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- Zombie ideas and common sense: Let's talk about w...
Zombie ideas and common sense: Let's talk about white gloves
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Every discipline has their zombie ideas, even library science. This could be a good discussion to have with students in the Intro Psych research methods chapter regarding the pitfalls of common sense. Ask students via clicker, Plickers, or by a show of hands this question:
When touching the pages of old, valuable books, you should wear white gloves. Yes, no, or I donāt know?
Most of your students will likely say yes. Now ask how do they know? This will be a harder question for them to answer. They may not remember how they learned this. They may even say that itās common sense.
Common sense may be common in that a whole lot of people think it is true, but that doesnāt make it true. And thatās the case with wearing white gloves when touching the pages of old, valuable books.
In this New York Times article, librarians describe this belief of needing to wear white gloves when handling the pages of old, valuable books as an idea that will not die (Schuessler, 2023)āa zombie idea, if you will. The rationale for why wearing white gloves is a bad idea is good: āGloves reduce your sense of touch, increasing the likelihood that you might accidentally tear a page, smear pigments, dislodge loose fragments ā or worse, drop the bookā (Schuessler, 2023). Gloves also tend to gather dirt and cause hands to sweat (Schuessler, 2023). Dirt and moisture are bad for books.
The librarians remind us that the books have been handled with bare hands for as long as they have been around.
There are a few exceptions to the no-glove rule, however. Nitrile gloves are recommended for photographic pages and certain book covers (e.g., book covers that contain metal, ivory, velvet, and certain other types of cloth). Also, wearing gloves is a good idea for handling book covers that may contain arsenic, but thatās for protecting the reader, not the book. Although one librarian added, āThe moral of the story is, donāt lick the books and you will be fineā (Schuessler, 2023). Donāt lick the books. Got it.
If the white glove thing isnāt actually a thing, why did Sothebyās take a photograph of BrontĆ« family manuscripts with white-gloved hands (Schuessler, 2021)? They are likely taking advantage of our ācommon senseā for their monetary gain. If white gloves signal āvaluable book,ā then we may be likely to pay more money for it (Schuessler, 2023). No white gloves? Then perhaps the book is no different than the paperback we picked up last week from our local bookseller.
If youād like to expand this discussion into one of ethics, ask your students if some of their ācommon senseā knowledge comes from what theyāve seen in movies or television shows. Do producers and writers have an ethical obligation to present accurate information or to note when they are not? What about the creators of YouTube or TikTok videos? If the content creators do not have such an ethical obligation, does the responsibility then lie with the viewer to sort out what is fact and what is fiction? If soāand if we choose not to expend the time and energy to do soāthen are we at risk for spreading misinformation?
This could be a good opportunity to launch a discussion on the importance of information literacy.
References
Schuessler, J. (2021, May 25). A lost Brontƫ library surfaces. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/25/arts/bronte-library-sothebys-auction.html
Schuessler, J. (2023, March 9). For rare book librarians, itās gloves off. Seriously. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/arts/rare-books-white-gloves.html
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