? We’re not talking about OCR, or any kind of process which would allow the Moloch text to be processed as text. It’s images!
By this logic simply looking at the pages without reading would be equally sufficient to release Moloch, but Giles specifies reading aloud. I call foul!
Also, what exactly is this project? Willow [and Dave, played by Chad Lindberg who you can order custom messages from here: https://www.cameo.com/chad_lindberg — this isn’t related but I thought y’all should know that] are scanning books…for what? Is it just for them to get practice scanning books for their comp sci class? Is there a larger digitization project that the library is undertaking in conjunction with comp sci?
I have a lot of questions about this episode.
Anyway. Once Moloch is free and Willow is under his sway, he does a little sleuthing through the Sunnydale records and finds this: Born October 24th, 1980 in case you need to update her NAR.
Buffy is determined to get to the bottom of the weirdness with the comp sci students and Willow but Giles is naturally no help in this area.
Wait’ll he finds out about the Beta Toolkit.
Buffy follows Fritz to a shady facility and when she and Xander and planning to go back and break in, Giles as to cover with some library science babble when Ms. Calendar walks in.
I mean he’s not wrong, title indexes are just as important as author indexes!
Why, ALL kids dig the library! [new ALA poster idea]Now just because I’m a librarian and also love Giles doesn’t mean I can’t hear any criticism of either.
Jenny totally has librarianship’s number right here
This is a #NoHateALA blog, and I’d like to think Giles would be on board with kicking out nazis.
At last Giles tells Jenny what the sitch is until to find out that she’s already hip to all things magical.
Giles discovers twitter
Moloch gets defeated, our heroes triumph and Giles and Jenny continue to bicker over the relative merits of books vs. tech.
The pack — another Xander episode and featuring a sexual assault attempt that gets kinda washed over.
First up, I appreciate this dedication to the detail that Xander is still working on trig. Astute viewers will remember that he was borrowing a trig book from the library in the pilot — continuity!
Not that he’s actually doing much better with it…
Later when Buffy and Willow have noticed that Xander is being Hyena-ish, Buffy has an idea where to turn for help:
BRB changing my business card
Giles makes a couple flippant jokes and leads to this exchange:
No, that’s my department!
I recommend [much like the mantis from last week’s post] QL737.C24 [Zoology—Chordates. Vertebrates—Mammals—Systematic divisions. By order and family, A-Z—Carnivora—Hyaenidae (Hyenas)], and the requisite folklore area:
GR730.H9 [Folklore—By subject—Nature—Animals, plants, and minerals—Animals. Animal lore—Special kinds of animals—Other mammals, A-Z] into the mix too. Do note that I made that cutter up though, I guess not enough works have been cataloged about hyenas in folklore yet!
Some good DDC spots to check will be: scientific works: 599.743 [Science–Natural history of plants and animals–Animals (Zoology)–Specific taxonomic groups of animals–Mammalia–Eutheria–Carnivora–Fissipedia–Feloidea–Hyaenidae] or folkloric works: 398.3699743 [Social sciences–Customs, etiquette & fokllore–Folklore–History and criticism of specific subjects of folklore–Real phenomena as subjects of folklore–Animals–Hyaenidae]
Okay so once everyone’s clear on what’s going with re: hyena possession, Xander gets locked in the this cage in the library.
Oh no, Hyena Xander can’t handle book return!
Let’s talk about this cage for a minute. Lots of libraries have special collections or other areas that have restricted access, but this is some intense security for a high school library!
It also has a bookdrop which is the weirdest part to me, because it’s not the exterior of the library! In order to access this bookdrop you’d already have to be in the library in the first place, which though that makes sense at the circulation desk bookdrops doesn’t make seem needed for a special collections cage.
We also have seen the front door of the library and there’s no bookdrop on there! So to sum up, the only bookdrop we’ve seen in the Sunnydale library requires the library to be open to access it and there’s not even one of those bins to catch the books. They just have to plummet 4 feet to the ground. Not great. Somebody call Demco.
Oh, also they can try to grab you through the bookdrop, so watch out for that
Anyway. Wouldn’t you know it, the other hyena-posessed students come to rescue Xander and make quick work of the cage.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t great security after all. In Sunnydale you’re going to want a library cage that can stand up to your average hyena rampage.
