Episode 544: WTF in 2023?

I think everything's OK. Looks like this board is new. I haven't seen it before anyway. There are lots of buttons, lights I don't know. There's no clock in here. Also, there's no there's no on air button, or on air sign, or anything like that?

I wonder where they hid that. The mics are kind of weird. The headphones are kind of weird. Why don't we turn that up.

Do you have everything you need on the computer? I mean, do you have the old sound files, the intro, the bumps?

I think so. All the things-- the little (MAKES MUSICAL NOISES). I think it's in there. Yeah.

That's good. You should do that on air sometimes. OK. Well, you want to just turn on the mics?

We ready to get the show started, you mean? CHARLIE BENNETT: We'll get started. Yeah. Good news, the mics are already on. CHARLIE BENNETT: Well, you better play the intro music then. Uh, I guess I will.

Hey, I was right, it is in there.

You are listening to WREK Atlanta, and this is Lost in the Stacks, the Research Library rock and roll radio show. I'm Charlie Bennett in the studio-- the air studio, the station studio.

It's pretty amazing, isn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah. With Fred Rascoe and Marlee Givens. Each week, on Lost in the Stacks, we pick a theme and then use it to create a mix of music and library talk. Normally, I would say, whichever you're here for, we hope you dig it. But to tell you the truth, right now, I'm just happy.

Yeah.

I'm just going to please myself during the show.

Yeah. I can't believe we're actually doing this live again. So yes, happy New Year. And as Charlie alluded to, this is our first show of the 2023, and we are back in the WREK studio after almost three years of COVID disruption and other kinds of disruptions. And to be honest, we're not back in the studio, you could say we're in the studio for the first time.

Oh, it's true. Yeah. Since our last live broadcast, the building that houses WREK has been the subject of a massive renovation and redesign project. CHARLIE BENNETT: That sounds familiar. It does. It does. I think we just finished one of those last time we were here.

But now, we are in the new John Lewis Student Center at Georgia Tech, and we have a shiny new studio with almost no holes in the walls.

That'll change. Today's Lost in the Stacks is our traditional New Year's show in which we talk about what happened last year, what is happening right now-- we're on the air right now-- and what we hope will happen in the new year.

And we will attempt to answer a question for ourselves as librarians and maybe people, since librarians are not people.

And that question is, what's the future?

That's right. What's the future? WTF for short.

Oh, hey, WTF also stands for--

So our show today is called WTF in 2023.

Yeah. What's the future. That sounds right. Sure. Our songs today are all about being positive or being negative.

Or being at some uncertain point in between.

Are you all talking about ambiguity?

Kind of.

More or less.

I am of two minds about this.

OK. Well, while we figure it out, let's start with a song about looking ahead with very mixed and uncertain emotions. This is "All This Time," by the Heartless Bastards. Right here on Lost in the Stacks. Playing it live.

This is Lost in the Stacks, and that was "All This Time" by the Heartless Bastards. And today's show is called WTF in 2023. And WTF stands for-- CHARLIE BENNETT: What's the Future. Right. OK. Just-- yeah.

It's a New Year's show. So we're considering the past, taking stock, and making plans.

All right. Kind of like A Christmas Carol.

So we'll start with the past. Let's look at the past year. How did it go for everybody? Oh, and, I mean, professionally more than personally at this point. So let's consider this question more on the librarian side of things.

So this not radio call-in therapy.

I don't think Marlee's completely convinced that we should talk only professionally. I think she's, like, librarians are people too.

We can dive into the darkness within.

This is what I wanted to avoid.

Fred, how did your last year go, I guess, professionally or personally?

OK. Personally, I did finally get COVID in the past year back in May. So I had dodged it, fortunately, for a while, but it catches us all eventually I think. So that was a personal thing. But it wasn't too bad actually, thankfully. I'd been all vaccinated, and boosted, and everything. So no real negative effects except kind of cold-like symptoms. Professionally--

And it probably screwed up your schedule too.

It did. It messed up absence from the in-person office meetings for a few days, but still telecommuted on a lot of those days. Professionally, I actually went to a conference in person for the first time. I had attended some virtual things. But since 2020-- probably since 2019 or before, I don't remember-- I had not been to a conference in person. But I went to the Special Libraries Association Conference in Charlotte.

Is that where you caught COVID?

No, this was a couple of months afterwards.

