Category: be the best you can be
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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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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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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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The Emotional Labor of Librarianship
Librarianship isn’t what you might call a physically demanding profession. Youth librarians do exert quite a bit of energy–I regularly hit 6000 steps during a day of book talks, and if I’m not sweating at the end of my toddler time then I feel like I’ve failed as a presenter–but compared to, say, my stint as…
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Management According to Hamilton: Thomas Jefferson
“What’d I Miss?” If you manage a Thomas Jefferson, you have a star employee who always convinces you to send them to the best conferences and networking opportunities. They reflect well on your organization, though, so you don’t mind sending them everywhere all the time. When a Jefferson is actually at work, they’re rushing in…
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We Live in a World of Bad Text
Obamacare vs The Affordable Care Act Fake news versus propaganda . . . (one more) Alt–right versus white supremacist ripped from the womb vs late term abortion * * * There is power in names, in language, in how we describe things and what we call them. When female authors write under male pen names (or just use their…
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Signifying Nothing
or, “ego lost.” Three years ago I wrote about ego and librarianship, a howl of anguish of sorts, a call to action, a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. I don’t even recognize that person anymore–who was that woman, so full of words and opinions? Where has she gone?…
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Management According to Hamilton: Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton Their name is Alexander Hamilton, and don’t you forget it. In fact, you couldn’t, even if you tried. This employee doesn’t usually stay around too long, but when they’re in your organization, you can’t avoid hearing their name. They work their way into the best projects and onto the most interesting committees,…
Hi, Miss Julie 