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By Barbara Fister. … when journalism is struggling to simply exist in the world of big money.
As frequently happens to me (probably the fault of never quite overcoming being an undergraduate), I came across three new research reports on the same day that seem connected. More...

By Barbara Fister. The Wall Street Journal seems shocked and appalled that Google modifies its search algorithms. Well, duh. More...

By Barbara Fister. I was talking to my partner one evening last week when my phone died, midsentence. The apple symbol flashed a few times, then the screen went dark. Plugging it in didn’t help. All the usual resuscitation moves failed. I was phoneless, and it rattled me. More...

By Barbara Fister. All too often I hear a couple of falsehoods slung around carelessly.

• Nobody reads scholarly books because they’re self-indulgent and impenetrable, used only for tenure and promotion
• Students don’t read books anymore.

These pronouncements are often made by people who purport to think critically, but if you ask for evidence for those claims, you’ll get, “Well, I mean, duh. Everyone knows …” followed by anecdotal examples of jargon-laden writing or vague slurs about millennials. More...

By Barbara Fister. If you want to get my goat, or, I daresay, the goat of any librarian, make a gratuitous reference to shushing. The finger held to the lips, the aggressive whisper, the frown at a pin’s drop. We don’t do these things, but it’s a stereotype that is endlessly used in article titles and commercials, and it’s annoying. More...