Library and Information Science, Explained
It all starts with a question: why would YouTube show a video about masturbating with a vulva to 97% men? Algorithms are only as smart as we make them, and while understanding them can be easy, fixing them takes some real work.
I’m not sure where to start with this because there’s so much about Patron Saints of Nothing to love: do I mention how authentically-but-not-tropely teenager-like Jay, the protagonist, feels? Should I talk about how the book makes a real-world event, happening right now, become meaningful and accessible to readers across the ocean in ways that journalism can’t? What about the fact that every person in this story (it feels weird for me to call them characters at this point) gets an opportunity to live and tell a story that is as much their own as it is the story of millions of people? Selfishly, the queer in me wants to talk about the representation, but I think it might be best to start somewhere else.
Continue reading “Review: Patron Saints of Nothing”
It’s Black History Month, so why not talk about five excellent black librarians who have left their mark on the profession — and for that matter, the world?
Continue reading “Black Excellence in Librarianship”
Things are hard right now, so I don’t have much to give, but here are some thoughts I have on information how it can inform about the people who it came from.
Continue reading “The Information We Leave Behind”
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the stacks, not a patron was searching for fiction or facts…
Continue reading “The Librarian’s Night Before Christmas”
For this years Project for Awesome, I decided to make a video highlighting Libraries Without Borders! LWB does great work in addressing the information needs of people affected by disasters and other things outside of their control.
Continue reading “Libraries Without Borders: Helping the world one box at a time”
Now that I’m finishing Grad School with my MLIS, what am I going to do with my life? Well, it turns out that it’s… complicated. It’s been a busy month — I went to two conferences and also moved house — and on Friday I’m done with school… FOREVER (probably). I haven’t found a job yet, but I’ve got some ideas… !
Continue reading “What comes after my MLIS?”
I was in Toronto a couple weeks back for a conference, and was so lucky to be able to visit the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation, and Fantasy at the the Toronto Public Library — so of course I filmed it (in 4k HD, no less!). The biggest thanks to Sephora Hosein & Kim Hull of TPL for sitting and chatting with me, and letting me come into the archives and capture some amazing footage of amazing materials.
Continue reading “Special Collections at Toronto Public Library”
(Note: this was screened on October 29th. To view the running chat, click here view this video at YouTube itself.)
Hey everyone! This movie came out last month and I loved it a lot because it gives some important details on why paywalls exist, and what some of the alternatives to them are! AND SINCE YOUTUBE PREMIERES IS NOW A THING, I wanted to give folks a chance to ask questions and get them answered! So I added some annotations to make it more understandable for laypeople, as well as contact info for EVERY.SINGLE.INTERVIEWEE so you can ask them questions, too.
Continue reading “Paywall: The Business of Scholarship (annotated + commentary)”
At over 80% of the profession being women, librarianship is one of the most gendered professions. Why is that?
Continue reading “Why are most librarians women?”