Presenting the Dissertation "Gift of the Gab: Exploring the Audiobook and the Festive Direction in the American Library"

At 25,000 words and 112 pages, I present my dissertation to the world. Click on the link below and then scroll down to read a PDF version either in your browser or as a download.

Gift of the Gab Word Cloud

Courtesy of WordItOut

A few points in my research caught me by surprise:

For instance, did you know that audio literature and the spoken word has a clear connection to Catholic scholarship?

Orality and Literacy
by the late, great Father Walter Ong, S.J.

Did you also know that one of most successful "talking books" record labels, Caedmon Records, was founded by two young female graduates of Hunter College in New York? And that this didn't happen in the Mad Men era, but eight years before, in 1952!?

Providence Athenaeum Interior in 2012
Photo Credit: Kenneth C. Zirkel

Did you also know that podcasts and audiobooks have a piggyback effect? If you listen to podcasts, you're more willing to "read" audiobooks? And that this may have implications for the reading gap between boys and girls?

To read the dissertation in its entirety, please visit https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:34107/

Dissertation Finished! Read the Abstract Here

The baby has been delivered.

On Friday 8th January, I was able to submit my dissertation for the master's library science program at City, University London. At 112 pages and over 24,000 words, "Gift of the Gab" took me nine months to write. The research from this pandemic project gave me a locus of control over the darkest days of 2020.

Angel of the Annunciation by Titian. Archangel Gabriel is considered the protector of all communicators. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

I may seek to get it published first before displaying as an accessible document on my portfolio page. In the meantime, individual copies can be emailed to those who wish to read it privately and in good faith. Simply notify me with your email address and I'll send it along.

The abstract, or official summary, is below.

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Dissertation Title: Gift of the Gab: Exploring the Audiobook and the Festive Direction in the American Library

Abstract

The audiobook, in its modern form, was created in the 1930s to assist the blind community, World War I veterans and others unable to engage in Sustained Silent Reading (SSR). This dissertation investigates exactly how the audiobook and, to a lesser extent, the podcast have been received and celebrated by the world of library and information science (LIS). ​Original to this dissertation are the concepts of a festive direction a​nd a ​clinical direction in LIS which have shaped the collections of the American library. This alternative history of library science also explores how the fractured development of Christianity played a surprising role in shaping audio literature.

Underpinning this research is a survey of how American public and membership libraries are leveraging the audiobook and the podcast in order to diversify their services. Other prosocial actions are assessed in the institutional quest to attract and maintain patronage. This research will benefit library managers and catalogers in the American library who are attempting to ​speak​ to new demographics.

Another Dylan Thomas title on the Caedmon label. 

Public Domain, via Creative Commons.

Winners Announced from Pool of Dissertation Survey Respondents

 The sun is setting soon on 2020 and that means submitting the finished draft of my dissertation. Entitled "Gift of the Gab: Exploring the Audiobook and the Festive Direction in the American Library," the work has been a survey of how American libraries value audio literature and social programming/events. As promised, there was a lottery held for participating libraries; all were eligible for 1 of 4 gift certificates of 25USD each for a Starbucks or for a favorite cafe.

Portrait of Mrs. Jeannette de Lange (1900) by Jan Toorop. Original from the Rijksmuseum.
Digitally enhance by rawpixel. Public Domain.

Out of sixteen libraries who participated in my research, the 4 winners are listed below:

- The Athenaeum of Philadelphia

- New York Society Library

- Providence Athenaeum 

- Charleston Library Society

Exterior of The Athenaeum of Philadelphia 

Photo Credit: Tom Crane

Gift certificates will be delivered via email. Thank you, kindly, to all of you librarians who took the survey!

As for the dissertation, more information will be forthcoming on how to view it. Getting published in a peer-reviewed journal would be a dream but I also want to get it out to the world quickly. Stay tuned!

Two Preliminary Findings from Dissertation Survey (Aesthetics Matter!)

 Happy December in a turbulent year.

I know my blog has gone dark for 6 months but it's only because I've been feverishly writing up my dissertation. "Gift of the Gab: The Audiobook and the Festive Direction in the American Library" is 99% finished. I am just applying cosmetic touches and trying to temper expectations.

Launching research during a pandemic year has been interesting. One preliminary finding I can share is that, as of October of 2020, none of the public and/or membership libraries surveyed have shut their doors for good. This is more impressive than it sounds. Restaurants and movie theatres, as The New York Times is constantly reminding us, have faced devastation. Seemingly permanent devastation.