So yeah. It was kind of neat to go to a conference in person. And I ran into my old graduate school library school advisor, Kendra Albright. It was kind of nice.

Nice. I can't imagine going to a conference again. I think I have just burnt it out of me by not going for several years. And I was kind of down on big conferences anyway. I was sort of tired of ACRL and ALA, and, like, oh, my god, look at all these people. But I don't know-- it's going to take a while for me to get back into the conference swing of things.

I have to say, I did go to a conference, and I went to a big conference. And I kind of thought, I don't need to do this anymore.

You know, I thought that about a lot of things this year-- I don't need to do this anymore. I started in a very not burnt out, but just sort of disdainful place in terms of the profession and the job. Just kind of maybe quiet quitting, but I wasn't even engaged enough to quietly quit. I was more just inertial.

And I haven't figured out exactly what quiet quitting is. I've heard that term a lot. Is it, like, basically half-assing it?

You know, sure.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

I think it's doing the bare minimum to keep your job while keeping your options open and thinking about other things.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, like a lot of people.

Yeah.

But Charlie, you actually-- you literally took on more this year.

I did. By the end of the past year, I felt somehow recuperated or rejuvenated as a librarian. I don't exactly know why. I think I should give a shout-out to our most recent supervisor, Cynthia Kutka, who really was very kind to me in a lot of supervisor meetings. And we talked a lot about faculty. We talked a lot about what it means to be a librarian in an organization. And that kind of settled me and made it--

That's good.

--it better.

Well.

Some stuff happened to you, Marlee.

I got promoted.

Yeah.

All right.

I went through my last promotion. This is it.

That's right. Because in the funny world of librarian academia, there's just these four levels, at least at our library.

At our library, we have four levels.

One, 2, 3, 4.

But they're Roman numerals, so that means they're fancy. And so Marlee is now the Roman numeral IV.

I'm a Librarian IV.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Yeah. Which means I don't have to do the scramble anymore. CHARLIE BENNETT: Define the scramble. The scramble to do the required scholarship and service--

--to feel like I have to go to these conferences, you know? I mean-- CHARLIE BENNETT: Well, now you know what quietly quitting means. Well.

Yeah. Although, it has been kind of hard to jump off the train. I mean, I feel like there's-- I have some momentum. Really, toward the end, I did some really fun things. I mentioned the in-person conference. I had the extreme pleasure of presenting with two of my good friends at work, and we had a packed house.

Nice.

And it was great. So it's very gratifying to have these experiences. CHARLIE BENNETT: And you still said you weren't sure if you needed to do this anymore after that experience. I don't know. I feel like lots of options are open. But I can enjoy doing more things like this.

And speaking of how work kind of can overwhelm us or just add too much to our plates, we should acknowledge that one of our team--

There is an empty chair in the studio.

There's an empty chair here in the studio, because Wendy's just taken a brief hiatus from the show.

We're insisting it's brief.

Insisting that it's a brief hiatus. So. But yeah, we miss Wendy's contribution.

So long time listeners will notice that Wendy is not here to bring the archives.

But we'll be hearing from her on the left side--

The left side of the year.

This is Lost in the Stacks. We'll be back with more New Years talk after a music set.

And you can file this set under BX-72333.p445-s7. [LEFTOVER CUTIES, "LOST IN THE SEA"] I got lost in those--

That was "Everyday Sunshine" by Fishbone. And before that "Lost in the Sea" by the Leftover Cuties, a song about being way down and a song about knowing the way up.

This is Lost in the Stacks. And today's show asks the question, what's in the future in 2023?

And WTF--

Sorry. Yeah, WTF in 2023. What's the future.

It stands for what's the future.

I misspoke. Thank you, Fred.

WTF.

Thank you.

So let's talk about what we know is happening this year-- like, how did the year start, what's going on now, what plans are already in action. Charlie? As Marlee mentioned in the last segment, I've already done a lot starting this year. Something happened, and I was able to say, OK, I'm in it. I'm in it to win it this year. So I'm the embedded librarian in a class that's already started. I joined the Center for Media Arts, which is a multidisciplinary research institute or center I guess.

I mean, actually, it probably is the same thing. I don't know. I don't know. When you read the definitions, digital humanities is the use of new technology and new media to do classic kind of humanities questions, like how to bring in new ways to research the subject. Whereas media arts is about doing new kind of arts with new media, but also how to do old art forms with new technology. Like, in a way, we are doing media arts right now. Because this will be podcast it after it's broadcasted.

