Category: Uncategorized

  • Thinking about libraries, data retention, privacy, and you.

    Police Surveillance (LAPD) flickr photo by Popwerks shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license A while back one of my library’s regular users asked me about what data the library’s proxy server collected about their usage and how much information was retained by the university. They asked what should have been a fairly straight forward…

  • The Loneliness of a Special Dumpster Librarian.

    I just want someone to love me ! flickr photo by CJS*64 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license I’ve been thinking a lot about my own existence as a special library worker in an academic setting lately. I’m on the peer-review committee for librarians at work, so I’ve been reading about all the impactful…

  • Recognizing that everything is terrible.

    Summit School student, 1935 flickr photo by Seattle Municipal Archives shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license This has been a long, traumatic year for everybody. The pandemic, the reckoning for centuries of racial violence and oppression, the global economic collapse, neo-fascism, the unfolding climate collapse, and the building sense of isolation and despair. (Or…

  • Solidarity forever. Solidarity means action.

    Debs outside Attorney General’s office: 1921 flickr photo by Washington Area Spark shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license On this day in 1885, Eugene V. Debs was born. If you aren’t familiar with his legacy, Debs was an American socialist, trade unionist, activist, and perennial presidential candidate. You might have heard of him from…

  • Whiteness, learning, listening (or not)

    Urban renewal planning meeting, 1962 flickr photo by Seattle Municipal Archives shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license 2020, what’s there to say? Last time I wrote here, I discussed moving from talking about being antiracist to actually doing antiracist work. A month later, it’s clear that we need to keep talking about it because…