TILT #65 — Library delights for (nearly) all the senses
I have to admit, I was holding off sending this until after the election because I was hoping for some sort of riotously good election news. EveryLibrary did an incredibly thorough tracking of library ballot initiatives and concluded that about 72% of ballot initiatives passed. They’ve published a list of useful takeways for libraries from this year’s results. I remain cautiously optimistic for libraries, slightly more nervous about the country. My one political link is this debate-turned-duet that happened in a library in Vermont in October. And one more small library image you might enjoy, an honor-system circ desk.
In personal news, I got re-elected to my Justice of the Peace position. I also worked the polls, confirmed additions/deletions to the voter rolls, and got to help count the write-in votes. I’m just a huge civics nerd. Here are some photos on Flickr of the process. Flickr users probably know that since their acquisition by SmugMug, they are changing their fee structure (still free for under 1000 photos). People need to know that if your photos were CC_licensed, they are still free. Libraries need to know that 501(c)(3) organizations get free unlimited photo storage from Flickr (along with some good stats tools).
This is worth taking advantage of. The Flickr Commons is one of the best parts of Flickr, offering freely viewable and useable images from cultural institutions the world over. The Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums in the UK have a Flickr album with photos of the Sunderland Museum’s “handling sessions for the blind” of the museum’s exhibits.
In other personal news, I was interviewed for Peter Ward’s Library Guide podcast. The sound quality is a little iffy, so I transcribed my remarks. Topic: “What is library equity?”
I saw Carla Hayden’s swearing in ceremony as a Daily Double question on Jeopardy and it gave me all the feels. And then I lost my damned mind when none of the people knew what her job was! (also she faved my tweet about it!)
Speaking of LoC, this little Glitch app called Library of Time tells you the time using (linked!) numbers found in LoC items. Try it out, it’s freaky cool.
News from the Big Org:
- Are you in ALA’s Social Responsibilities Round Table? Do you need financial help getting to conferences? Consider applying for a Herb Biblo Travel Grant. Deadline in December. Fun trivia fact, I created the logo on the SRRT page!
- Jamie LaRue takes on concern-trolling in the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom blog, discussing parents badgering schools in Colorado into dropping EBSCO. Choice quote: “Let’s be totally clear about this, too: If middle or high school students are looking for sex on the internet, they do not start with library databases.” 😂
Great stuff to look at.
- 3D printed tactile maps to help blind users navigate the library.
- A library in Slab City.
- Elizabeth Sagan and her amazing book art (via Buzzfeed which pulled out some particularly lovely images)
- 130,000 digitized Andy Warhol photographs with impeccable metadata
I continue to hold out hope that Wikipedia can deal with its nerd rage inspired bureaucracy and fulfill its own dream of being the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. If you’re looking at ways to showcase the good stuff about Wikipedia, here’s a little adventure/tour that is fun and interesting that skips the “toss you into the deep end of the pool” aspect that can be off-putting to new users. Look at this list of lists of lists and tell me you can’t see some of the dream in there?
Notes from the various resistances:
- As part of Hannah Alpert-Abrams and Kelly McDonough’s Critical Digital Archives class at UT Austin, students critically review digital archives and post those reviews on a class blog.
- On the exaggeratedness of onlineness. NDIA’s Worst Connected Cities report and this Columbia Journalism Review of Iowa’s rural broadband indicates that even though it may be true that America’s 85% connected, even that number is not evenly distributed.
- In line with the above, a New York Times look at how more affluent schools are promoting less screen time and fewer screens, even as poorer schools struggle to obtain them.
In addition to my usual booklist, I think I’m going to have a Twitter thread for books I read in 2019. I’ve enjoyed getting to scan Andrew Liptak’s reading thread for good ideas.
I really don’t know what to say about the DPLA announcement from the LITA Forum paired with thew news that they laid off six people, nearly all of their librarian staff, the same week. Bad optics and I suspect a bad omen. I’ve been involved with DPLA since the beginning, and was always rooting for them at the same time as I was concerned about how dangerously underfunded they seemed to be. I wish them the best, but they have some serious bridge-repair in their future.
Lastly, an announcement. I’ve been working with the Internet Archive to help them get the word out about their free materials and services for print-disabled users. If you are or are serving a print-disabled population, feel free to drop me an email and I can tell you more about it. Best wishes for the shortening days.
Today in Librarian Tabs is written irregularly by Jessamyn West who also maintains librarian.net. It’s available in more-accessible format your inbox via TinyLetter. Thanks for reading.
