Jan 31, 2021
TILT #90 — The dawn is ours
Happy 2021! Happy new administration! We are far from out of the woods in so many ways, but I have a better feeling about this year than last year. As always, I remain grateful for your readership, feedback, and collegiality. Just to drive home the “that year is over” note, here are the top checkout lists from the three big NYC systems. So interesting how different they are from each other. It’s cold here.
I have written my own year end summary including my own list of lists. Pretty sure I haven’t spent a calendar year sleeping in the same bed every night in my entire life. What a weird year. And I went to ALA twice! (Did you know about ALAP, the ALA Players? I did not.) Speaking of weird, if you’re looking for a fake James Patterson Insta account that is actually just library memes, look no further.
While we’re talking about radical library workers, it’s worth reading this: Meet the Southern librarians fighting for racial justice and truth-telling, a good summary of the things that drive BIPOC librarians and allies out of the profession, and the uneasy tension between working within the system you have, while also endeavoring to make it better and more just. For a similar, more academic analysis, there’s “Nice White Meetings” Unpacking Absurd Library Bureaucracy through a Critical Race Theory Lens from the Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship. Another good pop culture and tech read: The Long Battle Against Racism and Sexism in Emoji.
Other library+internet topics
- My state library has done a good job gathering policies from libraries statewide, including a big chunk of “nontraditional materials” policies. Perhaps they could help your library with policy creation?
- BookWyrm (github) is an ad-free, anti-corporate, open-source, and federated social reading tool
- I love this library’s solution to making their public access PCs make more sense. Just a simple background and sorting the desktop icons into corrals.
If you’ve been reading other book-or-library-oriented newsletters, I’d like to hear about them. Other than several mailing lists, and social media generally, newsletters are where I find out about new things, given my limited-interaction lifestyle lately. A few notables.
- Quartz has a weekly Obsessions newsletter which is a deep dive into different topics. You might like their Book Covers edition.
- Jane Friedman’s Hot Sheet is not free, but if you’re managing a large library, its insight into publishing trends and other reading news is easily worth the subscription price.
- I read scifi, a lot. Andrew Liptak’s Transfer Orbit keeps me up to date on what’s coming out and what is worth reading.
- Special mention that now that we’re in the new administration: WTF Just Happened Today is a good weekday summary of US politics. And Impeachment.fyi has ramped up again.
Let’s talk inclusion and access:
- Diverse BookFinder’s Collection Access Tool is a free, online tool designed to help you diversify your picture book collection by determining its shortcomings. I’ve seen some libraries using this in my state and it’s been helpful for them.
- Why automated image recognition still needs to be supplemented by description produced by content authors.
- What I saw specifically here in Vermont this week: “Older adults struggle to access COVID-19 vaccine appointment websites” and “Computer-Shy Elderly Are Shouldered Aside in Vaccination Race.”
Library Map is a project by Hugh Rundle to show every public library in Australia, their loan checkout periods and whether they charge overdue fines or not. He talks about why he made this.
[T]he goal is mapping as an advocacy tool, using the peer pressure of “who else is charging it?” to slowly flip libraries to go fine-free. Fines for overdue library books are regressive and counter-productive. I have found no compelling or systematic evidence that they have any effect whatsoever on the aggregate behaviour of library users in terms of returning books on time. They disproportionally hurt low income families. They need to go.
Got a lot of trailing mentions here including…
Rock and Roll Friends Check Each Other’s Books Back In
These gorgeous book sculptures by Guy Laramée (via)
And my usual book covers. As always, reading list with RSS feed is available here, or on Twitter.
Stay warm, keep fighting. Let love be our legacy.
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.