A major episode! Season one is a little light in places, as many Seasons 1 are — but the biggest jam is finding out that Angel, mysterious and cryptic Angel, is a vampire.
Um, spoiler alert
Okay before we get there though, Buffy is attacked by a pack of vampires later identified by Giles as The Three, and with Angel’s help, fights them off. Willow wants to know how Giles always seems to know about the vampires and monsters that have proper-noun status.
He’s got a good response ready:
Hence the “i’m tired” mug
Quick point though — The Master lets Darla kill The Three for their failure which seems like a real misstep to me. Even if they didn’t succeed in killing Buffy the first time out, they might have better luck the second time? or the third? Killing them will never get Buffy for you, so way to come between yourself and your own goals, The Master.
Giles decides it’s time for weapons training [which naturally is done in the library] so we get a quick sign insert:
No one seems upset by this or gets put out by it, but throughout the episode Buffy is studying for some pretty big tests, maybe midterms? If I were one of those non-scooby Sunnydale students, I’d be pretty miffed if the library suddenly closed during midterms.
So Giles and Buffy get down to that weapon’s training and LOOK where they get the weapons from!
Wha?!
It’s fixed! When did they fix it? The banker boxes are still in there but there’s suddenly a very large weapons closet that I assume that Giles doesn’t usually keep in there. Because otherwise holding Xander [and future baddies] in there is a REAL bad move. So I wonder where he normally stores the weapons?
In a very sitcommy misunderstanding, Darla bites Joyce Summers and Buffy thinks Angel did it. The gang rushes to the hospital to comfort Buffy and see Joyce which leads to this exchange:
a QUITE reasonable question Joyce!
Remember all you school librarians out there. Even if one of your students is The Chosen One, with a Great and Important Destiny. Probably should try to act like you’re not taking too keen an interest in her personal life.
So the new science teacher is a giant praying mantis. She gets a vague-ish name of “She-Mantis” a “Kleptes-Virgo” but there isn’t much more explanation other than “she’s a giant praying mantis”. Despite the cliff hanger ending, we never see her species again. [If you’ve read the comics lemme know if any more giant praying mantises show up!]
So naturally at some point Buffy will need to do some research to defeat this MOTW.
Buffy’s face is also mine contemplating a bug book
This is mostly a gag line, so Giles doesn’t say anything — but I will!
General works on mantises will be found at QL505.83 [Zoology—Invertebrates—Arthropoda—Insects—Mantodea (Mantids)—General works, treatises, and textbooks], but remember, Giles’ colleague also knew of her back in England, so you may also want to check: QL505.865.A3-Z [Zoology—Invertebrates—Arthropoda—Insects—Mantodea (Mantids)—Geographical distribution—Europe—By region, country, or island, A-Z], and don’t forget to cutter for England!
Let’s add GR752.A-Z [Folklore—By subject—Nature—Animals, plants, and minerals—Animals. Animal lore—Special kinds of animals—Insects—Other insects, A-Z] into the mix too [cutter for ‘mantis’] because folklore works on mantises might be just the thing for this particular beastie.
Some good DDC spots to check will be: scientific works: 595.727 [Science–Natural history of plants and animals–Animals (Zoology)–Specific taxonomic groups of animals–Arthropoda–Insecta–Apterygota; Orthoptera and related orders–Orthoptera and related orders–Mantodea] or folkloric works: 398.3692727 [Social sciences–Customs, etiquette & fokllore–Folklore–History and criticism of specific subjects of folklore–Real phenomena as subjects of folklore–Animals–Mantodea]
So finally, we’re sure it’s a mantis, and Buffy has a plan to take it down — bat sonar! But wherever do we get audio recordings of bat sonar? Buffy can’t just pull up a youtube vid and blast it at the mantis, after all. Never fear, the never before seen and never to be seen again vid library is here!
