TILT #85 — We’re here because we’re here

I consider myself lucky to be part of a library community in times like these. I know it’s challenging, scary, and sometimes outright lousy lately. Being able to try doing the right thing for so many uneasy people in a country as fractured as ours is right now is good work. Not in a “So you should be okay going back to work without enough PPE” way, or a “You should be okay doing the work of staff who were laid off and not replaced as your institution barrels towards a hasty poorly-planned re-opening” way, but just “We’ve helped a lot of people, and that’s a good thing” way.

Vermont is cautiously re-opening. I live in a part of the state that, in some ways, felt like it didn’t close down. My library continued to (safely) do curbside within the guidelines offered by our state library. There’s been poor mask compliance among my neighbors. I’ve been doing a lot of WFH, enough so that newsletter-writing time became email tech-support time, or watch libraries’ “We miss you” videos and have a good cry time, or “go to a friend’s Zoom graduation” time, or “watch an hour long Demco video on Safety Tips for Reopening Your Library, for work.” There are a lot of ways to deliver useful public health news, and I have to admit this one wasn’t my favorite. Here’s a sample slide.

In contrast, I appreciate the work IFLA did showing us what the international re-opening looks like. And in the US one of the agitating things about calling it “re-opening” is that that’s just referring to our buildings. Most libraries I know have continued to provide some sort of service these past few months.

That’s been a real thinky point for me: that the digital divide continues to mean we can’t, in some meaningful ways, be libraries without our buildings; and the same old “People don’t understand what we do exactly” frustrations. This was seen most recently when eye-rolling at this graphic from the BBC’s How exposed is your job? article (with Twitter’s help). 😂

Some tips that have been helping me these past few weeks

• How to “harden your Zoom” from the EFF and How to be Inclusive in Your Zoom Teaching from Chronicle of Higher Ed.
• A tool for converting Word documents to EPUB from the DAISY consortium
• The sounds of New York compiled and curated by NYPL (along with their curated book lists which helps me find good things to look for in my library’s catalog. Does that author think you… rent ebooks?)
• Speaking of local libraries, this “How to get books to students” article tipped me to the Burlington Badge Challenge. It is both a thing patrons can do to earn personal badges, but the badges themselves also “level up” when groups of people complete them. It’s a great “We’re all in this together” program.

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, the National Emergency Library at the Internet Archive is making more books available than ever before, but the National Writer’s Union isn’t super happy about it. IA did make deals with Duke and UNC press to carry their titles, and it’s worth reading about those deals. Individual authors can still opt out, as always. Meanwhile the Public Books Database is trying to find other presses that have made some of their books open access. I am mostly seeing a list, not a database, but there’s already a lot of good stuff on it. One that is going on my “to read” list:

I wish I knew more of the (UK mostly) people that Bookcase Credibility is dishing on, but this is a good Twitter account for the times when it seems like everyone’s teleconferencing in front of a bookshelf.

Digital Divide corner is really more of an entire wing now, but here’s just a few things going on or worth seeing.

• The National Digital Inclusion Alliance has created a page that collects all the ISPs offering free or low-cost internet during COVID times.
• I did a talk about This Unprecedented Digital Divide for a library system in Florida that you’re welcome to read or use.
• Be careful about low bidders on COVID era stimulus projects to boost wifi
• And the FCC’s Lifeline program? Only about a quarter of those who qualify for the program are actually using it. If your patrons are among the 75% not taking advantage, maybe there’s something you can be doing to help.
• There was a Twitter thread about describing your work or research in words of one syllable. This was mine.

When the Harlem River was frozen, Columbia’s crew team would row in specially-constructed water tanks in the sub-basement of Low Library and this continued into the 1990s.

Reading continues. Can not tell you how happy I was to read the new Murderbot novel, and how sad to finish it. Mixed feelings about Barn 8 which seems to be the case for any books about activism that seem to not be written by activists.

Always here to listen if you want to be talking. Stay safe, keep fighting, keep helping, keep rowing.

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.