Yeah. Our listeners now are going to be thinking to themselves, gosh, they say uh, and there's gaps a lot more than there were in the past couple of years.

I don't know, Fred.

We had the luxury of editing.

It sounds like you're right on top of it right now. You might be trying to raise the bar.

You said that something happened. You talked in the last segment about how you talk to your supervisor-- CHARLIE BENNETT: Yeah, yeah, yeah. --to [INAUDIBLE] yourself a little bit. You kind of got to that place? Does that happen every January? Is that a new year, academic thing. CHARLIE BENNETT: No. (LAUGHS) No. Oh.

No I started many January is just like, oh my gosh, this again. How does your year look, Fred? Well, not your year, but how does right now look? What are you doing?

Well, right now, being in the studio is an amazing experience.

Like, literally right now. FRED RASCOE: Literally right now. Because we've done this as bits and pieces, recorded discussion, record and assemble the show over a week, and then put a digital file together, and then it gets broadcast. We've done that since March of 2020. And now, to be doing it live again, that's something. But overall, professionally, there are some interesting things that actually have connections to this show. I've actually got a couple of research projects.

And then one with-- the idea was sparked by a guest on our show last fall about the OSTP memo. Katherine Dunn. We won't get into that again. But this show kind of brought a few connections.

All of these episodes are available on the podcast feed.

How about you, Marlee?

I guess one major difference right now is that I'm not leading a project. That was the thing that I was doing this time last year.

I like how you used the word lead though.

Oh. Yeah.

Because you're in some.

I mean, I'm involved in a bunch of projects, but--

And what were you leading?

I was leading the revamp of the resource guides.

Oh, the lib guides.

Yeah, the lib guides.

Which, librarians that listen to this--

--all have their reaction-- have all had their reaction already. But for people who don't know what it is.

Lib guides. Lib guides.

And in fact-- yeah. The conference I went to and we mentioned, oh, and the project we're talking about is redoing our lib guides. So many heads in the audience were just like, oh, yeah, yeah. Because it's just like a-- yeah.

But if you don't know what a lib guide is, because we have non librarian listeners as well--

Right, right. OK. So it's a guide to the useful resources for doing research in a subject. And our goal was to just try to improve the experience, especially for someone who's coming into Georgia Tech for the first time and using the library for the first time. Like, OK, I'm in my first VME class, I need to use a library for the first time, what's the library got?

I feel like there's two details I should add. These are websites.

Yes, they are--

Full of links.

And they were actually a separate from the regular library website. They were their own thing.

Yeah.

And we're now able to better integrate them into the website experience. So when you do a search on the Georgia Tech Library website, you pull up resource guides in addition to articles, and books, and other things that we provide.

And the reason we say lib guides is because it sounds silly to say "libe" guides.

It does. Yes. CHARLIE BENNETT: Even though I think that's what it's supposed to be. Well, I think a lot of people-- yeah, a lot of people call it that--

Because it's short for library.

Because "libe" is short for library. CHARLIE BENNETT: Yeah, L-I-B is "libe." Yeah, library. But no--

I've never really though about that.

But I'm not doing that.

Yeah, you're right. It should be "libe" guides.

It should not, Fred.

Oh. Yeah. No, it shouldn't.

Yeah, we should not do that.

WTF.

WT-- what's the future of "libe" guides?

So what is right now then?

Well, that that's being-- actually, that's kind of rolled over into a regular library service. And so, we're just trying to manage things at this point-- figure out how much effort we really need to exert to try to keep them in shape and to manage that. But yeah, I'm involved in some other kind of related projects sort of looking at library instructional materials. And as you both know, we're embarking on a bit of a restructuring of the department that we work in.

That's what I was leaning into--

Yeah. CHARLIE BENNETT: --when you said lead. You going to talk about something like that? It has not been official yet.

OK. Then we'll step back.

Yeah.

So we'll tantalize our listeners, and we'll--

Here's what will happen-- I think we'll be able to talk about the future in the next segment, and through context clues people will be able to figure out what it is that we're not saying.

So we'll roll with that then, Charlie. CHARLIE BENNETT: Roll with it, Fred. So you're listening to Lost in the Stacks, and we'll talk more about the New Year, 2023, right now, and what's to come on the left side of the hour.

