You never have to apologize for your reading habits. Despite the halo effect that is given to people who say they are “readers”, the reading community is not one homogenous group; It is greatly fragmented and there is always drama and in-fighting taking place. I wanted to provide a defense for those who get ridiculed for enjoying Young Adult literature and show that these demographics are merely suggestions, not rigid rules to follow. https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/3-7-teens-and-new-adults-in-libraries

Why is it so difficult to describe people in social classification? This podcast examines this topic through the warrant, meaning the lens used to make decisions about how to describe things in a classification system. Specifically, the experience of disabled people is explored using some of the most common sources of warrant, including literary and scientific warrant. https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/3-6-warrant-and-disability/

With a background at the St. Jerome’s University College’s Digital Research Arts and Graphic Environmental Networks lab as a paleographer, and manuscript digitizer for six years, Jordan Tardif explores the impact of Manuscript Digitization on Manuscript Studies. Manuscript repositories and manuscript libraries are libraries as well, and thus the same digitization principles developed in traditional libraries can also apply to materials being digitized by archives, such as newspapers, letters, and journals. https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/3-5-manuscript-digitization/ Host and Editor: Jordan Tardif

In this episode Clarese Greig explores Digital Literacy in Public Libraries with her co-workers. The library branch they work at deals with more tech questions than can be handled most days, so the conversations usually veer towards tech, digital literacy and patron needs. To quote Clarese: "While I do not think it is the library’s responsibility to fix every issue that arises in society, I do think it is the library’s responsibility to take inventory of the issues facing society to see where their services help." https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/3-4-digital-literacy-in-public-libraries Transcript: Coming Soon Host and Editor: Clarese Greig

In 2021 Daniel Clarkson Fisher inaugurated an online Tumblr site with the goal of documenting instances of actual libraries appearing in film (https://costarringyourlocallibrary.tumblr.com). Inspired by Thom Andersen's Los Angeles Plays Itself (2004), it is a mix of public scholarship, architectural appreciation, and audiovisual essayism. Show notes at: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/3-3-co-starring-your-local-library/

Libraries are places of knowledge sharing, and this sharing is in more than just books. Libraries can be very important for sharing information and expertise that normally would be difficult to find otherwise. What other public institutions can both create and share resources that reach audiences like libraries do? What other public institutions could do events like workshops about internet privacy and security? This is an important space where libraries can operate in. Computer security and privacy are a major part of using the internet and understanding where you are vulnerable and how to protect yourself is useful information for anyone using the internet. This is especially important for older people who are less familiar with the threats of being online. Show notes at: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/3-2-computer-security-and-libraries

What gems are hidden in the vast stacks of your local public library? Today we are joined by Jeff Causier, a library staff member who has works in the London Room Archives of the London Public Library. He will tell our listeners what sort of work he does in a specialized department of a public library, the technology he uses daily to answer complicated reference questions and share a very special story about the most valuable book he found hidden within the closed stacks of the London Room Show Notes at: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/3-1-visiting-the-london-room/

Philosophy and library science may seem an unlikely combination, but they are closely connected disciplines. In this casual and accessible conversation Mike and Lindsay explore the philosophical themes underlying three important concepts in classification and indexing: Ontology and epistemology, equivalence, and warrant. Show notes: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/2-5-the-greatest-crossover-philosophy-and-library-science

LIS has been described as everyone's second career. Today we are joined by Brooke Brassard, a new Library Science student who has previously earned a PhD in the field of Religious Studies. She describes her research into the Latter-Day Saints movement in Canada, the process of translating a thesis into a book, and her observations of the intersection of LIS and Religious Studies. Transcript: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/2-4-religious-studies-and-lis/

What is the role of the public library? Is it a bastion of high culture, dedicated to the betterment of the public? Or is it a refuge for the public, serving the most popular fare? The question of how the public library has been perceived is the subject of today's episode. We are joined by Sofia Beraldo, Chelsea Coubry-Forte, Erin Isings, Katrina Desjardins, Kate McCandless and Pam McKenzie, an interdisciplinary research team based at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Transcript: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/2-3-the-public-library-is/ Episode producer: Alex Mayhew

"A language is a dialect with an army and navy" is an adage was popularized by sociolinguist and Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich. So what does this mean for our classification of languages? And, what impact does our classification of languages have on the people who speak them? In today's episode our guest Sarah Cornwell explores the largest systematic effort to classify languages: The Ethnologue, as well as its history, impact, and alternatives.  Transcript: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/2-2-what-is-a-language-the-ethnologue Episode producer: Alex Mayhew