I can assure you as a Professional Vid Librarian ™ that mustiness is bad for vids, better make a note when they start smelling vinegary, Giles
Needless to say, the vid library is a smashing success and Giles manages to transfer some audio onto a hand-held tape recorder for Buffy. She ventures off to face the mantis and smashes on that play button:
Womp womp. Sounds like Giles was recording some filing instructions? But for whom? Are there unseen student employees at the Sunnydale High library? Maybe he’s working on a paper and just getting his thoughts in order. And what’s the second half of this? [it gets cut off by Buffy flipping to the other sound which had the bat sounds] Maybe “it’s extremely important to file not simply alphabetically…but also by subject matter” “…but also by mystical rune” “…but also by sexy cover of Behind Blue Eyes”
This, not “hey whatever happened to the egg she left behind” is the REAL unanswered question of the episode.
One thing that makes BtVS so great is that they don’t forget about the Big Bad or the myth-arc or whatever you want to call it. Even in MOTW episodes, they take pains to check in with The Master monologuing in his church, or Angel snarking with Dru and Spike. There are long strings of X-Files MOTW in which the show (and Mulder and Scully) act like there’s no imminent alien invasion or Mulder’s sister wasn’t just replaced by a bee-clone. [Or whatever was going on with her]
Anyway — before we check in with The Master we get a cut that I really like
Giles gonna Giles
Then we slam cut to The Master’s DUSTY-ass book
This would be better as a gif, but i don’t know how to make one from a hulu video
See the show is pretty consistent on knowledge being power. You study, do your research, learn about what you’re going to face, and you’ll succeed. Heck it was the secondary thesis of the previous episode [after, sex is bad] Sure there’s a lot about friendship, practicing fighting technique, being magically strong, etc. but Giles and his book-learning ethic is a constant edge on Buffy’s side.
That’s why I like this cut, The Master reads too! He’s got Buffy’s strength and Giles’ appreciation of old tomes, which makes him a more formidable adversary. Though he really should take better care of a rare book like that. Being kept in his dank church can’t be good, preservation-wise.
Into the library comes boy of the week Owen, and Giles has some real bad customer service:
Way to create a life-long library user, Rupert
He’s specifically looking some Emily Dickinson, though doesn’t say which work. Giles unhelpfully waves him:
But I’m here to provide a little more information. In LCC Emily Dickinson’s works can be found at PS1541 and in Dewey at 811.4.
Later, Owen is picking up Buffy for a date and she and Giles need to do a quick play-acting to explain why he’s at her house at night.
Excuse me I need to go write a fic now where Giles is very cross with me that I haven’t returned my books. The phrase ‘No, you’re not getting off that easily’ is sure to come up
This presumably further cements for Owen that librarians are cold and unforgiving and libraries aren’t welcoming places. Not repping us so well, Giles.
Giles rushes off to guard the morgue while Buffy’s on her date. Willow is concerned for Giles’ safety.
Note the hyphen! It’s like Spider-Man not like Superman.
“Each Tentative List includes an email address to which comments on the proposals may be submitted. PSD accepts comments from LC and SACO catalogers, other library and archive professionals, lawmakers, and members of the general public. The comment period lasts approximately one month, beginning with the publication of the Tentative List and continuing until the closing date indicated on the list.”
The following are newly approved headings which I proposed or LCSH I canceled in favor of a NAR
Card games [LCGFT term]
Nim Chimpsky (Chimpanzee) [canceled for NAR]
And now, onto the headings!
Architecture (Personification)
Eventually, an ancient ritual will awake BUILDOR and it will do battle with the evil SKYSCRAPULON
Competition (Psychology) in literature
The real reveal in the book is that Kristy’s mom’s name used to be Elizabeth Taylor!
Deserts–Symbolic aspects
If you think that the Nikolaj Arcel movie was all there is to the Dark Tower, do I have 7 books for you to read!
Mandolin music (Ragtime)
You go Amy!!
Marijuana–Therapeutic use–Law and legislation
Official opinion of blog: decriminalize, free the people in prison, waive the convictions, pay them reparations
Men, Black
Print money! Black Panther, War Machine, Falcon, Goliath, and Nick Fury team up
Nicknames–Religious aspects
If Jesus had a nickname what would it be? And would you call it to his face?
Pharmacovigilance
It’s Pharmacovigilance! With the power to take pills from a large bottle and put them into a smaller bottle!
