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Dear fellow-Arlisians,
I have just dutifully joined the Facebook
"Arlisians" group, but I have to ask: Are any Arlisians out
there at all concerned that "Arlisia" is actually a real word with quite
distinctive - and perhaps not entirely desirable –connotations for us and
for our profession?
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica (11th
edition, article on “Palaeobotany), "Arlisia" are
"curious, transversely-ribbed [floral] fossils." Now,
colleague, I ask you: Do you see many curious, transversely-ribbed fossils at
ARLIS/NA meetings? Or for that matter in your art library (on your side
of the reference desk, that is; bolder souls may jump in to defend our patrons
from slander)?
Now I wouldn’t want to deny that with a bit of effort
we could try to find our likeness in the dictionary definition of
“Arlisia.” While the EB writer surely used
“curious” in the pejorative sense (i.e., odd), we tend, like all
members of the genus homo bibliothecarius, to be curious in the good sense; and
thus even those of us who don’t regard ourselves as odd might qualify as “curious.”
And while I don’t think a librarian anatomist would classify us as
“transversely-ribbed” in the technical sense – that technical
term is mostly applied to plants, plumbing pipes, and – let us be candid –
various exotica for sale in, for example, the West Village – we do of
course have ribs more or less perpendicularly-disposed vis-à-vis our
spines. Similarly, no one would deny that some of us are more “floral”
than others, nor that some few of us are, in our later years for the most part,
described – uncharitably if not necessarily altogether inaccurately –
as “fossils.” But do we really want to work this hard to
deserve being described as "curious, transversely-ribbed [floral] fossils”?
Now it’s also worth reflecting that the word “Arlisia”
is actually plural – and thus if we insist upon being associated with the
word, we should really call ourselves, as a group, “Arlisia” not
Arlisians, should reserve “Arlisian” for adjectival uses, and should
find another name (Arlisium?) for the realm we plan to inhabit. And
perhaps Arlisium should be consigned to Second Life where few palaeobotanists
will discover it and add to the already rich thesaurus of stereotypes about
librarians. We might even be able to market bottled water “fresh
from Arlisian wells” and build an endowment for ARLIS/NA.
Respectfully submitted by