TILT #32 This is what librarian resistance looks like
Highly regular and highly irregular library liberation
Hello from a friend’s house in Cambridge MA. I am en route home after doing some consulting work and walking around goggle-eyed at the big city. It’s been a nice visit. Lots of links this week.
New Librarian Resistance things you should know about:
- LibrariesResist on Twitter and ALA’s Libraries Respond page
- Refugee Resources for Libraries (make suggestions if you have them, it’s a collaborative project)
- this Trump tweet fact-checker browser add-on
- Excellent PBS Newshour overview on the librarian resistance
Emilio Estevez is working on a movie about public libraries and homelessness. Filmed in Cincinnati Public Library, often at night after business hours, the movie is called The Public. I became aware of it when Mr. Estevez’s people called and asked to use my FBI Has Not Been Here sign (which they learned about from the PBS story or maybe The Mary Sue). I took the occasion of the phone call to also highlight SRRT’s Hunger Homlessness and Povery Task Force and the ALA’s Policy Statement on Library Services to the Poor. If that’s a topic near and dear to you, here’s an article from Slate about how libraries are removing fines considering them a barrier to civic engagement.
The movie is also using Rebecca McCorkindale’s Libraries are for Everyone posters. All of these posters (mine, hers) are maximally shareable, so please feel free to use, reuse repurpose and spread the word.
- This Funding for Libraries data tool is a neat way to see where library funding is coming from and going to. Like most grant-funded projects we have this website for at least two years so use the heck out of it!
- I enjoy fiery rhetoric. If you do too, I suggest this essay about Institutional Liberation, specifically liberating libraries and museums.
By occupying institutions, identifying allies on the inside, empowering employees, working with whistle-blowers, leveraging legal grey zones, and strategically mobilizing the symbolic power of key constituencies, activist art collectives redeploy the arsenals of power that have already been stored. The institution is liberated.
- EFF writes about the privacy issues involved with learning in the digital age and how school librarians — often the only people “trained as educators, privacy specialists, and technologists” — are helping schools find their way
- This advice for federal employees about how to deal with “off the wall” requests that you may get from people in positions of power is useful for many civic employee librarians.
What does Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden think the new Register of Copyrights should prioritize? I’m glad you asked. A great short interview by Creative Commons’ Timothy Vollmer.
Creative Commons is also beta testing a nice image search tool. Check it out and give them feedback. It’s nice. If you just want to find free images fast, my Flickr-free tool still mostly works, feel free to use it or make your own with my code.
Speaking of the Library of Congress I am still wondering how this inauguration poster wound up on the LoC store with a typo on it (and some snarky flavor text) when the original poster did not have the typo. The Library of Congress regrets the error. Also it’s weird watching something go viral-ish hours and hours after you and all your colleagues have been dishing about it. Gotta work on my meme distribution channels.
A leftover from an older newsletter where I asked for suggestions for mystery series written by people of color. Some suggestions and some links to follow for more information. I’ve been ILLing the Easy Rawlins books and really enjoying them. Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions.
- Walter Mosely’s Easy Rawlins series
- Leonid McGill mystery; this character is mixed-race and lives in present-day NYC.
- The Bone Street Rumba series by Daniel José Older
- The Ivy League Series (3 books) by Pamela Thomas-Graham
- The Blanche White Series (4 books) by Barbara Neely
- Rachel Howzell Hall — Detective Elouise Norton series
- Tess Gerritsen — Rizzoli & Isles series, plus The Bone Garden
- Mystery & Detective Novels by Women of Color
- African American and Black Mysteries (pdf)
- Genre Authors of Color — Mystery/Thriller
Photos from my Toronto trip are online. They’re not all library photos, but some of them are. I never get tired of old bookplates.
I’ll be traveling to DC for Computers in Libraries at the end of next month to lead a panel about small/rural library directors. Please say hello if you see me. I look sort of like this.
Today in Librarian Tabs is written irregularly by Jessamyn West who also maintains librarian.net. It’s also available in your inbox via TinyLetter. Thanks for reading.
