Monday, October 17, 2011

Case Study No. 0002: "Librarians Do Gaga"

Librarians Do Gaga
4:23
Students and faculty from the University of Washington's Information School get their groove on.

Directed, edited, and produced by Sarah Wachter.
Lyrics by Sarah Wachter.
Lyrics available here: http://www.athenasbanquet.net/ 2010/05/ librarians-do-gaga
More info available here: http://www.athenasbanquet.net/ 2010/05/ librarians-do-gaga- and-then-take-over- the-world
Now captioned for the Deaf and hearing impaired.

Vocals and sound editing by Laura Mielenhausen.

The iSchool is my school: http://ischool.uw.edu/

Students, faculty, and staff who appear in this video:

Lisa Fusco
Nancy Gershenfeld
Audrey Barbakoff
Amelia Herring
Emily Keller
Allyson Carlyle
Bob Boiko
Alex Walker
Nancy Pearl
Rachel Woodbrook
Grace Whiteaker
Trent Hill
Joe Tennis
Andrea Gough
Jenny Dolton
Laura Mielenhausen
Sarah Wachter
Mike Eisenberg
Cadi Sauve
Morgan McCullough
Robin Chin Roemer
Cris Mesling
Eric Grob

Antelopes courtesy of
- http://www.fws.gov/
- http://www.mccullagh.org/
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/ perpetualplum/

Captain Kirk TM & © 2001 Paramount Pictures
Poker Face © 2009 Interscope Records
Poker Face (Karaoke Version) © 2009 Big Eye Music

Get more info on the Big 6 at http://www.big6.com/

This video is covered under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license. For additional information, click here: http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc-sa/3.0/
Tags: LadyGaga PokerFace librarian libraryscience informationliteracy Big6 UniversityofWashington UW iSchool InformationSchool MLIS MLS library catalog
Added: 1 year ago
From: Athenasbanquet
Views: 822,937

LIBRARIANS OF THE FUTURE PRESENT
A BATES MOTEL PRODUCTION

This is my information detector.
It goes ding when there's stuff.

Mum mum mum mah
Mum mum mum mah
Mum mum mum mah
Mum mum mum mah

[Lisa Fusco, iSchool Faculty]

You got a question that is causing you some pain
Typin' keywords into the search engine again.

[Nancy Gershenfeld, iSchool Faculty]

Look, you're naive, searching just ain't gonna get it done
Cause when it comes to search, if it's not tough it isn't fun (fun)

[Audrey Barbakoff, MLIS 2010]

Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh

[Amelia Herring, MLIS 2010]

I'll blow your mind
Show you how to find
Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh
I'll blow your mind
Show you how to find

[Emily Keller, Political Science and Public Affairs Librarian, UW Libraries]

Can use my
Can use my
Yeah you can use my catalog
(Don't forget the databases)

[Allyson Carlyle, iSchool Faculty]

Can use my
Can use my
Yeah you can use my catalog

[Bob Boiko, iSchool Faculty]

Don't forget the infobases!

[Alex Walker, MLIS 2010]

Ca-ca-ca-catalog
Ca-ca-catalog

[Nancy Pearl, author of the Book Lust series]

Ca-ca-ca-catalog
Ca-ca-catalog

[Rachel Woodbrook, MLIS/MA Museology 2012]
[Grace Whiteaker, Online Learning Administrator, iSchool]

This keyword search, it gives you way too many hits
Boolean limits pare things down to just what fits

[Trent Hill, iSchool Faculty]

Use the thesaurus to find subject terms that work
And then in just one minute you'll be through like Captain Kirk

[Joe Tennis, iSchool Faculty]

Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh
I'll blow your mind
Show you how to find

[Andrea Gough, MLIS 2010]

Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh

[Jenny Dolton, MLIS 2010]

I'll blow your mind
Show you how to find

[Laura Mielenhausen, MLIS 2010]

Can use my
Can use my
Yeah you can use my catalog
(Don't forget the databases)

[Sarah Wachter, MLIS 2010]

Can use my
Can use my
Yeah you can use my catalog

[Mike Eisenberg, iSchool Faculty, Dean Emeritus]

(Don't forget the databases)

[Cadi Sauve, MLIS/MPA 2010]

Ca-ca-ca-catalog
Ca-ca-catalog

Ca-ca-ca-catalog
Ca-ca-catalog

We love the Big 6, baby!

Step one, define your problem
Pick your sources
Then go huntin'
We're not puntin'
On the research, we're engaging and extracting somethin'

And then you put it back together
Tell your friends about your awesomeness
It's synthesis, synthesis
Evaluate cause we're into this

[Morgan McCullough, MLIS 2010]

Can use my
Can use my
Yeah you can use my catalog
(Don't forget the databases)

Can use my
Can use my
Yeah you can use my catalog
(Don't forget the databases)

Can use my
Can use my
Yeah you can use my catalog
(Don't forget the databases)

[Robin Chin Roemer, MLIS 2010]

Can use my
Can use my
Yeah you can use my catalog
(Don't forget the databases)

Can use my
Can use my
Yeah you can use my catalog

[Cris Mesling, Director of Academics, iSchool]

(Don't forget the databases)

Can use my
Can use my
Yeah you can use my catalog
(Don't forget the databases)

Ca-ca-ca-catalog
Ca-ca-catalog

[Eric Grob, MLIS 2010]

Ca-ca-ca-catalog
Ca-ca-catalog
(Don't forget the databases)

Ca-ca-ca-catalog
Ca-ca-catalog
(Mum mum mum mah)

Ca-ca-ca-catalog
Ca-ca-catalog
(Mum mum mum mah)

Ca-ca-ca-catalog
Ca-ca-catalog
(Mum mum mum mah)

