Skip to main content

Lots of Links

A few things I've been reading lately that I didn't want to pass without comment:

The suicide of Aaron Swartz made the regular news, but LJ and Jessamyn West have a nice collection of information about the Internet activist who worked so hard for increased access to information online. His aggressive prosecution for intending to freely distribute JSTOR content online has been widely listed as a contributing factor to his untimely demise. Interestingly enough, JSTOR recently announced that they're opening their collection to the public on a limited basis. So why was the government still pursuing such harsh sentencing for him?

There's also been a lot of talk about feminism and the sneaky ways that's it's still hard to be successful as a woman at work. Hi Miss Julie had some interesting things to say about how big flashy things often championed by male librarians are what tend to get recognition in librarianship, while the less flashy, practical everyday details often focused on by female librarians get little notice. This is a little older, but, as usual, Kelly Jensen makes a really good point about how often women are encouraged to "be nice" and just how condescending it is. Then there are the wardrobe considerations to keep in mind. There's something in each of these posts that lines up with at least some part of my experience as a librarian.

I wish I had more positive links to share. While I'm clear-eyed enough to see problems in the profession, I still love being a librarian and think this is the best job in the world. Maybe I'll have some good news to share later.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PLA - Day 1

Today was my first day at the Public Library Association conference, and I'm not sure how I'm going to do 2.5 more days and keep my head from exploding. There's just so much that's so relevant to my job, I can find something interesting everywhere I look. This morning I went to the Get Your Game On: Gaming in Libraries Preconference, and it was wonderful. I realized that I need to stop playing the role of wife of a gamer and own that I know a thing or two about video games, too, and what I don't know I can learn. Eli and Aaron spent the first half of the program talking about the benefits of gaming and why libraries should be doing gaming, which is something I'd always bought, but never been very good at articulating. Essentially it boils down to all the different types of literacies learned through video games and what are libraries for if not promoting literacy. It was also interesting they argued that the way libraries get the most value out of gaming is by...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ebooks & Libraries

For a long time I've been frustrated with the way ebook publishers have been approaching library lending, but my rage has been overruling my sense and I haven't been able to get many coherent thoughts into print. Luckily Bobbi Newman pretty much hit the nail on the head with her " 9 Reasons Why Publishers Should Stop Acting Like Libraries Are the Enemy and Start Thanking Them ". I could go through each of her reasons and expound on why each one makes so much sense and explains a piece of where my frustration is coming from, but I'm going to focus on the points that have been bugging me the most. First from the consumer side, I know I'm not alone in the group of people who don't like to buy books until they're pretty sure they're going to love them. I simply read too much for buying every book I read to make any sort of financial sense. Often that means borrowing the first book in a series or by a new author to see if I want to spend money on th...
1 comment
Read more

2022 Reading Resolutions

One hundred books per year generally seems to work for me, so I'm not going to change what's been working for me. Total Books Read: 92  of 100 I'm going to try to stretch a little on reading books I own, since belonging to a Bible study where I end up buying about 8 of the books I read a year made 10 a little too easy. Books I Own Read: 16 of 15 The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress  by Robert Heinlein Disappeared  by Francisco X. Stork Trustworthy: Overcoming Our Greatest Struggles to Trust God  by Lysa TerKeurst Be More RBG  by Marilyn Easton Not Your Sidekick  by C. B. Lee Stay Gold  by Tobly McSmith Secret Soldiers: How the U.S. Twenty Third Special Troops Fooled the Nazis  by Paul B. Janeczko The Henna Wars  by Adiba Jaigirdar Never Look Back  by Lilliam Rivera A Brief History of Fascist Lies  by Federico Finchelstein Sex Lives of the Roman Emperors  by Nigel Cawthorne American Royalty ...
Post a Comment
Read more