National Library WeekHaiku

Mirela Roncevic -- Library Journal, 04/03/2009

In preparation for National Library Week (April 12-18), Oxford University Press's publicity team recently asked its staff to write about their library experience for use in a promotional campaign. “Think quick and snappy, fun, happy, or tragic,” the note encouraged. Niko Pfund (r.), academic group’s publisher, and Casper Grathwohl (l.), reference group’s publisher, had been in the middle of a “mean haiku emailing session” when the note from publicity arrived, so their 5-7-5ing quickly turned to the topic of libraries.

“Spending an afternoon pinging these poems back and forth reminded us that libraries don’t just sustain our professional lives; they shaped the road that brought us here,” said Grathwohl. “We hope [librarians] enjoy the tribute and that it inspires some haikuing of [their] own.”

LJ editors read the poems (forwarded to LJ's Reference Editor Mirela Roncevic) with great enthusiasm and selected these favorites:

Librarians’ bane:
Index finger to mouth: “Quiet, shhhh...”
Shoo, stereotype!
 
Books, so retro, yes?
Hardly. Format matters not.
The gift’s in the thought.
 
Hey, you! Library!
Aged? Patina of yore? Pish
posh. Terminal time!
 
Librarian might!
Protecting sacred info
from Patriot Acts
 
iPod tipping points
Today books, but tomorrow
Shelves full of Kindles
 
Scanning to preserve
Google both a friend and foe
Who knows what to do?
 
Humming minds inspire
A quiet din fills my ears
The main reading room
 
No water in stacks!
But tears—of joy, sorrow—abound.
Dew(e)y eyes here.
 
Pulled from the ashes
Young wizards and teen mothers
Thou shall not be banned
 
Closing for the day
Report is due tomorrow
Web access? Thank god!