Librarians - Masters of the Info Universe!

From a great article on cnn.com, in honor of National Library Week:

Librarians: Masters of the info universe
By Kerith Page McFadden, CNN April 12, 2011 9:14 a.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Librarians, information specialists, knowledge managers or whatever title a librarian might have -- their skills are in high demand. And, though you might not know it, they are everywhere.

And so in their honor during National Library Week, we enjoy the following tidbits of information.

Famous people who were librarians
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Casanova, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, former first lady Laura Bush and China's Mao Zedong. At one point in their lives, each of them either worked as librarian or in a library.

Librarians are techno-savvy
Librarians don't just use books anymore. Searching through tweets, blogs, podcasts, websites and more to find accurate and authoritative information has become more the rule than the exception.

At a time where anyone can Google just about anything, librarians don't just find information, they find the correct information -- and fast. The American Library Association reports reference librarians in the nation's public and academic libraries answered nearly 5.7 million questions each week in 2010.

Filmmaker's library
Even "Star Wars" creator George Lucas has his own research library on his Skywalker Ranch. Lucas started the library in 1978, and the collection is housed under a large stained-glass dome.

Librarians influence our culture and society
While clearing out old archives at the Palmer Theological Seminary in 2005, librarian Heather Carbo found a working manuscript of one of Beethoven's final compositions.

Librarians track spy info and classified intelligence
When the CIA needs to provide information to the U.S. president, they turn to their librarians. To become one of the U.S. intelligence's community research experts, a librarian must pass medical and psychological exams, polygraph interviews and clear extensive background investigations.

Librarians are heroic
Alia Muhammad Baker, the chief librarian of Basra, Iraq, removed 30,000 books from the city's main library before it was destroyed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Their numbers are many
In 2009, there were 206,000 librarians, 50,000 library technicians and 96,000 other education, training and library workers

Librarians are behind the scenes in current events
-- Federal government shutdown. Lawmakers go to the Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress, for information.
-- The royal wedding at Westminster Abbey. The Abbey's Library and Muniment Room has a historic collection of books, manuscripts and archival material.
-- NATO no-fly zone over Libya. NATO's Brussels Headquarters houses a multimedia library with a collection focusing on international relations, security and defense, military questions and world affairs.

Warning to readers about librarians
A character in "The Callahan Touch", one of science fiction writer Spider Robinson's books, said, "Librarians are the secret masters of the universe. They control information. Never piss one off."

Good advice.

Kerith Page McFadden has a masters of library science from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and has been a librarian at CNN for the past 12 years.

Tim Keller does it again!

I just finished another great book by author and pastor Timothy Keller. This one is called Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just. It just so happens that this book is along the theme of social justice, a hot topic nowadays but often skewed.

Keller attempts to bring balance to all the extreme opinions floating around about this issue, and he succeeds in my opinion. I would consider this the best and most balanced book about social justice I have ever read. I would recommend that people read this before and while reading Radical and the other bestselling Christian books on this topic.

This is not normally the topic on the top of my list to read about, but I have found myself forced to do so due to the need to present a balanced and Biblical opinion. Honestly, I wish I could buy a copy of this book for every Berea College student majoring in Peace and Social Justice. It's not that I personally don't like the idea of social justice. It's just that I have spent a lot of time working with people who are on both sides of the fence. I have difficulty expressing my middle-of the road opinion because it seems like I don't agree with anybody. Then, Tim Keller pulls through in his amazing way of validating my opinion and making me believe I'm not so far off track.

I have friends who believe that as Christians we should not be responsible to change social issues due to the fact that we are only here to save souls since the Earth is headed for destruction and we're all going to burn. They believe we should not be involved in politics, or legislature, or community re-building. Prophetically, it's all going down the toilet, so why should we work to fight a losing battle? They believe that anything other than salvation and personal ministry would be just fighting against God's plan to burn up this world and start another. It's okay to feed hungry people, but it's worthless to try to change the system that keeps them in poverty. I tend to disagree with them. Keller writes about why extensively, most of which I don't have time to explain. Here's a quote he used from D.A. Carson. Although theologians still debate about how much of culture can be changed, Carson believes at least some things can be changed:
 
"Sometimes a disease can be knocked out; sometimes sex traffic can be considerably reduced; sometimes slavery can be abolished in a region; sometimes more equitable laws can foster justice and reduce corruption... In these and countless other ways cultural change is possible. More importantly, doing good to the city, doing good to all people (even if we have special  responsibility for the household of faith), is part of our responsibility as God's redeemed people."

