TILT #48 — Remedies and relief for what is broken

My computers broke last month. Slowly, with the help of many fine people, I fixed them! You can read about it on my blog, if you like those sorts of stories. PSA: make your backups! I am a braver and more resilient computer user because I am confident about my backups.

A kindness for novice computer users is helping them confidently back up their digital content. I’ve been looking into cloud backups for my own backup-backups, but with a 7/1Mb internet connection I might have to start my uploading before I go away for the holidays or bring my computer to the library (I wouldn’t be the only one).

I mentioned Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission when I returned from Edmonton. I enjoyed seeing it from Tara Robertson’s perspective as I re-read her LITA talk from 2016 provocatively titled Not all information wants to be free. She discusses, among other things, the idea of context collapse — specifically concerning cultural sensitivity, or lack of it — when people make choices about how and what to digitize. And how free-speech absolutism can be a community-negative perspective.

We talk about our responsibility to the collections, but what about our responsibility to communities.

There’s a similar movement afoot in the museum world: #MuseumsAreNotNeutral. If museums are your focus, I also suggest learning about MASS (Museum As Site for Social) Action. Their resources page is an excellent starting point.

Stay on top of the FCC’s attempt to rollback Net Neutrality with their doublespeakish Restoring Internet Freedom rule. ALA’s Washington Office has concise explanations and cogent links.

A few odds and ends:

• Another New Zealand story, this one about a library’s creative approach to helping their homeless patrons make better use of the library’s collections.
• Elizabeth Phillips, a braillist at SFPL’s Library for the Blind and Print Disabled talks about her work and her role in the creation of TrustLine a CA government project to screen childcare workers.
• I ran into Scott Pfitzinger at WLA and he shared his list of Online Resources to Recharge Your Batteries which I now share with you.
• A story about how the Obama Center in Chicago won’t be run by NARA and will actually house a branch of Chicago Public Library instead of an official governmental presidential library.

The local high school, where I run drop-in time, has made a move to prioritize helping students manage trauma. They’re giving teachers time, as well as specific professional development opportunities, to be better community caretakers for our younger populations.

Along these lines, The Healing Library offers free kits as an answer to the question How can libraries serve families during times of trauma? I learned about them at NELA and I was impressed.

If you’re in a traumatic situation, especially as a bystander, it can be difficult to determine what’s the best way to be helpful or useful. As a result, sometimes people wind up doing nothing and regretting it afterwards. The Southern Poverty Law Center — one of the charities I regularly support — has created A guide to bystander intervention helping people determine the best ways they could effectively intervene.

SPLC reminds us that everyone can do something.

Two PSAs:

1. Combatting ableism should be part of any inclusive collection development policy. Disability in Kidlit has an excellent list of resources and reviews of “portrayals of disability in middle grade and young adult literature… examining this topic from various angles — and always from the disabled perspective.”
2. I’ve got a slightly more than superfan role in helping Wikipedia with the #1lib1ref campaign (Jan 15 — Feb 3)this year. If you’re a library, librarian, or just an interested person who would like to get involved, we’d love to have you join us. Please feel free to contact me, or just add some citations and spread the word.

Here’s a wish for rest and rejuvenation for everyone. May the holiday weekend (if you celebrate) give you some space and restore your spirits.

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.