Potters in literature
Twist ending, it wasn’t Harry it was Lily!!
Shabbat shirah
and the woman dancing with their timbrels, followed Miriam as she sang her song!
Suicide Squad (Fictitious characters)
With no fewer than 20 needle drops and 7 or so origin stories, Suicide Squad is great…if those are things you’re looking for
Swindlers and swindling on television
Prolly reading a letter about conning and how it makes him sad now
Television programs–Religious aspects
Provides comfort, guidance, and community, seems about right.
Terror (The English word)
I used to keep my copy of this card covered with tape because the picture gave me such wiggins!
In this ep we get our first look at “Giles doesn’t get computers, and Willow does get computers”
personal space, Giles!!
This will be a long-running trait for both of them until ‘computers’ is replaced by ‘magic’ in terms of Willow-skills. I’m not sure Giles will ever come around to computers though…
Later, Principal Flutie catches the Buffster sneaking off campus for some slayage and the following exchange occurs
But Flutie knows that ‘sending teens to get a book from the store’ is not a sensible collection development policy. So he doesn’t fall for it.
Alright so there’s a witch on the loose — how can we find her with library science? Violate patron privacy of course!
No Willow, don’t!
There’s a lot going on in this scene:
Amy didn’t actually end up being the one who borrowed the books, it’s just a gag for showing Xander perving on semi-nude engravings.
Would Giles [who knows magic is real and dangerous] really put spell books into the circulating collection?
Willow next states that Xander *currently* has several witchy books checked out — why not have him earlier in the episode drop some witch knowledge and act smug before the reveal on why he’d really borrowed those books
When Willow later hacks morgue records, Giles makes a big show of “I didn’t see this, I wasn’t here” but when Willow violates patron privacy he doesn’t make a peep!
Most importantly: do not store borrowing history [though that wouldn’t help in this case as he currently has them out] but check with your systems librarian and see if your ILS is storing patron’s history. If you don’t have it, they can’t subpoena it.
Once the Scoobies know that Amy’s the witch and Buffy gets hit by the bloodstone vengeance spell, Giles lays down what the next step is to reverse her magic.
all this being British has given me a headache
So I’m a big believer in the power of books, and I know Giles is too, to an even greater degree. But why do they actually need the book? We’re going to see magic a lot more in coming seasons but this is the only time anyone ever says that you need the specific book that the witch used to cast the spell to undo it.
Do you also need the exact item she used? I mean Giles knows the name of the spell “Bloodstone Vengeance”, surely the counter spell to that shows up in more than one book.
This post is the opinion of Netanel Ganin and is in no way to be construed as an official communication from any section of any institution.
At ALA Midwinter 2018, in Denver, I attended the Subcommittee on Faceted Vocabularies meeting [as an audience member, I’m not on the committee] which is part of the Subject Analysis Committee.
There, another audience member [guest? attendee?] asked if there was a way to view LCGFT not as a purely alphabetical list of terms but as narrower terms of their hierarchies.
I downloaded every single term, one by one, from the LC linked data site [unfortunately I couldn’t find a way to bulk download LCGFT as MARCXML records], then I added an 072 field [often several] to every single record indicating which hierarchy it belonged to. Add a little XSLT to transform it into a visual display and we’re off to the races! I also added a bit of interesting statistical data, because who doesn’t love that.
Anyway, maybe you’ll find it useful, maybe you won’t but there’s at least one person who wanted it — so there we go!
This post is the opinion of Netanel Ganin and is in no way to be construed as an official communication from any section of any institution.
At my new student orientation for Simmons College of Library and Information Sciences, Professor Mary Wilkins Jordan cracked that all library students loved three things: cats, knitting, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At that point (May, 2013) I loved cats, I’d knitted several scarves and hats, and sure enough, I dug Buffy. I didn’t watch it when it was on — I was probably too sexist in 1997 [at the awful age of 13] to be interested in a show with a woman lead.
It was actually a librarian who turned me onto the show years and years after it had aired. While working at libraries, and before I began my MLS [this was 2011] I found myself dating a librarian who loved Buffy, and I was happy to watch it with her and finally suss out what drew people to this show.
I ended up finishing the show on my own, and then watched it again a few years later, this time incorporating Angel into the rewatch.
