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
smtp.imamuseum.org made the following annotations
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