Donate if you can, and even if you can’t, spend some time this November educating yourself about the history of the very-much-still-alive tribe that sat down with the pilgrims, the continued history of colonization in America, and about the tribe/s whose land you are occupying.
justin mcelroy opened a podcast recording studio open to the public for rent in huntington, to let people who may not have the equipment share their voices and tell stories that deserve to be told
this man. is a good man. he is such a good good man
That’s so cool!! And super affordable too! And he’s also teaching podcast classes?? Man if anyone would be qualified to teach podcasting skills it’s him, I’m glad he’s doing this!
“Hi, I’m looking for a book with adventure, but no graphic violence.”
“I’m interested in a thriller that doesn’t have any rape scenes.”
“I want a gay main character but I don’t want it to be a coming-out story. And no anti-gay violence.”
“Oh, no, murder’s fine, but no animal cruelty.”
All separate reader’s advisory questions that I’ve answered, and successfully. I don’t know why any of these people asked for those specific parameters, and I didn’t ask, because it’s not my fucking business. And it’s no one else’s business, either–up to and including the government.
Librarians don’t make you reveal your trauma in order to justify what you read or write. You may be confusing us with, uh… *checks notes* …fandom.
We are literally trained not to ask. Any halfway decent reference professor nails it into you. Even if it would help you answer a question, you never ask a patron why they need something.
Do you have a database listing all those factors? Sounds daunting to remember if not.
I mean, yes we do have some (see if your library has access to Novelist which is a great database to find your next read), but I’ve also been doing this job for over a decade. It’s not like I memorized a list on my first day. I started with a general gist based on what I’d read and then expanded each time I got a question that I had to go hunting around for an answer. Also, my some of my colleagues have been in libraries even longer and I listened and learned from them both formally and from listening to how they answered patrons.
There’s also whole genres that try to dedicate themselves to being ‘cozy’ reads.When someone comes in for a recommendation for a mystery, I ask them how much gore they want (note, I’m not asking why that is or if this is even a general feeling for them, just what they’re in the mood for a that moment) and if they want little to no blood, then there’s an entire genre of cozy mysteries waiting for them. Ditto with romance with little to no sex.
I also make it a point (and in my state am required to keep my certification) to go to continuing ed classes to learn more. At least once a year or so I go to something reader’s advisory focused.
Being a librarian is a career like any other. Some people are bad at it, some people are amazing, most want to do their best. We train and if we can’t remember, find tools that help us.
Aliens are the least of our worries right now but listen to me. Aliens don’t want to hurt us but the government is gonna convince us they do and incite worldwide panic and start a real space war to avoid advancing technology for the general population because efficient non oil based energy that the aliens have will crush the capitalist industries that need it to thrive welcome to my ted talk
If you’ve been watching the noise and paying attention to California, you’ve heard about the Camp Fire.
In a matter of hours, the fire jumped to 20,000 acres. This morning it reached 70,000. My town of Paradise, where I’ve lived my entire life, was consumed entirely. Very little containment has been reached and the situation is absolute hell.
My house was one of the first to go.
My mom and my sisters and I barely got out, in separate cars, and we got separated for 10 hours. My mom and little sister were stuck in Paradise with all my pets in the flames until my stepdad was able to get gas to them so they could get out. My cat was lost, and I personally was only able to grab an extremely small amount of my own belongings because I was helping my mom to grab important documents and photos and to get the pets situated.
We are now homeless, with no clue where to go from here, and desperately in need of help to get food, clothes, supplies, anything. My mom has been disabled for 3 years and we survive on a single income from my stepdad, who is a firefighter. His friends have been hurt trying to fight this. We have a dog with us, and two guinea pigs, and a bearded dragon.
My mom set up a fundraiser, even though we are not at all the type to ask for so much help.
Here’s an update on the Camp Fire happening in Butte County in Northern California:
1. The fire grew from 70,000 to 90,000 acres and is still only 5% contained. It is now the most destructive fire in California’s history
2. So far there have been 9 confirmed fatalities. 5 of these people died in their cars while trying to evacuate
3. The last incident report I saw said that the fire isn’t expected to be contained until 11/30/2018 but this information might have changed by now
4. A total of 6,713 buildings have been confirmed to be destroyed (6,453 of which were residential buildings, 206 were commercial buildings)
5. A text to donate has been set up by United Way to help with recovery efforts. Text “buttefire” to 91999
6. All school in Butte County is cancelled for the next week
7. The air quality in Chico is extremely bad right now so please stay inside as much as possible and keep your pets inside if you can
The Honey Run Covered Bridge (built in 1886) has been destroyed and is no longer standing. This is really sad news to me because I used to go there as a kid growing up and I’ve spent a lot of time there with my friends as well. It was a historic Chico landmark loved by so many people
Here’s a satellite picture of the fire showing how far the smoke has traveled
Here’s some additional information if anyone living in Chico or Butte County wants to volunteer. There’s also some information on evacuee shelters and animal shelters or if anyone is searching for a missing person.
Please do. An entire town was just wiped off the face of the map and not enough people know about it
A lot of my husband’s family are homeless/displaced because of evacuations/their house burned down to the point we are housing my brother and sister in law
Mathee's Blog 