I also work with many young people who have jumped on the bandwagon with many others in their generation and place social work, compassion ministries, volunteering and humanitarian issues above sound Biblical doctrine. They know they want to help people, but they don't really know why. We need to learn from their youthful enthusiasm, but they also need to learn that the Biblical doctrines of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, the substitutionary atonement, justification, redemption, etc. are not old-fashioned concepts that don't matter, they are the foundation of social justice. A generation that brings water to the thirsty and food to the hungry but doesn't preach the gospel in word as well as deed, has left the world devoid of true hope. In the end, man's greatest need is salvation, and how can they hear unless the gospel is preached?

I also find myself in the middle ground of those who believe we should sell all and give to the poor, and those who believe that it's okay to make money and lots of it. I'm in between Democrats and Republicans, Capitalists and Socialists, liberals and conservatives. Believe it or not, I'm also right in the middle of unbelievers and atheists who believe that religion is evil and has caused all the troubles of the world, vs. people who believe that Christians are too good to work with and alongside people of other beliefs who are actually doing good in the world. And right in the middle is where Keller lands, too. For every Scripture that backs up one concept, there is another to back up the opposing opinion. The truth is that each side has it's good points, and each side also has bad points. The only thing in the middle, the only thing that really affects change, is the gospel. And it seems to me that God designed the gospel so that it could not have any labels placed on it, and so that it cannot be mixed with anyone's agenda.

One example of this is the contrast between the rich young ruler and Zaccheus. So much has been made of the story of the rich young ruler lately. He was told by Jesus to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. Some say, "Well, that's just for him, that was his problem because he was attached to his money." People said that to justify their stockpiling of riches as along as "they weren't making it an idol." Lately many have revisited this story to ask, "Was this really just for that man, or is God trying to address a bigger issue in the American church?" And while that may be true, and I think it is, Keller made me think (as he usually does) by bringing up another example in the story of Zaccheus. The wee little man that climbed a tree, saw Jesus, brought Him home, got saved, and immediately said he would give some of his money (not all) back, since he had been a tax collector and ripped people off. Notice Jesus doesn't say, "It's not good enough if you don't sell ALL your possessions and give to the poor." For Zaccheus it was a different story than the rich young ruler. It's entirely possible that Zaccheus, even though he gave back what he had taken greedily, still had quite a bit of money left afterwards that he didn't feel guilty about having. Could it be that Jesus saw that Zaccheus' heart was changed, and that's all that mattered?

So, I encourage all of you who are wrestling with these issues to read Generous Justice. And just so you know, there's a copy at the Madison County Public Library in Berea. Shameless library advertising!

Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues

I found these in a self-help book, of all places (and no, I don't normally read self-help books, I was just skimming through this one at the library). I laughed out loud at some of them. Altogether it is great advice. The story goes that originally the list had 12 virtues. Through a system of graphs and daily self-appraisal, Franklin claimed to have (mostly) achieved the desired virtues, having only some difficulty with Order. Realizing he was too proud at having lived up to his own standards, he added a thirteenth virtue: Humility.

Here's Franklin's list, in his own words, with my comments in brackets.

1. Temperance. Eat not to Dullness. Drink not to Elevation.
2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation. [Love this].
3. Order. Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time.
4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve. [Well put].
5. Frugality. Make no Expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, Waste nothing.
6. Industry. Lose no Time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions. [I like this too].
7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful Deceit. Think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice. Wrong none, by doing Injuries or omitting the Benefits that are your Duty.
9. Moderation. Avoid Extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body, Clothes or Habitation. [Nice].
11. Tranquility. Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at Accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity. Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring; never to Dullness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another's Peace or Reputation [HA HA HA!].
13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates. [I was thinking, "What...? Jesus and.... Socrates?" Well, at least Jesus comes first!!]

