[Web4lib] Code4lib 2008 Minority Scholarship

[Cloutman, David]

I think every woman software engineer / developer in libraryland who can
make it to this conference should. The simple fact of the matter is that
there are too few qualified engineers in this field in the first place,
and to discourge anyone from attending is a very bad thing. 

It would be a shame to not meet someone with whom I could exchage highly
technical knowledge about library systems because a stupid and blatantly
sexist comment on a listserv scared them off. I have a lot of unanswered
questions that networking with people who are truly my peers could help
answer. I am sure that many of the people on this list are like me, and
are relatively isolated from individuals doing similar work. The more
people that come to this conference, the more likely I am to learn
something, or to be able to share something, and I think that is what
most people want out of the experience. If a female engineer who know
something that can help me do my work doesn't attend, then I've lost a
very valuable opportunity to learn from her. 

This conference sounds awesome. I hope my boss will let me attend so I
can meet the top tier women and men in my profession within a
profession.

- David



---
David Cloutman <dcloutman at co.marin.ca.us>
Electronic Services Librarian
Marin County Free Library 

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Danielle Plumer
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 12:05 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Code4lib 2008 Minority Scholarship



Like several others, it seems, I'm feeling just a wee bit ashamed of
myself for not contributing to this discussion. In fact, I had been
preparing a response (along the lines of "why I'm going to attend
Code4Lib") when one comment popped up that made me feel physically ill:


"One woman, free 'Happy Hour' at the Embassy Suites, and a nerd herd."

Tailhook '91, anyone? Or, if you're not old enough to remember that one,
think back to last year's Kathy Sierra case. Maybe these things have
killed my sense of humor. Or maybe jokes like these just aren't funny.

Several of my (male) colleagues have said that C4L is the best technical
conference in libraryland. I had thought about submitting a proposal to
C4L, and I decided not to this year, because I've never attended C4L and
I wasn't sure that it was the sort of conference that I'd want to be
associated with (though, frankly, I was thinking about this in terms of
scholarship rather than harassment). As of two days ago, I'd have said
that I was definitely planning to attend. Now, though, I'm not too sure.
And that's a shame.



Danielle Cunniff Plumer, Coordinator
Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
512.463.5852 (phone) / 512.936.2306 (fax)
dplumer at tsl.state.tx.us

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