Law Lib-erator

Dec
11th

Sun

Good point!

Having just read Unfamiliar Fish by Sarah Vowell, this resonates with me. People should show more respect for Native Hawaiian culture.

stevenespaniola:

Travelocity Ad = FAIL

“Hula is the language of the heart, therefore the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people.” - King David Kalākaua

Over the years there have been many commercial ads that laugh at, poke fun of or mention my Hawaiian culture in a lighthearted manner. Normally, I shrug them off as ignorance and move on, however I recently stumbled upon a poster ad (above) by Travelocity while traveling on BART (San Francisco’s mass transit system) that stopped me in my tracks, jaw dropped.

While the intent of the message is to get people to visit Hawai’i and hopefully use Travelocity to book that voyage, it’s impact and choice of words they use implies that hula is an embarrassing act and should not be seen by anyone whose opinion is valued. The campaign perpetuates a novelty stereotype of mock hula done by drunken frat boys or tourists emulating movements at a lu’au that they think are hula movements and relegates it to the ranks of karaoke or charades. Hula should be honored, celebrated, nurtured, preserved and most of all respected!

There was a point in history (decades actually) when hula was banned by the occupying Missionaries and it was not until the accomplishments of our last great King David Kalākaua, that hula was revived and restored to it’s rightful status.

The irony in all of this is that we’ve come full circle with ads like this one doing the same sort of damage, perpetuating the same type message that the early Missionaries preached which was that hula was a bad and shameful thing. It most certainly is NOT!

We need to put an immediate stop to these types of ads the moment we notice them so that we can educate the masses about the importance of hula and our culture. If you are reading this and share my thoughts, please take a moment to send Travelocity your feedback by clicking on the link below:

Travelocity Feedback: http://bit.ly/v8QNQP

BART Complaint Line: 510-464-7134

Mahalo for listening!

Steven Espaniola

Oct
26th

Wed

Seeking Seekins

Jan
24th

Sat

Busy week - studies and learning about National Security and Libraries

Library school has picked up. My two classes are keeping me busy. Intro to Reference and Information Sciences and Intro to Library Sciences are relating well and a good fit. I have the pleasure of presenting a paper and speech on the topic national security and librarians. I have learned the ALA has been an active proponent of library patron’s privacy rights. But, understand there is no clear right to privacy under US federal law. And the “zones of privacy” have not been extended to libraries. States have chimed in and protected patron’s records under privacy rights but these can be trumped by the US PATRIOT act and FISA. Some librarians have taken it upon themselves to shred patron records and pre-empt federal investigation. I tend to side with the librarians but visions of Ollie North come to mind when I see librarians shredding records.

Jan
13th

Tue

SFMOMA | Explore Modern Art | SFMOMA ArtScope

Innovative look at the art of MOMA.

LibraryThing | Catalog your books online

A cool place to catalog your books, share your thoughts, meet book-friends and learn about other reads.

Library: An Unquiet History

I just finished reading Matthew Battle’s Library: An Unquiet History. I enjoyed it and Mr. Battle’s writing prose. He performed an historical review of the library from gleaming of ancient times up to the late 1990’s. Brief mentions of the interent phenomena were present.

Many students in my library science class at the College of St. Catherine agreed Mr. Battles is very knowledgeable and personable as evidenced through his cocktail-party method of meadering and telling the tale of these ancient libraries and their librarians.

Other students didn’t always enjoy it as much. Criticisms included the following: the author’s style is hard to read, dislike of his citation methods or frequency of citations, and apparent “name-dropping” style the book seems to take part in.

Battles, Matthew (2003). Library: an unquiet history. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 9780393020298.

Our intrepid law librarian and his tusty companion, Mortimer.