Great article called "How to Raise Boys That Read"

By THOMAS SPENCE

When I was a young boy, America's elite schools and universities were almost entirely reserved for males. That seems incredible now, in an era when headlines suggest that boys are largely unfit for the classroom. In particular, they can't read.

According to a recent report from the Center on Education Policy, for example, substantially more boys than girls score below the proficiency level on the annual National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test. This disparity goes back to 1992, and in some states the percentage of boys proficient in reading is now more than ten points below that of girls. The male-female reading gap is found in every socio-economic and ethnic category, including the children of white, college-educated parents.
The good news is that influential people have noticed this problem. The bad news is that many of them have perfectly awful ideas for solving it.

Everyone agrees that if boys don't read well, it's because they don't read enough. But why don't they read? A considerable number of teachers and librarians believe that boys are simply bored by the "stuffy" literature they encounter in school. According to a revealing Associated Press story in July these experts insist that we must "meet them where they are"—that is, pander to boys' untutored tastes.
For elementary- and middle-school boys, that means "books that exploit [their] love of bodily functions and gross-out humor." AP reported that one school librarian treats her pupils to "grossology" parties. "Just get 'em reading," she counsels cheerily. "Worry about what they're reading later."

There certainly is no shortage of publishers ready to meet boys where they are. Scholastic has profitably catered to the gross-out market for years with its "Goosebumps" and "Captain Underpants" series. Its latest bestsellers are the "Butt Books," a series that began with "The Day My Butt Went Psycho."

The more venerable houses are just as willing to aim low. Penguin, which once used the slogan, "the library of every educated person," has its own "Gross Out" line for boys, including such new classics as "Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger."

Workman Publishing made its name telling women "What to Expect When You're Expecting." How many of them expected they'd be buying "Oh, Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty" a few years later from the same publisher? Even a self-published author like Raymond Bean—nom de plume of the fourth-grade teacher who wrote "SweetFarts"—can make it big in this genre. His flatulence-themed opus hit no. 3 in children's humor on Amazon. The sequel debuts this fall.

Education was once understood as training for freedom. Not merely the transmission of information, education entailed the formation of manners and taste. Aristotle thought we should be raised "so as both to delight in and to be pained by the things that we ought; this is the right education."
"Plato before him," writes C. S. Lewis, "had said the same. The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likeable, disgusting, and hateful."

This kind of training goes against the grain, and who has time for that? How much easier to meet children where they are.

One obvious problem with the SweetFarts philosophy of education is that it is more suited to producing a generation of barbarians and morons than to raising the sort of men who make good husbands, fathers and professionals. If you keep meeting a boy where he is, he doesn't go very far.
The other problem is that pandering doesn't address the real reason boys won't read. My own experience with six sons is that even the squirmiest boy does not require lurid or vulgar material to sustain his interest in a book.

So why won't boys read? The AP story drops a clue when it describes the efforts of one frustrated couple with their 13-year-old unlettered son: "They've tried bribing him with new video games." Good grief.

The appearance of the boy-girl literacy gap happens to coincide with the proliferation of video games and other electronic forms of entertainment over the last decade or two. Boys spend far more time "plugged in" than girls do. Could the reading gap have more to do with competition for boys' attention than with their supposed inability to focus on anything other than outhouse humor?

Dr. Robert Weis, a psychology professor at Denison University, confirmed this suspicion in a randomized controlled trial of the effect of video games on academic ability. Boys with video games at home, he found, spend more time playing them than reading, and their academic performance suffers substantially. Hard to believe, isn't it, but Science has spoken.

The secret to raising boys who read, I submit, is pretty simple—keep electronic media, especially video games and recreational Internet, under control (that is to say, almost completely absent). Then fill your shelves with good books.

People who think that a book—even R.L. Stine's grossest masterpiece—can compete with the powerful stimulation of an electronic screen are kidding themselves. But on the level playing field of a quiet den or bedroom, a good book like "Treasure Island" will hold a boy's attention quite as well as "Zombie Butts from Uranus." Who knows—a boy deprived of electronic stimulation might even become desperate enough to read Jane Austen.