The typical response, you may be thinking, is that no politician is going to shut down a public library. And that a public library is a shared utility like sunlight or drinking water or the music of The Carpenters. But closures do happen. My hometown neighborhood library branch was shuttered in 2009 when the town's main branch got a makeover. Sure it was a bit cramped and damp but I had my share of fond memories inside that brick edifice. The closure was a political and financial decision. Now it just sits there waiting for its next act.

East Milton Public Library (Defunct)

Photo Credit: Jon Cronin

In my own survey of sixteen American public and membership libraries, the fate of the structures is much more secure. You could even call them celebrated spaces. Nearly 50% of the libraries surveyed use their own buildings as venues for galas and fundraisers.  Holding a fundraiser in-house is a superb way for a library to leverage its historical space. It speaks not only to the wonderful vision of Andrew Carnegie but also to the role of aesthetics in literature and education and, frankly, society.

"The John Rylands Library Reading Room Enclave" by michael_d_beckwith 

is marked with CC0 1.0

There will be other findings and insights from my research over the next couple of months. Stay tuned.

Thomas's Pandemic Diaries: Conversations with Londoners

One nagging paranoia I have as an American overseas is that every time I open my mouth, it feels like any number of self-congratulatory statements fall out. It's not that I'm completely self-centered and feel the need to advertise how "awesome" my life is - it's just that to fill in the awkward silences I'll often go to a comfortable subject: Me. As one British acquaintance put in nicely back in San Francisco: In America, the conversation is all about "me" and in Britain, it's all about "you". And "you", essentially, are always a more intriguing subject and I say this as a people-person, a writer, and a lifelong learner. So why do I revert to the subject of "me" and at a louder volume than what is acceptable in the Old World.

Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox in Klamath, California Trees of Mystery site. Paul Bunyan is a lumberjack figure in North American folklore and tradition. One of the most famous and popular North American folklore heroes, he is usually described as a giant as well as a lumberjack of unusual skill, and is often accompanied in stories by his animal companion, Babe the Blue Ox. Original image from Carol M. Highsmith’s America. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. Public Domain

Asking about "you" is always good manners but California convinced me otherwise. In the Golden State I would semi-frequently get suspicious looks if I inquired about someone too soon in an exchange - almost as if I was trying to steal their identity. Back in Boston, it was different. I knew the chummy codes. The Irish and Irish-Americans are known for being warm and familiar (perhaps slightly nosy); we love to place people biographically and are usually up for a chat. I remember the tremendous relief I felt when someone in California took a moment of interest in me and asked some questions as to my background. I almost felt like hugging them.

Perhaps the culture in San Francisco plays it safe; to be politically correct and insist on strong boundaries, for it's a place with a lot of drifters and people who are ambitious and have a tech-intelligence with all its social awkwardness. Instead of having to learn the latest twisty rule in San Francisco political correctness, sometimes it's best not to ask anybody of anything. Oh, I had my punk-rock dogwalking community, complete with personal jabs and dirty jokes. But with strangers it was different. In San Francisco it was very rare for someone to meet your gaze when passing you by on the sidewalk. In London and Boston, it just seems like common decency, a bit of shared connection, especially when there are few other people around. That San Francisco disregard bothered me to no end.

The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline and one of its most iconic. Although the building no longer houses the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation, it is still strongly associated with the company and is depicted in the company's logo. Designed by architect William Pereira and built by Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company, at 260 m (850 ft), upon completion in 1972 it was among the five tallest buildings in the world. Columbus Tower, also known as the Sentinel Building is a mixed-used building in San Francisco, California completed in 1907. Original image from Carol M. Highsmith’s America. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. Public Domain.

London, too, has its reserved moments but I've made some dear friends in my Master's program. Of course, in lockdown, it's been difficult to make new friends but surprisingly several people have given me their mobile numbers at the tail end of the first encounter. Still, there has to be some sort of sensible breaking of the ice - one can't just start in immediately on Camus or how toxic masculinity is just misdirected grief. So I've developed a list of the safest subjects in any country with strangers, acquaintances, even family members of a different political stripe. The four safe subjects are as follows: 

1.) the weather (okay so not super-imaginative but there's a lot you can build on here);

2.) films, books, and television (just prepared to be shocked at the different taste levels); 

3.) travel and vacations (my favorite - although probably not the best when chatting with the boss at a new job);

4.) the dog by a stranger's side or the birds in the trees. Dogs are the better ice-breakers though - talking about the birds may seem a little flighty (no pun intended).