I’m not ride-or-die, and I’ve found plenty to criticize, e.g. Xander is every terrible thought/impulse I had in my worst Nice Guy(tm) years but never really gets called on it by the show or characters, but I enjoy it enough to want to rewatch it with Anna.
That brings us to now where we’re watching it. I thought it’d be fun to notice the library science moments in the show and scribble about ’em! I’m not doing detailed recaps or analyses, rather I’ll be directing you to Jenny Trout’s blog posts for that — but I may occasionally note something I find particularly…noteworthy.
So, hop aboard! Catch something I missed? Have a comment, question, criticism? Hit me up here or on twitter: @Oponions
Before we finish the opening credits we get our first library shout out! I mean I assume you all read the names diagonally like I do…
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Willow lets the audience know early on that the library is going to be an important base for the Scoobies. Her comment ‘where the books live’ is disappointing, apparently we’ve been fighting to be recognized as more than just a book repository for an awfully long time.
Cordy gets on in on the action as well, though this does raise questions about Sunnydale High’s library textbook policies. Are they on two-hour reserve? Can they leave the library room? Does Giles get frustrated every semester because teachers forget to let him know what textbooks they’ll be using and then suddenly get swamped with all their requests?
Pushed by both Cordelia and the plot, Buffy makes her way to the library where it gets a great reveal shot
Take a good look! we’ll be spending an awful lot of time here
Noah Wyle, eat your heart out
hey check it out–Xander went to the library and actually got Theories in Trigonometry, just like Will suggested! [Presumably from QA531, or 516.24]
Buffy and Giles have a bunch of expository speeches on both the premise of the show and her backstory, but that’s about it for hot hot library content in the first episode.
“Each Tentative List includes an email address to which comments on the proposals may be submitted. PSD accepts comments from LC and SACO catalogers, other library and archive professionals, lawmakers, and members of the general public. The comment period lasts approximately one month, beginning with the publication of the Tentative List and continuing until the closing date indicated on the list.”
This month take note of [and be sure to check your catalog!] the changes to Mental retardation and related headings. The term has been changed to Intellectual disability.
And now, onto the headings!
Bagpipe and harp music
Camp (Style) in music
Mamma Mia 2, now playing in theaters everywhere
Centaur objects
Some people object to powerful depictions of awesome ladies
Chinese in popular culture
I grew up with a lot of racist Chinese caricatures — Tikki Tikki Tembo, Five Chinese Brothers, etc. I wish i could’ve been watching this show instead
Chiptunes
Complaints (Rhetoric) in literature
Spoiler alert: it’s “women”
Cultural appropriation
Stop. Just stop. Three cheers to Violet Fox for her cataloging lab making this possible!
Doubles in mass media
Color coded for your convenience
Endurance art
Art is a broad category
Fried chicken
The real shocker is how we went this long without this heading!
Gene drives
Pretty specific for an LCSH, but okay
Generation Z
Finally! Enjoy being blamed for everything, Gen Z [i’m so sorry]
Hashtags (Metadata)
Just think, we could’ve been saying octothorpe all this time
Librarians’ writings, American
The storm was horrendous. Thunder shook the earth, and lightning sliced the sky to set alight the lowly homes of men. Rain bucketed down as though the air had forgotten how to be anything but wet. And Evelyn was trapped outside in it.
— Just a Res without a Nomen, WHOOOAA-OHHHHH (@marccold) July 13, 2018
Gotta click thru and read the tale!
Moose meat–Contamination
Someone contaminated all my moose meat with chubs!
Neoliberalism in popular culture
Check lefty twitter if you don’t believe me
Plants in motion pictures
If you have a fear of vines or plants or thorns or w/e, do not watch The Ruins
Sexual intercourse on television
Remember kids, sex is bad, don’t have it!–BtVS
Smart cities
I assume in our Smart Cities we’ll find all new Smart ways to hate the poor
Train hopping
I assure you, he hopped just before this Train flying/Train screaming
![Giles [through tape]: Extremely important to file](https://inevermetadataididntlike.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/screen-shot-2018-08-04-at-3-10-06-pm-e1533409996252.png?w=468&h=332)