Most importantly, a boy raised on great literature is more likely to grow up to think, to speak, and to write like a civilized man. Whom would you prefer to have shaped the boyhood imagination of your daughter's husband—Raymond Bean or Robert Louis Stevenson?

I offer a final piece of evidence that is perhaps unanswerable: There is no literacy gap between home-schooled boys and girls. How many of these families, do you suppose, have thrown grossology parties?

Transformational book about serving the poor...

The last book I finished was transformational.
I say this because I first picked it up when I heard that reading this book alone had transformed the Eastern Kentucky ministry called GAP which we have supported in the past. Thay are in the process of phasing out an old way of ministry and phasing in a new one, after reading this:
When Helping Hurts: Alleviating poverty without hurting the poor...and yourself. By Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.

I was also interested in it because I was looking for a balanced response to the increased emphasis on social justice among young Christians. It's not that I'm against helping the poor. On the contrary, I'm glad this issue is at the forefront of the church, because I am convinced that the Gospel changes everything, including systems that keep people broken and in poverty.

However, my concern is that in helping the poor, we were doing it correctly. I believe this book helps us do just that. Anyone who is interested in this topic at all, anyone who is in leadership in a church or ministry that oversees practical, outreach or missions ministry, needs to read this book.

Some practical highlights that will stick with me:
1. It is true that Jesus' gospel can tranform communities and alleviate poverty, and it is the gospel that must be central to our efforts (this is the thing that kept me reading).
2. We are all in various stages of restoration/brokenness - we cannot place great gulfs between us and the materially poor.
3. The greatest mistake that the American church makes in their local neighborhoods is distributing relief when community development is what's needed (let's face it, there are hungry people in our cities and there are people that need jobs, but the majority of us are not facing tsunamis, earthquakes, or flood situations.).
4. We need a balanced outlook on short-term missions. We can't throw them out altogether but neither can we make them something they're not.

Great quote from the book:
"Poverty is rooted in broken relationships, so the solution to poverty is rooted in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection to put all things into right relationship again."

On a side note - if anyone wants to read this book, there is a copy at the public library in Berea! You can read it for free! Stop in and see me and I'll help you find it or put it on hold. Libraries are great...

David and Mommy Discuss Heaven

Today TJ and David had to preach the word to me together, so TJ chose an easy Bible verse for David. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world..."

We discussed each word. David was most interested in the idea of eternal life.

David: "Will I be big in heaven?"
Me: "You will have a glorified body. A body better than this one. It won't grow old. It won't feel pain."
D: "Yes, but there won't be animals in heaven."
M: "Well, I'm not sure. I think that God likes animals, He may have some there."
D: "And fruit?" [what?]
M:  "Yes, lots of fruit. Best fruit you ever had in your life."
D: "Like the gooey fruit we had in Costa Rica?"
M:"Yes, only better."
David giggles with anticipation. He likes fruit.

D: "Will I be naked?"
M: "Well, you can't take anything with you, so you won't have clothes. But I think He will give us all robes."
D: "Woo-hoo!"
(I realized at this point David is thinking of a bathrobe. Which to him is a great thing. If it was up to him, he'd walk around in a bathrobe all day.)
M: "Probably not a bathrobe though."
D: [Frowning].
M: "And probably a crown."

D: "Will I be able to see space below the clouds?"
M: "Um, I guess so." [???]
D: "Maybe Jesus will give me a spacesuit so I can push the clouds away and go down into space."
M: "Maybe... or you might be able to go there without a spacesuit."
D: "What?"
M: "When Jesus was in a glorified body, He could do stuff like walk through walls."
David's eyes got bigger.

D: "Will we sit in heaven?"
M: "Sit?"
D: "Yeah, sit down."
M: "Well, the Bible says Jesus is sitting on the right hand of the Father, so yes, we will sit in heaven."
David ponders this for a while, and then in a loud voice, with a confused look on his face, he asks:

D: "Jesus is SITTING ON God's HAND? Why does He have to sit on His hand?"
M: "DAVID!!!"

One of the best articles about C.S. Lewis I have ever read...

Here's a link to a great article about C. S. Lewis and how he is still influencing people today. Click here for the article.