In honor of Ada Lovelace Day, #LibTechWomen is blogging about one of the great early library and information science theorists, Suzanne Briet. You can read all our blog posts on Twitter using the hash tag #briet. In a shocking but not surprising turn of events, a recent textbook gave Paul Otlet credit for the one thing that everyone should be able to remember from the first semester of library school: a wild antelope is not a document, but an antelope in a zoo is, since it was collected, cataloged, and provides evidence. Unfortunately textbooks have a way of perpetuating wrong information from generation to generation, and critical thinking and research skills are woefully lacking. So, we are remembering Madame Documentation on a day dedicated to remembering and celebrating women in STEM fields.
My personal forever favorite tribute to Suzanne Briet comes in the form of a critical puppet show put on by the Self Preservation Working Group at the Read/Write Library. Watch and enjoy.