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The Freedom to Be Totally Ignorant
“I’m not afraid anymore so go for it.” — Jane Elliot The Oprah episode above aired in 1992. Jane Elliott first did her blue eyes/brown eyes experiment the day after MLK was assassinated. (Note, that transcript contains offensive racial terms.) (If you’re not familiar, in brief, Jane did a lesson in prejudice with her class…
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Teens, Trauma, and the Future of Libraries
Imagine if a library closed its doors from 3-5 p.m. every day, which just happens to be when the Senior Center across the street lets out for leisure time, and heading to the library was a popular activity. Now those seniors need to go somewhere else during that time. Imagine if a library decided that…
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Nice White Librarians
Much like neutrality, niceness* is a quality that I believe causes more harm than good, in almost every situation, but especially in workplaces, and especially libraries. Librarianship is rife with nice white lady librarians. They dominate the profession and thereby the professional culture. And boy, few things are more terrible than a nice white lady…
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to all the garbage library leadership I’ve loathed before
To the male manager who told me I needed to work two nights when everyone else only worked one because I was “single and had no one to go home to”; To the same male manager who cited my musical ability as a pro when I was hired, but then wrote on my performance evaluation…
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Calling in Librarianship: A Manifesto
What is calling in? To state it simply, it’s a much nicer way of calling people out: Much like calling out, calling in aims to get the person to change their problematic behavior. The primary difference between calling in and calling out is that calling in is done with a little more compassion and patience. EveryDay Feminism I’m…
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reasons I despise banned books week
BBW is already widely used internet lingo, and it ain’t about books. Why are we promoting something we’re against (banning books) instead of promoting something we are FOR (the freedom to read)? It confuses library users. I’m sure nearly every library worker has a story about someone seeing a “banned books” display and saying something…
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Us, Too.
On being complicit. As a Youth Services Librarian, I sometimes have opportunities to mingle with those in the publishing community, including the authors and illustrators of books. I’ll meet them at signings or events at conferences, or from booking an author visit to my library and community, or from an excited phone call to tell…
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I Can’t Even: Ages and Adult Programs
Library programmers, for the love of Ranganathan, DON’T DO THIS. Here’s why: It is exclusionary as hell. I’m almost forty. I don’t see my interest in graphic novels and horror disappearing on my fortieth birthday. But apparently the library thinks I shouldn’t want to attend programs like this if I’m forty, which, delicate flower as…
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Librarianship, friends, is not cool
Librarianship, friends, is not cool. We must not say so. But I will say so. It’s kind of my thing. Librarianship is not cool. Librarians are not cool. Libraries are not cool. Libraries are for nerds, and dorks, and outcasts, who want to dig deep into a subject and hardly come up for air. Libraries…
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Outreach in a Time of Uprising
My first job out of college was working as a preschool teaching assistant in a state funded preschool program. Children in this program were “at-risk”, meaning they were growing up in poverty, or with only one parent, or with parents who didn’t speak English. An essential part of our work were home visits, where my…
Hi, Miss Julie
EDI, Leadership, & Storytime
Hi, Miss Julie 