Comments on: Living my 9th grade dream

By: A rant about men (like Clay Shirky) | Information Wants To Be Free

A rant about men (like Clay Shirky) | Information Wants To Be Free — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:01:01 +0000

[...] afraid to put myself out there and face possible rejection or failure. i have enough chutzpah to suggest to the head of ALA’s publishing wing that he give me a column in American Libraries since the worst thing that will happen is that he’ll say no. I write blog posts talking about [...]

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 20:18:45 +0000

This is going to be a great addition to American Libraries!

By: Ellyssa Kroski

Ellyssa Kroski — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 22:04:35 +0000

Congratulations Meredith! You really deserve this opportunity and it is inspiring to know what can be acheived through hard work, talent, and determination. I look forward to reading your column.

By: Libby Feil

Libby Feil — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:40:03 +0000

Meredith, congratulations! Your new column sounds like exactly the kind of thing that public libraries are dying to read. I love reading about new technological developments at the big academic libraries or even the biggest public libraries, but for most of us money is tight and our IT resources are limited. Ideas and inspiration for new things to try even if we’re not coders ourselves are very, very welcome and overdue. I’ll look forward to reading your column!

By: Meredith Farkas

Meredith Farkas — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:01:32 +0000

Thank you all for your kind words!

By: Havens

Havens — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 13:57:05 +0000

Congrats! Sounds like a great theme for a column!

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 02:21:53 +0000

Good for you, Meredith!

By: Andrew Pace

Andrew Pace — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 01:05:14 +0000

Ditto what Roy said, Meredith. I won’t argue the chain of events, but you got the gig because you deserved it. In a rough paraphrase of Calvin Coolidge (he may have been silent most of the time, but he had some good quotes), “Neither genius nor education can take the place of persistence.” Like Roy, the money was certainly a motivator to me, but also like Walt, I also had some things I wanted to say. I have been so impressed thus far with what you have to say that I know we will all enjoy reading your column. And you will enjoy writing for American Libraries.

By: Michael Porter

Michael Porter — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 19:11:56 +0000

I can’t wait to read what you come up with! Such great news for you AND for the readers. Congrats and nice work, M!

By: Roy Tennant

Roy Tennant — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:23:17 +0000

Congratulations! A well-deserved opportunity, to be sure. I’m glad that you wrote about how this came about, because I think that we tend to believe that opportunities knock on our door. In reality, only some opportunities come that way. Others you must create for yourself. Library Journal didn’t ask me to write a column on digital libraries — I pitched it to them. And my main motivation wasn’t altruism, or love of writing, or (to paraphrase Walt Crawford) that I had something to say. I needed the money. Now looking back years later I have a hard time imagining what my life would have been like if I hadn’t done that.

One last thing. You didn’t get the column because of anything I or anyone else did. You got it because you established yourself as a powerful and respected voice in the library community under your very own steam. You got your column the “old-fashioned way” — you earned it. What is remarkable to me is how quickly you did so. I can’t wait to see what comes next.