An interesting series unfolding at Slate this week… Stanley Katz on reform and more.
Author: Barbara Fister
I'm an academic librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Like all librarians at our small, liberal arts institution I am involved in reference, collection development, and shared management of the library. My area of specialization is instruction, with research interests also in media literacy, popular literacy, publishing, and assessment.
View all posts by Barbara Fister
Re today’s “Attack of the Career-Killing Blogs”:
The original article “Bloggers Need Not Apply” in the Chronicle of Higher Education made my blood pressure spike like I’d just eaten a pound of salt, but now I’m starting to find the notion more silly than infuriating. I’m firmly convinced that in ten years the question won’t be “Why are you blogging?” but “Why aren’t you blogging?” Only someone who believes that no legitimate scholarly activity can ever occur outside the pages of a journal could believe that blogs are detrimental to an academic career. That kind of closemindedness is going to become more and more marginalized as time goes on. I’m pleased to see that (headline notwithstanding) the article takes a less hysterical tone about the prosepects of acadmic bloggers.
I’m often amazed (from this comfortable side of tenure, I should probably point out in the interest of full disclosure) at how fearful tenure-track folk can be, or how overprotective their tenured colleagues can be. “Nobody without tenure should be put in X position” always makes me grind my teeth when I think of how many people whose integrity we depend on are one intemperate pink-slip away from unemployment.
I also am in favor of academics writing for an audience beyond a handful of specialists. If more people made clear why what they do matters, we’d have a lot more public confidence in higher education.
And by the way, I agree about the article–silly title, but a great ending.