concept and political ramifications of flat taxation to people who wandered up with questions. - Jason P

librarians are improvisatory - barbara fister

*laughing* like like like! - Jenica

Just so long as they were explaining to people why the flat tax is a terrible idea, I am down with this. - laura x

That would not be appropriate behaviour for a good reference librarian, but making sure that people who asked questions were directed to counter-arguments would be good. Of course, the entire conference attendance seemed to be made up of older white straight well-off men (and their spouses). The lack of empathy in large segments of the US population continues to amaze me. - DJF

What I love about this is that I am fairly confident that Rochelle and Maurice agree that the flat tax is a bad idea, but I'm equally confident that they explained the concept and political ramifications in as unbiased a fashion as they could manage under the circumstances. - Catherine Pellegrino

I love that IT WASN'T IN ANY WAY THEIR JOB TO DO THIS, but they apparently couldn't help themselves. :D - Jenica

Oh, Catherine, see, I was hoping that they were explaining how the Flat Tax taxes everything that is flat: paper, DVDs, Saltines, plywood, and so on. - Steele Lawman

Right, and also what Jenica said. It's like we walk around in the world with big signs on our backs that say "ASK US QUESTIONS. WE LOVE IT." - Catherine Pellegrino

It was truly awesome. They were talking to CiL attendees and early FT conference people. Initially I was adding comments like "this isn't our table, we just sat here to eat" but they were so into it I gave up. - Jason P

And Steve, if I'd thought of that I'd have done it. Was too nervous about upcoming presentation to be that cool. - Jason P

Ah, you see my activist background occasionally overrides my librarian training. When I think tabling, I think propaganda. :-) I do, in all seriousness, though, think this is completely awesome. - laura x

Hah, the usual connotations of tabling with bias and propaganda are, in fact, part of what makes this so awesome. They were propagandizing for fair and reasonable discourse and the usefulness of librarians in finding balanced information! Like, whoa. - Marianne

Thanks for the love y'all. But if you can keep it on the qt, while a number of my best friends are librarians, I am not. Trainer and person who either knows or knows where to find the right shit. And knows how to explain it to other people. Ro performed the speedy reference interpretive dance (I was eating my sammich) looked it up and together we figured out how to translate it into a short accurate speech for anyone to easily digest. - ♫410 I Coach 'em Up♫

And Catherine, I actually have that "Ask Me" look no matter where I go. And sadly I usually can answer their question. - ♫410 I Coach 'em Up♫

I dunno what it is, but I also have the "ask me" look apparently. Since people ask me for directions when I'm on the opposite side of the continent. - DJF

I had the "Ask Me" look long before I was a librarian, or even thought about being a librarian. What was that about biology and destiny again? - Catherine Pellegrino