TILT #73 — Environmental controls, not access controls
A PSA about where else you can find me and my library nattering online.
- Twitter @jessamyn
- Instagram @IAmTheBestArtist (duplicated on facebook)
- Library blog librarian.net
- Personal blog jessamyn.com/journal
- Booklist jessamyn.info/booklist
I won’t lie — it’s a lot sometimes. One thing that made it to Twitter, and not here, was LOC Serendipity, which loads a fun random list of of full-text LOC items.
I noticed that many books I browsed had red stickers on the cover. Turns out these were stickers placed on books that were marked for evacuation during WWII. Here’s an archival photo of that process.
Remember when the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award was renamed? Here in Vermont, we’ve been grappling with the renaming of the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award (for two reasons: Fisher’s ties to the eugenics movement and also the initialism DCF’s association with VT’s Department of Children and Families). The Department of Libraries decided to let the kids decide on the new name which I think is a great, inclusive solution.
Vermont’s Passport to Vermont Libraries summer program started this weekend, a nice turnkey program where we create the materials, and the libraries can say, “Get your passport stamped here!” This is the fourth year of the program and I’m pretty excited about it. Here’s a whole photoset of four years of passports.
We shared our designs online for people who want them. If you’re looking for library inspiration, don’t forget about Librarian Design Share which has a lot of creative library things, all CC-licensed so you can use them.
Explaining the importance of libraries to communities involves both stories and data. ALA’s State of American Libraries, which came out during National Library Week, has a lot of both. While I am always aggravated by banned and challenged books — specifically the sheer number that are ignorant GLBTQ challenges — it’s always good to see authors having the right attitude.
Do you look at shared Google Docs during meetings and not know where to put your cursor? Why not let it spend some time in nature… or space… or the library?
Googleable term is “cursor parks” (works on two levels!) which somehow hasn’t gone viral yet.
Resources & ideas:
- Library “supply kits” with tampons, flip flops, DIY first aid, diapers, and other things available at library service desks.
- Coyote is an open source tool created by Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and consultants which can create a workflow and guidance for managing image description on art websites. Useful for digital archives as well.
- The Free Black Women’s Library is an interactive traveling biblio-installation that features a collection of over 900 books written by Black women. It pops up monthly, mainly in Brooklyn, with a goal of connecting people around the topics of books and reading.
- Libraries are notorious for having heating/cooling issues. How Cold Is That Library is a crowdsourced Google Doc letting you know just how cold that library is. ❄️
Privacy is always important:
- I’ve subscribed to updates from the New York Times’ Privacy project, always worthwhile reading.
- ALA’s Choose Privacy Week has morphed into Choose Privacy Every Day. I appreciated Alison Macrina’s essay “Fighting Surveillance is Not Impossible” especially in light of this article talking about this twin cities “open” libraries concept, which uses surveillance to allow people access to their libraries when they’re not staffed.
- How much is it OK to inconvenience patrons in the interests of library security? Is it different if you’re trying to prevent machete fights?
- A lively discussion on the use of Alexa within the library.
An employee of the Massachusetts State Archives stole many historical documents between 1937 and 1945. They’re still turning up.
Did you see Good Omens? What did you think of the gloves?
So much enjoyable reading lately! I am lucky my library has a great graphic novel collection.
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.