Illustration of midsummer eve from The Costume of Yorkshire (1814) by George Walker (1781-1856). Original from The New York Public Library. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. Public Domain.

As a presence in public, The Londoner is cool, reserved, and respectful. As the pandemic has dragged on, I've found my courage more and more in approaching an individual and making the first move in conversation. But be warned, once the floodgates are open, it's hard to even slip in an utterance of agreement with the English. I still stumble on some terms or references that the Brits use but do my best to at least slip in a joke (the drier the better). These conversational patterns seem to manifest regardless of age, background, skin color, or class. I find that the vast majority of the British know how to behave and are happy for a chat.

One thing that is not acceptable is a robust and hearty laughter in a public setting. The Brits and most other Europeans consider it vulgar. Try an experiment next time you are on Netflix: check out either a British or American comedian performing in front of a British audience and notice the staccato waves of laughter from the audience when the comedian lands a joke. There could be several titters of laughter throughout the set but each fit is short-lived. And then compare it to an American audience who try to outdo one another in enjoyment.

Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect (1903) by Claude Monet. Original from the Art Institute of Chicago. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. Public Domain.

Lastly, the average Brit has an exceptional vocabulary. They regularly pepper their conversations with words like shambolic, innocuous, riveting, scheme and devolution. Even their common adjectives have a shine to them: instead of nice, awesome or perfect (overused American terms that need to start collecting their social security), the Brits use words like lovely, brilliant, and splendid. The Irish even have a favorite go-to: grand. The vocabulary level alone is one of the reasons we may stay here indefinitely; it's like a bubble bath for the mind.

Thomas's Pandemic Diaries: The Decade Trend-Lines of Our Media Journeys (through 2019)

 Oh, the joy of grafting media trends onto neat, little decade timelines. When it comes to entertainment history told through media, trends take a natural form. Producers share techniques and fans share recommendations all in line with the mores of the zeitgeist. Media is a creative, organic ecosystem where many play their part. Media history often mistakenly relies on a "Great Man Theory" explanation of innovation. We should give credit to some tenacious individuals like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Steve Jobs at Apple who goose others along.  Let's not forget, however, that the values of a given age shape and mold the great men. The times define and shape us as much as we define and shape our times. 

"Bette Davis cor 60" by Luiz Fernando Reis MMF is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Decades, in particular, have their own shape-making ways. I finally saw this year's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," on Amazon Prime. Although I find Tarantino a bit too violent -- what upset me was one of the advertised descriptions. Its setting in 1969 Los Angeles is described as the "Golden Age of the Hollywood," but I argue that that crown really belongs to both the 1930s and the 1940s and to stars like Bette, Joan, and Humphrey. The title rightfully belongs to those earlier decades when we retrospectively consider star power and ticket sales. But it's more about what people were craving during the Great Depression. Moviegoers desired escapism -- from the ravages of the tough times and World War II. And the best way to escape was through "the pictures."

"Electric Cinema Portobello" by Fred Bigio is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Granted 1969 may have well been the start of Hollywood's second Golden Age, a time when method acting met up with bigger budgets and an increasing appetite for shock and violence. But the 1930s reigns supreme. You never forget your first Golden Age.

Hollywood Sign: Public Domain

So oftentimes with these great pronouncements, the slipper doesn't fit but we pretend otherwise. What I've learned in my postgraduate journey in library and information science, is that these mediums shape our behaviour and society much more than we give them credit for. The wizard behind this media philosophy curtain is Canadian-born, 1960s Information Philosopher, Marshall McLuhan. Hailing from "The Toronto School," McLuhan's most famous work and idea is that "the medium is the message." Later on he went even further, publishing a slim, psychedelic-tinged primer in 1967 called "The Medium is the Massage." The latter title paints the reality that the mediums we choose for entertainment and communication shape human behaviour far more than we give them credit for. The "Massage" part (however an icky or desirous image) is that if we get into the media too much, it can act as a near hypnotic, and can (roughly paraphrasing) "work us over completely." McLuhan's ultimate point is that it's not so much the content of the news that is shaping our habits and world-views but the way in which it is delivered and consumed that leaves a lasting impression.

