The Authority File

The Authority File took last week off, but the host, Bill Mickey, left a little something to pique your interest for next week. (Hint: management, anyone?)

In the final segment of Choice’s discussion with Janet Hyunju Clarke, Raymond Pun, and Monnee Tong, editors of Asian American Librarians and Library Services, each of the guests shares their perspective on diversity in librarianship today, and Monnee relates the story of San Diego children’s librarian Clara Breed, who worked and corresponded with Japanese-American children during their internment during World War II.

In this third of four episodes, Bill Mickey, Janet Hyunju Clarke, Raymond Pun, and Monnee Tong explore the institution’s role in diversifying the profession, and they talk about some of the strategies librarian Cynthia Del Rosario employs to convince students from underrepresented groups that librarianship offers unique opportunities for serving their communities.

In the second episode of a four-part series, Bill Mickey talks with Janet Hyunju Clarke, Raymond Pun, and Monnee Tong, authors of Asian American Librarians and Library Services, about the oppositional nature of Asian American Studies as a discipline. In addition, Monnee explains what the program “Talk Story” is and how libraries can implement similar programs to reach their own diverse communities.

Buy it here.

(Use promo code CHOICEPOD17 to save 30% off the cover price.)

This week Janet Hyunju Clarke, Raymond Pun, and Monnee Tong join Bill Mickey to kick off a four-part conversation about Asian American Librarians and Library Services. They discuss how the book came together and highlight a few of the articles they found most interesting and insightful.

Buy it here.

(Use promo code CHOICEPOD17 to save 30% off the cover price.)

In this final episode of our 4-part series with Joe Janes, author of Documents That Changed the Way We Live, we talk about the AIDS Quilt. While not technically a document as we might think of one, the quilt nevertheless preserves an important part of cultural history in America. Joe discusses that dynamic and how many of the documents and objects in his book take on lives of their own, adding new layers of cultural significance over generations.

In this third episode of our 4-part series about Joe Janes’s new book, Documents That Changed the Way We Live, we discuss the famous “We Can Do It” poster. The take-charge, cultural icon Rosie the Riveter depicted in the poster, it turns out, isn’t who you think she is. We’ll talk about that and how this particular document might be less of a “document that changed the world” than the other way around.

In this second episode of our 4-part series with Joe Janes, author of Documents That Changed the Way We Live, we dig into Webster’s Dictionary. Joe illuminates how Noah Webster set out to make a uniquely American dictionary that attempted to capture the identity of a still emerging country. We’ll also learn a little bit about Noah himself and how the dictionary’s contemporary version, Merriam-Webster, has become a darling of social media.

In this first episode of our 4-part series that highlights some of the documents that Joe Janes writes about in his book, Documents That Changed the Way We Live, we’ll talk with Joe about how the book came together, why these documents are worthy of exploration, and how they have an uncanny ability to take on new meanings depending on their historical context.

In this week’s episode, host Bill Mickey sits down with The Authority File producer Mark Derks to share a few thoughts on the motivation for the program and how it fits into the broader digital transformation taking place at Choice. They survey the past two months of content and share behind-the-scenes dirt on what goes into putting together an episode, while relating their thoughts on the show’s successes and heartbreaks. Finally, they preview the next two months of content and let you know how you can put your questions to The Authority File’s guests (hint: #TheAuthorityFile).