if you’re a librarian, chances are you’ve seen the movie “party girl.” in one scene the main character misunderstands a woman asking for darwin’s book “on the origin of species,” thinking instead that she’s asked for “oranges and peaches,” and suggests she look in the periodicals section.
today the world is celebrating the 200th birthday of the man that wrote this book, and it makes me reflect on the progress of my own attempts to move the scientific world forward in my own tiny way. darwin was a keen observer and thinker, and he wrote things down. i think librarianship can take a lot from this model. i am continuously surprised to conceive of a simple library-related research project, assume it’s already been accomplished, then find through a literature search that it hasn’t. librarians need to be publishing more, blogging more, doing more with social networking tools. moving the field forward is within our reach if we want it!