Ca-ca-ca-catalog
Ca-ca-catalog
(Mum mum mum mah)

DIRECTED, PRODUCED, AND EDITED BY
SARAH WACHTER

LYRICS BY
SARAH WACHTER

VOCALS AND SOUND EDITING BY
LAURA MIELENHAUSEN

ADDITIONAL VOCALS BY
ROB NICHOLL

---

From athenasbanquet.net:

**Who are you, anyway?

My name is Sarah Wachter, and I'm a grad student at UW's Information School (iSchool, in the vernacular) getting my masters in library and information science, to be awarded in, oh, about ten days. My goals as a librarian are to provide excellent customer and reference services to my patrons, to develop my patrons' information literacy skills through one-to-one instruction and workshops, to develop outreach tools that create excitement for and interest in library services, and to have fun! I'm interested in both academic and public librarianship, and am especially interested in job sites in the greater Boston area.

**And who are all those other people?

I had a great group of students, faculty, and staff collaborate with me on this project.

Audrey Barbakoff, Jenny Dolton, Andrea Gough, Eric Grob, Amelia Herring, Morgan McCullough, Laura Mielenhausen, Robin Chin Roemer, Cadi Sauve, Alex Walker, and Rachel Woodbrook are all MLIS students, most of whom are graduating with me this June.

Bob Boiko, Allyson Carlyle, Mike Eisenberg, Lisa Fusco, Nancy Gershenfeld, Trent Hill, Emily Keller, Nancy Pearl, and Joe Tennis are some of the wonderful faculty members that I've had the opportunity to study with over the last two years.

Cris Mesling and Grace Whiteaker are just two of the lovely MLIS-enabled staff members at UW. MLISes – they're not just for libraries!

**Why'd you make the video?

Two student organizations at the iSchool, iArts and iWrite, decided to pool their collective genius and put on a film festival, called (obviously enough) iSight. They announced this scheme mid-winter quarter, when Seattle is dark and bleak and I was listening to a lot of Lady Gaga because she makes me happy. I had also very recently watched the Neutraface parody, so that was bouncing around in my cranium too. I don't remember if I first thought of "ca-ca-ca-catalog" or "can use my, can use my, yeah you can use my catalog", but once the idea was planted the rest of the lyrics just slotted themselves around it over the next month or so. I listened to a lot of Poker Face that month. A lot a lot.

**It wasn't for a job?

Nope. Nor did I get class credit for it, more's the pity.

**Wait! I'm going to the iSchool next year! Do I have to make a video too?

Shhh, don't stress. No, you have a variety of options for your culminating experience and none of them REQUIRE you to make a video. But you probably can if you want to. (I defer to your academic adviser on all matters related to curriculum, and so should you. This does not constitute academic advice. Etc.)

**How'd you make it?

The iSchool technology department loans camcorders to students, so I took one out and then frantically recruited faculty and students to say a line on camera for me. I got a group of students together to do the larger scenes, and then just brought my camcorder up to various professor's offices as they had a fifteen or twenty minute chunk of time free for me to film them. I'd play Poker Face for them so they could sync their lines to the music, and then as I edited in Premiere Pro I only used the video and chucked the audio.

I also did a lot of bumping into people in hallways and at their various places of work and asking them if they'd like to be in a music video. Most everyone said yes.

**Yeah, but you got Nancy Pearl in there! How'd you do that?

I bumped into her in a hallway and said, "Nancy! Hi! Do you want to be in a music video?" She said yes.

**But doesn't she shush a lot?

No, you're confusing her with her action figure.

**Why did you use "catalog" instead of "database"? "Database" sounds more like "poker face"!

True, it does. But it also sounds really stupid if you try to go "Duh-duh-duh-database duh-duh-database."

**Is that you singing?

Nope. I'm lucky to come from an exceptionally musically talented cohort and my friend Laura Mielenhausen has a gorgeous, Gaga-esque voice. After I'd finished writing the lyrics, I sent them to her to sing and she did all the vocals and audio editing using Garage Band. (Her husband Rob is responsible for the "Don't forget the databases.") She did a fantastic job, I must say.

**Can I download an audio track of the song?

I would love to be able to make it happen, but I'm in the process of determining whether offering the audio as a free mp3 download will generate any copyright issues for me. I'll get back to you.

**Can I share your video with a class, conference, etc?

Yes, you can use my video for non-commercial purposes. Please keep my name on it and link back to me. If you have any questions about whether something is okay, please email me.

**Who were you making this for?

I made it first and foremost for the film festival, so I wanted to make something that captured the iSchool experience and that showcased our fantastic faculty, staff, and students. Librarian in-jokes were a must. Our professors really are that goofy and amazing. And Trent can wail on that banjo, man oh man.

**What's with the antelopes?

One of the first readings we get at the iSchool is Michael Buckland's 1991 article, "Information as Thing," in which he discusses Suzanne Briet's concept of an antelope as a document. Question: Is an antelope a document? Answer: It depends. Buckland writes:

...Objects are not ordinarily documents but become so if they are processed for informational purposes. A wild antelope would not be a document, but a captured specimen of a newly discovered species that was being studied, described, and exhibited in a zoo would not only have become a document, but "the cataloged antelope is a primary document and other documents are secondary and derived." (Briet, 1951, p.8)

**Your ideas intrigue me! I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Maybe you should think about library school!

**And what's with Captain Kirk?

I dunno. I like Star Trek, what can I say? If I'd been able to make "Starbuck" scan I totally would have.

**Is that a Who reference at the beginning?

It's more of a big ball of wibbly-wobbly whoosey-woosey ... stuff.

**You're a total geek, you know.

Quite!

**Are you totally sick of Lady Gaga's music now?

Maybe a little bit, but I'll never admit it in public.

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