Hortus Deliciarum

Blogging hasn’t really been on my radar lately. I’m realizing that I really must have SAD, to some degree or another, because winters (especially grey, gloomy Seattle winters) take such a toll on me, mood-wise. Now that we’re seeing a little more sun, I’m starting to come back out of my shell, and what a tempest there is in the FA teapot!

The NOLOSE letter and responses thereto are fairly easy to find, so I’m not going to re-link. I’m also not going to engage in the discussion over whether the letter, or responses thereto, are appropriate/not appropriate, as far more eloquent/vocal FA folks than I have already chimed in to a far greater extent than I currently have the spoons to deal with.

That said, I found aspects of the discussion quite fascinating. It might be a year, or perhaps two, since Katie and I mentioned the possibility of an introductory FA space, with Racism 101, Sizeism 101, and other helpful places where newbies (or oldsters!) could ask questions and have them answered in a respectful way. It would not, of course, eliminate asshattery but perhaps might deal with the general accusation that “I can’t get a question answered without Googling it and I don’t know what to Google!” and similar.

Katie and I envisioned a community but, for a variety of reasons, I think people felt it wouldn’t be workable but I don’t see that mutual understanding has improved very much in the intervening time and that saddens me. If people who supported FA were a majority, arguing and infighting might not be as problematic. As it is, however, every time we have a major drama, I see people becoming discouraged with the movement and that weakens us.

We don’t have to agree on everything, which is just as well, because that would be impossible anyway. What I do worry about is that, without a coherent focus, we can’t effect change.

Since a community space seems to not be something people want, and despite the fact that I’m a little discouraged about my librarian prospects at the moment, I’m wondering if it would be helpful to have a pathfinder for FA – a compilation of every FA resource that we can find, from books to feeds to…? Is that something that would be useful for future reference?