Text of a letter I just emailed: Dear South Bend Common Council – I was born and raised in Mishawaka and worked as a librarian at SJCPL for 15 years – 1991 – 2006. We saw the internet and Web come in and change information services. The library leveraged this to become on of the best in the nation. I have since moved on to be an Associate Professor at the School of Information at San Jose State University but I often check in on my home library. I was saddened to hear about the plan to modify LIT. I […]
Categories Advocacy
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I remember being 30. I remember living off of all that kinetic energy, willing myself to do difficult things just because they were difficult, and putting myself in uncomfortable situations solely because they were uncomfortable. I approached both simple tasks and high-caliber challenges with the same vigor and enthusiasm, and I pushed myself hard to grow, learn, and experience as much as possible. I wasn’t ready to die – I was brave, naive, and also, a bit intense. In attempting to recover the same drive and energy of my 20s and early 30s, I realized the injustices and inequalities of […]
My Letter to the Editor was published in the Elk Rapids News today. Below is the full text before I cut it down to the 200 word max. This is response to a group fighting potential library improvements. Their letter in last week’s paper urged residents to drive 20 miles to nearby libraries and used the fact that the number of children in the village of Elk Rapids is declining. The letter is at this link AND the other letter below mine shares some disturbing stats about the village – please click through. http://www.elkrapidsnews.com/letters-to-the-editor.html Full Letter: As a part time resident and […]
The following poem was inspired by Taylor Mali’s “What Teachers Make” and was created as a both a tribute to librarians and libraries and a summary of sorts of what I have learned in Professor Michael Stephens’ HyperLinked Library Course from San Jose State. I was invited to dinner one night recently and during the meal one of the guests said in a tone meant to get my attention … the problem with libraries and librarians is What’s a person going to learn from someone who decided her best option in life was to become a librarian? He reminds the […]
http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/03/04/hamilton-librarian-lawsuits-dropped.html The filing claimed that McMaster is liable for allowing Askey “to continue the publications” and for refusing to force him to take the posting down. The lawsuits inspired scholars from around North America to rally behind Askey. Created by Martha Reineke, a professor of religion at the University of Northern Iowa, a petition demanding EMP to drop its lawsuits had garnered more than 3,100 names as of Monday morning. EMP told CBC Hamilton on Monday that it “has discontinued the court case against McMaster University and Dale Askey.” In a statement, the company added: “financial pressure of the social […]
From the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Librarians-Rally-Behind/137329/ Librarians Rally Behind Blogger Sued by Publisher Over Critical Comments Support for Mr. Askey isn’t limited to Canada. On Twitter, academics around the world are tweeting about the case using the hashtag #FreeDaleAskey, and Martha J. Reineke, a professor of religion at the University of Northern Iowa, created an online petition seeking an end to the lawsuit. It has drawn nearly 1,900 signatures since Friday from Britain, Canada, and the United States. “Signing is going well 24 hours a day, thanks to persons in Europe who sign while the North Americans sleep,” Ms. Reineke said. […]
AMAZING. Something about this seems so wrong. Dale Askey wrote a guest post for TTW after I met him at the Future of Academic Libraries Symposium. Take a look at this LJ piece for the details and follow the links: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/02/litigation/press-sues-librarian-over-negative-evaluation/ In 2010, Dale Askey was a tenured associate professor at Kansas State University (K-State) when he made a blog post about Edwin Mellen Press. Since removed from the blog, but available via the Internet Archive, the post called Mellen a “dubious publisher,” saying that the press occasionally publishes a worthy title and is not technically a vanity publisher, but that “much of what […]
The most democratic book project I know is about to relaunch – Here is an article I wrote for the German library magazine BUB as member of the Zukunftentwicklers network – With a few corrections because a lot has happened with Unglue.it since the deadline: What is crowd funding and what does it mean to unglue? To unglue a book means that you buy the rights to the book and then pass them on by giving the book to the world for free to read in any e-book format and on any device – without DRM or time restrictions under a creative commons license. […]
Each month, our college has a show on one of the local public access television station (PHTV 4 in Palos Heights, Illinois). I was invited to participate to discuss libraries and librarians as well as help spread the word about services we offer to our local community. I saw this as a chance to do some local library advocacy, so you can judge how well I pulled it off. This was definitely something new for me (my segment starts at minute 3:33). Meet with Moraine (June 2012)