Category: Uncategorized

  • Hello Again.

    I think I kind of lost steam for blogging because I used Twitter threads to make long points. Twitter made it easier to engage with people who didn’t visit here regularly – which is pretty much most people. And why would they? The rise of platforms like Twitter and Facebook made it easy for people…

  • Working through friction towards consensus

    Anti Viet Nam Rally NYC 1969 flickr photo by Winston J.Vargas shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license Today I attended a forum for SLA 2021 Board candidates to meet and talk to members. After years of involvement and talking about the association, I’m finally standing for the board. You can read my candidate statement…

  • 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…