Hi, this is Wayne Clough, President Emeritus OF Georgia Tech and Secretary Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution. And you are listening to Lost in the Stacks on WREK, Atlanta.

Today's show is called WTF in 2023. And, of course, the New Year puts many of us in mind of New Year's resolutions. Not all of us, Fred, I know, but many of us. And I like to stay current to understand the trends and the new ways of thinking-- keep myself fresh. So I found some advice that we might apply in the new year. This is from the book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, published by Chartwell Books just last month.

Um, Charlie, are you sure about the publication date?

This edition published just last month.

OK.

"Do the things external which fall upon you distract you? Give yourself time to learn something new and good and cease to be whirled around. But then you must also avoid being carried about the other way. For those too are triflers who have wearied themselves in life by their activity and yet have no object to which to direct every movement and, in a word, all their thoughts. Through not observing what is in the mind of another, a man has seldom been seen to be unhappy.

WTF.

File this set under BJ-1581.2.s16. [THE PRETENDERS, "STOP YOUR SOBBING"] It is time for you to stop all of the sobbing. Yes, it's time for you to stop--

You just heard "Enjoy Yourself, It's Later Than You Think," by The Specials.

Uh-oh.

Yeah, it is.

WTF. MARLEE GIVENS: And, prior to that, "This Will Be Our Year" by The Zombies. And we started our set with "Stop Your Sobbing," by The Pretenders.

These are songs about looking ahead with trepidation and looking ahead fearlessly.

This is Lost in the Stacks. Today's show is called What's the Future in 2023. WTF. We are considering our last year, our current moment, and the year ahead.

So in the last segment, we talked about what was happening right now. Not right now in the studio-- well, maybe right now in the studio and right now in our lives. But let's now talk about what we hope to do this year. We're not going to do predictions. As Marlee pointed out, predictions are a scam, a sham, and not to be trifled with. So let's talk about what we hope to put into action this year. Marlee.

Yeah. Well, this is sort of getting at your earlier question.

Yeah.

So the Department that we all work in is kind of being divided in two. We're going to kind of divide our areas of focus, and one of those areas of focus is on instruction and research. And I guess that's really research support for the research activities that we support as librarians. And so, I'm looking forward to trying to be more of a team in both of those areas.

Yeah. And it's interesting that our department CESO-- Community Engagement and Scholarly Outreach-- it was unwieldy. It had to be broken up into two teams. And then we took two people internally to become the leads of those teams. And I guess we officially don't know because it hasn't been announced, but is between two of our colleagues for one team and Marlee was the only person who went up for the other team. But it's not official.

Right.

Right. So we have no way of knowing, Marlee.

It's like typical Georgia Tech. It's all kind of stuck in bureaucracy right now.

Oh, some kid in the class, the LMC class that I'm embedded in, we were doing a library exercise, and I said, so what's missing from this set of adjectives? What needs to be there to complete the picture of the library? And he said, corporate. And I said, well, you're not wrong.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Corporate what. CHARLIE BENNETT: Corporate aesthetic. Corporate feel. Corporate.

What were some of the other adjectives.

Well, that's an interesting one. There was quiet and there was noisy. And there was nostalgic and there was unappealing. There was pleasant, powerful, happy, boring, irritating, nonsensical. There were a lot. It was pretty cool.

Oh gosh, I love nonsensical. Because how much energy do we devote toward trying to make things--

Yeah. The idea that library-- MARLEE GIVENS: --clearer and organized. If the library is nonsensical, than we've really fallen down on the job.

Yeah. And I think we can-- we'll just hire an AI chat bot to organize it for us. Because, obviously, the way that humans-- CHARLIE BENNETT: Oh, stop it, Fred. --are doing it Rubbing my hands together.

What are you going to do this year, Fred? What do you got besides your AI?

My wish for AI nihilism.

You and AI is like meat and 3D printers. it's not happening. Stop talking about it.

Oh, man. It's not happening. Yeah. I think that's my way of embracing the oncoming wave of doom is by laughing about it. Yeah. Well, I mentioned professionally I've not written too many articles for journals. So to have two in the pipeline or hopper-- whatever the right term is-- is kind of interesting for me. And personally, keeping on with my habits of reading. I've tried to track my reading habits, and I read very slowly.

I'm always delighted at the books you're reading, Fred.