"Marshall McLuhan Speaks" by Cea. is licensed under CC BY 2.0

When thinking about McLuhan and his theory, we can start to discern the invisible hand of the mode or the format and its role in human history. For my point about media trends, picture (no pun intended) those old stories from your grandparents, who all went to catch a film on the big screen on Saturday during the Great Depression. Kids and adults alike, a nickel for each viewing. These films were a true escape from the despair, or at least, discomfort, of those lean years.

Certain decades gave us certain technologies which instilled certain behaviours. Here are a few of the peaks or least the popular waves of when the medium has met the moment:

🎧🎉

The 1960's, for instance, was Peak Music: a flourishing made possible by the British invasion as well as the festive and gospel-tinged anthems coming out of the Civil Rights Era, the Women's Movement, the optimism of the young Boomers. Think: jazz, pop, folk-rock, soul, and northern soul.

🎞 👊

1970's, arguably, saw the peak of the big-budget film. Think The Godfather, Jaws, several James Bond movie franchises, the gritty Taxi Driver as well as quiet hits like Love Story and the critically-acclaimed Ordinary People.

"Jaws" by kevin dooley is licensed under CC BY 2.0

🎮

The 1980s saw the rise of video games and music videos. The era, along with the late 70s, was considered another golden age of music as a diverse number of genres came to the fore: punk-rock lead by the Sex Pistols in the UK, disco pop by Abba in Sweden as well as the rise of post-punk, new wave, EDM, garage rock, rap and hip-hop out of both the US and UK.

💥📻

The 1990s saw a mix of a diverse forms of new music (grunge from Seattle, riot grrrl movement in Olympia and the Pacific Northwest, more hip-hop and rap including gangsta rap coming out NYC, Philly and L.A., indie-rock from all over and EDM (Electronic Dance Music) spearheaded by African-American DJ's and producers in Chicago and Detroit. The era also saw the rise of power pop, brit-pop, twee pop and indie rock coming out of the UK.

In the 90s, we also saw a new phenomenon: talk and/or "shock" radio and the 24/7 televised news cycle brought to you by Fox News and CNN. Tabloid news was also huge as were scandalous stories that seemed to drag on for years.

"Best HD Game of thrones facebook cover" by Tatiana_0000 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

📺

The first decade of the 2000s (which many refer to as the aughts or naughts or naughties) gave birth to the undisputed age of Peak TV starting roughly with gritty and dark melodramas like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under. This peak continued with the Twenty-Teens with the global fantasy phenomenon, Game of Thrones, whose last episode aired in May of 2019. All three shows I should mention were HBO productions. The Twenty-Teens also saw a diversity in small screen viewing options. Hit shows were not relegated to network TV or pay-for-extra cable. Amazon, Netflix and Hulu were now in the game: pushing streamable content. More recently they started to produce their own phenomenal content.h (Starting in 2015, the three behemoths even started to snag a few Primetime Emmy awards.) 

"HBO / Game of Thrones - Iron Throne Taipei showcase" by blog.woodford is marked with CC0 1.0

So what about the 2020s? What will reign this decade? I foresee Peak Audiobook and Peak Podcast. Find out why next time at Know Your Shelf Better. 😀

Thomas's Pandemic Diaries: Reasonable Goal Setting When the Day is Marked by Rabbit Holes

 The idea of the modern-day parlance "Rabbit Hole" comes from Alice in Wonderland, penned by Lewis Carroll in 1865. Curiosity gets the better of Alice when she follows a rabbit with a no-nonsense, Type A personality, clad in tweed I believe, who is "late for a very important date." Down the rabbit hole they both go and into a world foreign from Alice's own. With the world wide web's intertextuality, it is very common to find yourself down a rabbit hole by clicking on a link that takes you to a different subject and often to a different medium or sub-medium. You start off, for instance, with high-hopes reading a New Yorker article and then find yourself on YouTube watching a documentary of elephant sanctuaries in Thailand. And that is only one stop on the journey, point A to point B. Often times 90 minutes goes by and you are somewhere completely unrecognizable and you can't remember your original intention nor starting point. This phenomenon was captured brilliantly by Abbi and Ilana on Comedy Central's Broad City. 

Then there are some internet users who eschew curiosity and intertextuality and surfing and just return to their warm and familiar sources: playing Angry Birds, checking out Reddit, getting stuck in Facebook or caught up in less savory pastimes: getting in too deep with on-line gambling, obsessively watching on-line porn. For most of these Rabbit Holes, the impetus is not so much curiosity but routine/addiction/oblivion. Drinking from the River Lethe where all is forgotten. 

