My appointment to the Molesworth Institute in 2009 by Norman D. Stevens, the Institute Director, was a distinctive honor for me. A major goal of the Institute is to promote library humor, and it is only by chance that I have been included in this august group. I have previously cited Stevens as being one of the two "world's greatest librariana collectors". I recently received a report from Norman on the 40th Annual Symposium of the Institute which took place this month. He indicated in the report that: "This year’s symposium was devoted exclusively to a consideration of the future of The Molesworth Institute in terms of the steps needed to insure that it will continue to serve as an alternative to the hide-bound traditions and, more recently, to the new-fangled technology that pervades Our Profession. We continue to find the library world, like the real world, impossible to understand on a rational basis. As advocates of disjunctive librarianship, we turn to the outer reaches of our mind and treat Our Profession with the irrationality that it deserves." The most important outcome of the symposium was the designation of Katie Herzog as the Director Pro-Tem of the Molesworth Institute. Herzog is a Reference Assistant and Artist-in-residence at the Whittier Public Library in California. In May/June of this year Katie will be representing the Molesworth Institute in Cycling for Libraries, which involves 100 librarians from around the world cycling from Copenhagen to Berlin. Norman has been designated as Director Emeritus of the Molesworth Institute. Good luck to Katie in her new capacity, and thanks to Norman for his role in creating and sustaining this highly unorthodox library organization.
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I also congratulate Herzog for her appointment as the head of the Institude. And as the organizer of Cycling for libraries i am truly grateful for her participation in the event, and for the promotion of the Institute. I was honoured to receive a bound collection of articles from her, and they have truly had an impact on me, and everyone i've shown them to.
Disjunctive librarianship, as practiced by the Molesworth Institute makes an invaluable contribution to the profession and the academia surrounding it. For this i would most warmheartedly like to thank Mr. Norman and others involved. I wish to cherish this academic tradition the best i can.
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