Did you know-- CHARLIE BENNETT: They never match-- --out of about 100,000 known described species of wasps, did you know about 80% of those are parasitoid wasps? Which means they lay their eggs and other bugs, and then the bugs hatch, and they eat whatever bug they're laid in.

I didn't know that, and now I wish that I didn't.

What about you, Charlie?

Speaking of the restructuring, I should just say that I had a conversation with our associate dean, and we were talking about who was going to lead the teams and who going to do the stuff, and I said, I do not want to seek promotion through management, leadership, or administrative work. I want to seek promotion through research, scholarship, teaching. That's really where I want to go. And she said, well, that does sound like more fun. I think that was an endorsement.

Hey, guess what?

Hey, what? MARLEE GIVENS: That's what I did. Right on. Except, wait, don't you have a leadership position probably coming up?

Yeah, but that's post-promotion. CHARLIE BENNETT: Oh, that's right. Yeah. So you're done being promoted. So now you're, like, yeah, I'm going to lead stuff. Uh-huh.

OK.

Yeah.

OK.

Embrace it.

Totally.

Yeah. CHARLIE BENNETT: I just don't want to buy anything, sell anything, or process anything. And I don't want to buy anything that's sold or processed or sell anything that's bought or processed or process anything that's sold or bought. That's kind of how I feel about management at the library.

Yeah. So much of librarianship is marketing.

I mean, really, this is where the corporate thing comes from. It makes me a little bit sad. You know what makes me happy? We're in the studio doing Lost in the Stacks on the air.

Live.

It's fantastic.

Yeah. And this is Lost in the Stacks, and it's time for some music.

Oh, this is almost the best part. File this set under P32-5.5.a46.

(SINGING) Nothing beats a failure--

That was, "Nothing Beats a Failure But a Try" by the Natural Four. That was my positive-looking song.

I like that.

And then, before that was, La depression by Pizzicato Five, a Japanese song with a French title. That was my slightly more negative song. So those are songs about apathetic despair and positive action.

Ambiguity.

Today's show is our New Year's show, called what's the future in 2023-- WTF in 2023. We've tried to keep our discussion of plans and wishes more on the working professional side of our lives, but let's take this moment to declare one more plan-- a personal one-- for 2023. Fred.

I think this may fall into more resolution territory, but I think I want to--

But you don't do resolutions, Fred.

I don't, but it's going to sound like a resolution.

OK.

I need to take up the guitar more and play, not let it collect dust.

I love it. Marlee.

All right. To the flip side of this, I resolve to cook one meatball recipe every month.

Can I give you a high-five right here in the studio?

You can.

Up here. Yes. I have the lamest one-- sit-ups and push-ups every morning. It's happening. It hurts.

Don't do it. CHARLIE BENNETT: No, it's happening. It's happening.

Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think.

There it is. And with that, we should probably roll the credits now. Right now. Quickly.

Lost in the Stacks is a collaboration between WREK Atlanta and the Georgia Tech Library, written and produced by Charlie Bennett, Fred Rascoe, and Marlee Givens.

And then there were three.

Legal counsel and a first edition of the book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius were provided by the Burrus Intellectual Property Law Group in Atlanta, Georgia.

A first edition. Like from the days of the Roman Empire? That's impressive. CHARLIE BENNETT: Where did he get that? Special thanks to WREK and Georgia Tech for our brand new studio, to everyone who supported the show while we were in the virtual studio-- the virtual studio, it seems so far away now-- and to all of our Lost in the Stacks alumni who can't be here today. And thank you, as always, to each and every one of you for listening.

You can find us online at lostinthestacks.org, and you can subscribe to our podcast pretty much anywhere you get your audio fix. CHARLIE BENNETT: Next week's show will feature an archivist talking about what matters to her, which could be rare books, book theft, or reasonable hours for the reading room.

Let's keep it reasonable, people. Time for our last song today. And well, as promised, we kept it a little bit positive and a little bit negative. I might have been responsible for the negative more--

I thought it was optimism for you, Fred.

As we usually do, we look to the coming new year, collectively, with a little bit of ambiguity. So why don't we wrap up with "Ambiguity Song" by Camper Van Beethoven, right here on Lost in the Stacks. Have a great weekend, everybody. [CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN, "AMBIGUITY SONG"] Everything seems to be up in the air at this time.