"Alice in Wonderland". Illustration from the cover and interior of the book Boys and Girls of Bookland from 1923, written by Nora Archibald Smith and illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. Public Domain

With so much more free time on most of our hands (and I'm speaking mainly to my retiree and child-free friends and readers), the day is pocketed with Rabbit Holes. Forget the helpless and hapless Alice for a second. I think, if you are anything like me, you once relished playing the role of the Rabbit whose goal was singular and his hop swift. It's not that I have nostalgia for being late to meetings but I do ache for the urgency of having someplace to go and something to do. [I am also missing and looking forward to the cooler weather in England so I too can sport some tweed.]

Of course, the Rabbit Holes I am referring to above all have an electronic composition to them (my hat is off to anyone whose idea of curiosity and Rabbit Hole is to pick up a new sport everyday). No, it's unanimous. We are creatures of the new electronic age. 

For the sake of my argument, it's important that we distinguish between two types of Rabbit Holes. The first is the unforeseen or "Inadvertent Rabbit Hole" which we seem to fall into again and again unwittingly. The second and more empowering is the "Scheduled Rabbit Hole." 

On LinkedIn, I had the privilege of taking a class called "Making a Better To-Do List." The supremacy of the "to-do list" is quite an Anglo-American way of tackling the day via goals and willpower but for me (like many of you), it is anchor to progress and productivity and frankly it just makes you feel good as you check off each task accomplished. I'm happy to share my pdf notes/summary from my "to-do list" class for anyone who requests it. Even in trying and chaotic times like these where we are stressed out on all levels yet we also face insufferable stretches of down time, a "to-do list" acts as a grocery list for structure, sanity, and satisfaction. It also acts as a recipe to ward off mental angst. But not everything in the "to-do list" is explicit; there should be a scaffolding around the to-do list in order to evade those "Inadvertent Rabbit Holes."

There was a book popular during that wave of pop science guides in the last decade. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (2018), by author Daniel Pink, delves into the underemphasized importance of the correct timing for things, in our day and in our lives. For instance, I know that if I hop online first thing in the morning, my mood will be angsty and my day disordered. And because mornings are when I am strongest, I focus on my daily dissertation goals by reading just three printed academic articles or book chapters over coffee, roughly from 8 a.m. until noon. The fact that I print them out makes me self-confident of recognizing my scholarly needs even though it saddens me that trees are hurt in the process. 😓 Still I've succeeded in half the battle: knowing a few of my strengths and weaknesses. For strengthening actions, the first is making a reasonable to-do list the night before. The second is using the productivity of the mornings (my strong time) to tackle tasks of high-importance. And lastly I do this by eschewing all things electronic in the morning. That means not turning anything on until 12 noon, the hour when Mauricio and I have lunch together and listen to music or a political podcast via Spotify on my phone. 

The whole idea of appropriate timing not only has salience at the personal level but also at the societal and institutional level. Do you know researchers have found that teenagers need much more sleep than they are receiving? Researchers urge schools to start a whole hour later because of this. I remember teachers at Milton High getting upset with all of us for barely keeping our eyes open for the first third of the day; hell, I remember being half-dead in the first few periods. It wasn't our fault, just a clash of biological clocks. It's not because we didn't want to learn or were trying to get on their nerves. We were just responding to physiological needs.

Night Owl Collective / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Night_Owl_Logo.jpg 

Schools and workplaces may feel out of our control but with personal goal-setting the first part of the battle is knowing yourself. Are you part of the 20% of the world's population considered night owls? You likely already know that you work best and play best at night. This article from Buzzfeed supports the idea of night owls reigning supreme during this time of pandemic, overthrowing those cheery morning doves. Research also shows that most people who work a typical 9 to 5 shift at the office have a two hour slump (sometimes called a lunch coma) where their mind slips into a mini-siesta. This roughly 2 to 4 p.m. window might be a good time for you to do something rote or physical like washing dishes, folding laundry, collating documents or organizing bookshelves.

And if you are all too cognizant of your on-line vice or rabbit hole, then try to schedule it in or leave it for the end of the day. Timers help. There are also a number of productivity apps available to help you stay on track. And if you are the type who would like to avoid all of your Rabbit Holes altogether, try something different or radical. Take a walk or a jog or sit somewhere under a tree and close your eyes and try listening to what your neighborhood birds are gossiping about. One important point from my LinkedIn "to-do list" training is to start off each to-do item with a verb. Verbs have forward motion over rooted nouns. So: Do Something. Walk leisurely. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply.