Jessamyn

Rural tech geek. Researcher. Librarian resistance. Moss collector. Postcard enjoyer. ✉️ box 345 05060 USA ✉️ (she/her)

Loosely anti-IOT. Keeps a hammer by the printer in case it ever makes an unexpected noise.

library blog: https://librarian.net
personal blog: https://jessamyn.com/journal
reading list: http://jessamyn.info/booklist
ABOLISH: ICE

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jessamyn_at_glammr.us@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2026-04-08 20:23:51 UTC

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YUSSSS. I do miss this aspect of academic libraries, the weird random shit you can find in the stacks.

2025-11-07 19:15:05 UTC

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Update from the state DMVs IT staff (supposedly, as relayed by my mechanic who I both like and trust). No one knows why this is happening, my car should be passing inspection but the software is saying it has failed. They are now suggesting I come back in January so that my car is fully 16 years old according to calendar years.
This is, of course, a ridiculous thing to suggest so I have (politely) escalated this to the DMV Commissioner, my local representative and my regional DMV inspector.

2025-07-12 15:30:13 UTC

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I am sorry this happened to you but also, this is good intel. We've got family of skunks that have a bunch of kits and I'm always a bit leery around them (even though I love them and they are so cute) and ask myself what I might do if I got sprayed by one.

2025-05-01 16:21:37 UTC

"On May 1, 1886, Albert and Lucy Parsons led 80,000 people down Michigan Avenue, in what is regarded as the first-ever May Day Parade, in support of the eight-hour work day."
Lucy Parsons was a Black anarchist and she continued her May Day activism into her 90s. Her legacy is complex but that doesn't make it any less powerful. Know her name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Parsons
#MayDay
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/433/485/405/269/111/original/a0c68cdefeed1c80.jpg

2025-05-01 15:42:51 UTC

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It's the most gorgeous part of Vermont, in my personal opinion, but part of that is because of how empty it is which is probably not the vibe for everyone. When I first moved to Vermont I lived on the edge of the Kingdom (just outside it) and I won't lie, it was tough going. A lot of people who were what I'd now call "traditional Vermonters" which, on my drive through yesterday means a LOT of Trump flags and what looks like hard living. It *is* a whole vibe for both good and bad.

2025-04-30 14:52:08 UTC

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I think the thing that aggravates me the most besides all the other things is that they will keep track of how many people click that button and use it as some sort of indicator that there's a groundswell of support for these AI simplifiers and then wedge them into even more things.

2025-04-29 01:27:48 UTC

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That's good to know. I have a bunch of older Mac laptops and I should see if Linux Mint is a genuine option for them because they're definitely not running well with macOS anymore.

2025-04-02 21:08:12 UTC

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I think it's more like "Fuck the American health care system that made something like ACA necessary" because the ACA has had real measurable positive social benefit, it's just working within a deeply broken system.

2025-03-30 18:03:15 UTC

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https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/252/693/876/581/231/original/d5f6577c50c0b600.jpeg

2025-03-24 17:00:20 UTC

My father was a technology project manager in the 1980s. He gave this commencement speech in 1987 to Boston University’s Management Information Systems program grads. It's about managing technology projects. I found it in a box. I thought you might like it.
https://jessamyn.medium.com/managing-a-new-machine-7f7e44ed60c7

2025-03-23 23:03:19 UTC

I'm not saying I've been at this librarian thing a long time, but I did find this flyer when I was digging around in my archives today.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/214/226/971/594/762/original/2b786bedb35f619c.jpeg

2025-03-23 16:35:43 UTC

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Book 31: Swim Team. A graphic novel for tweens about a girl going to a new school who wants to do math club but winds up in swim club. She doesn't know how to swim and eventually learns as well as learns to be part of a team. This book touches on the racist history of Black people being denied access to pools and beaches (and offers further reading on the topic in the end notes) though it's not the central point of the story which is about teamwork and overcoming fears.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/212/701/651/118/310/original/c9d5d7140debec1b.jpeg

2025-03-21 19:45:40 UTC

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And it's weird to me because... it's state by state. Libby in Vermont won't be affected (not bragging, we'll take other hits) and I think the odd fractured nature of what IMLS does makes this hard for non-specialists to talk about.

2025-03-21 17:11:33 UTC

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I'm sure there are places where people are still doing the "Because neutrality!" argument, and I also agree that it went on far too long. I think the fact that libraries have always been seen a bit like infrastructure (a little invisible, funded through mechanisms that aren't clear) has worked against us. I watched this unfold mainly on Reddit yesterday, was not where I would have liked to have gotten important news about library stuff. May be time for some rapid response teams, etc

2025-03-21 16:15:26 UTC

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Good article, but I feel like it's more complex than this. The lack of pushback (where occurring) is, I've found, not so much because of the lie of neutrality, but b/c in more conservative locations, librarians have been in situations where if they speak out, they lose their jobs and/or control over their libraries (and, of course, some librarians agree with what's happening or have heads in the sand). There needs to be a people+libraries push that goes beyond the library walls.

2025-03-16 19:43:25 UTC

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Book 30: Anxious People. A book that is about a lot of stressful stuff--a bank robbery, some bad relationships, people with complicated lives--but you can see partway through it's heading somewhere sweet and gentle. A little less relentless than A Man Called Ove (if you read that one) but the same type of writing. I enjoyed trying to figure out where it might go. Don't let the title make you think it might just be a lot of people being nervous and upset. There's some of that but not too much.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/173/800/522/532/762/original/77f644559e6fcf64.jpeg

2025-03-15 16:09:37 UTC

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Occasionally someone just pings me on social media and says "Hey this person really should have a Wikipedia page, don't you think?" and I can assemble one. Laverne Jacobs is a law professor and disability rights expert who is the first Canadian member of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She wrote the first Canadian disability law textbook. I'll be honest, this article mostly wrote itself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laverne_Jacobs
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/167/309/987/849/243/original/95979873f422df1d.jpg

2025-03-15 00:08:50 UTC

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Wait, where? Do you need to live there or something? Tell me more! I like my library just fine but since I also work there sometimes I, too, would prefer to be a LOT more anonymous. Also get a card at VTC (VTSU, Randolph), they ignore the fuck out of you there!

2025-03-13 17:42:12 UTC

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Alt text: Image of a piece of paper with calligraphy saying "I can't die, I've got graces to dance on that hasn't been dug yet" in purple ink.

2025-03-12 15:57:08 UTC

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Book 29. James. Suggested by the librarian after I returned "Big Jim and the White Boy" This is another Jim-centered reimagining of Huck Finn. My enjoyment of this was only marred by thinking "What is wrong with me that I haven't read anything by Percival Everett before?" Really well-told, a mixture of his relationship with Huck but also the US's relationship to slavery and enslaved people just before the Civil War. Hard to read in parts, as you would expect; more humor than you might expect.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/150/257/266/434/906/original/b93ee43557fcb84d.jpeg

2025-03-11 15:42:11 UTC

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Book 28: Five Star Stranger. A world basically the same as our own except there's an app where you can hire a person to play a role for you in your life. Usually this is just "Attend a wedding/funeral/party with me" but sometimes it's "Help me raise my young child, come every Thursday and pretend you're her dad" Told through the eyes of the stranger/Dad who has his own story that only slowly gets told. I liked it, weird and a little funny with some empathy and some "wtf?"
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/144/543/429/912/576/original/7ca8fa4f4a2d7cd6.jpeg

2025-03-10 19:06:44 UTC

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Book 27: Continental Drifter. Kathy lived in Bangkok with a Thai mom and an American (and older) dad. Her family is quiet. They take summer trips to Maine. Kathy doesn't feel at home in Thailand OR the US and this graphic novel takes place mainly as she goes to her first year of summer camp in Maine and tries to figure out her family, and herself. I liked the storytelling, didn't feel like the usual angsty memoir.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/139/685/676/148/935/original/3ee4ab4000bdbad0.jpeg

2025-03-09 18:08:05 UTC

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I relate to this. Have you considered fixing typos on Wikipedia?

2025-03-08 20:07:01 UTC

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Book 26: Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master. A short graphic novel about the rise of video games and who really deserved the credit for them, a tale about Nolan Bushnell (Atari, Chuck E. Cheese) and Ralph Baer (Magnavox Odyssey, Simon). I didn't know much about this history and liked learning about it. Each man wound up with some credit. The story is great, though told in a slightly weird style with equally not-that-engaging (to me) graphics. A quick read if you're into the topic.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/128/580/298/292/823/original/911130f08601febf.jpeg

2025-03-08 17:13:51 UTC

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DNF: Wires and Nerve. This was probably a great story IF you had read The Lunar Chronicles series which it is based off of. Instead we got a whole host of characters at the beginning and a lot of unstated motivations which were opaque to me. Well-illustrated and lively, but I couldn't keep track of the people and places and when I was halfway through it and still not tracking, I decided it was not for me. Nothing wrong with it, it was just made for people who know the series.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/127/873/291/915/843/original/24034773fa1586fb.jpeg

2025-03-07 18:14:29 UTC

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Book 25: We Are Not Strangers. A "based on true stories" tale of the friendship between a Sephardic man (Papoo, a first generation Jewish immigrant) and a Japanese businessman, Sam Akiyama, who form an alliance when Sam gets sent to an internment camp. This is all told through the eyes of Papoo's grandson, who only learned about this story after his grandfather had died. It all takes place in Seattle, so it's extra interesting for people who are familiar with the area.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/122/484/023/580/113/original/898ef80ac9736ac6.jpeg

2025-03-06 21:03:49 UTC

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Hey I bet there's a solid half hour about how they fed him up his butt!

2025-03-06 17:26:57 UTC

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Book 24: Big Jim and the White Boy. A re-telling of the story of Huck Finn but centering Jim and making his story his own, not written by someone informed by all the racism of the time and told by a white man. It's the 1800s so there's still a lot of gnarly shit going down but the author and illustrator do a great job showing you another way this story could be told and there are ample notes and reading lists in the back. A quick read and pretty accessible to all kinds of readers.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/116/640/456/712/901/original/e02b5cd1201b7889.jpeg

2025-03-06 16:43:07 UTC

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It's good, I don't know why it's not all over the place. This one I had to ILL from DENVER (which is nowhere near me)

2025-03-06 15:52:53 UTC

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Book 23: The Rabbi Who Prayed for the City. This is the six-years-later sequel to the first Rabbi Vivian book about a lesbian Rabbi in Providence trying to work with her congregation to bring more justice into the world. This one deals with a hurricane (and citywide preparations led by Rabbi Vivian's partner) as well as the launch of an autonomous robot which, for money-raising reasons, is also having its AI shared with Israel. Written in 2023, hits a bit different in 2025, but still a good read
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/116/279/804/463/087/original/a8dd55042d82aa06.jpeg

2025-03-05 18:21:04 UTC

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Book 22: We Had a Little Real Estate Problem. An excellent book highlighting the range of Native Americans doing comedy and the challenges they face, from overt racism, to large amounts traveling, to trying to make jokes about the grim history of colonization, residential schooling, land theft and massacres. Each chapter is an anecdote which builds upon the general theme. Some standout names like Charlie Hill and Will Rogers (and attendant controversies) and some new names you'd like to know.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/111/183/852/868/778/original/5071e44dbce00f8f.png

2025-03-02 16:55:45 UTC

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Book 21: Playground. Another epic tale from Richard Powers. This one appears to be about friendships and class and the competitiveness of young people, the differing trajectories of lives. It's also about the way the world is mostly ocean and the complex ecosystem that exists there mostly unseen. But it's also about AI and there are about two sentences where you realize, you might realize, that the plot is different than you expected or thought. And I had all sorts of weird feelings about that.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/093/873/673/388/721/original/95b3ca5236631298.jpeg

2025-03-01 22:04:54 UTC

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I did not go but one of my neighbors went and they said it was a HUGE protest.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/089/434/014/196/749/original/b848635951d73354.jpeg

2025-03-01 01:52:30 UTC

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The Vermont subreddit is LIT following this guy around town. Staying in Fayston apparently. Heard that even though Sugarbush is private property (some of it anyhow) ski patrol have ,mentioned they are unlikely to try to remove protestors....

2025-02-26 01:15:49 UTC

I have been working at my public library on and off for the past twenty years and it was only today that I realized no one on the current staff knows why there are taxidermied piranhas in the children's room (shown here with fun message I left for the children's librarian)
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/067/538/124/923/344/original/157e5c36cfdb9ef5.jpeg

2025-02-26 01:01:41 UTC

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I never want to presume that other people have read or been exposed to what I have read or been exposed to, but I've heard Lucy's book is an excellent read no matter what your particular views are on what you think you should be doing one way or the other (apologies if everyone's already given you dozens of copies)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Heard_Her_Call_My_Name:_A_Memoir_of_Transition

2025-02-25 02:59:57 UTC

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I've been reading a book about Native Americans in comedy and there was a whole chapter on Paul Littlechief who played the Vegas Strip in 1970 and was an excellent self-promoter. He was a Kiowa-Comanche man from Oklahoma. Hard to verify some of the other parts of the story from the book (his second wife was only known as Baby Rae in all sources I could find) but it was a lot of fun trying to track down his old music and photos.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Littlechief
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/062/268/967/787/395/original/96ccb855ba2ce03a.png
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/062/269/593/128/111/original/93c5402f5bed6d5d.png

2025-02-24 19:13:03 UTC

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Book 20: Last Night at the Telegraph Club. Lily is a high school senior who sees a newspaper ad for a San Francisco club with a male impersonator and starts to have some new feelings. She has a friend from school she thinks she can go with. Complications are that Lily is from Chinatown and her family will not understand. And it's during the Red Scare. And maybe her friend is more than a friend. The author's afterword showed how much research she did for this YA coming of age novel and it shows.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/060/440/266/031/434/original/cfd6596c659f483c.jpeg

2025-02-23 19:57:06 UTC

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A friend just finished the book The Lost Boy of Santa Chinonia and learned that the book was inspired by the work of Ann Cornelisen. She wrote a book about poverty and power in rural Italy in 1969 when she was living there and working as an aid worker for Save the Children. Her history is all private schools, society mentions, and marrying (tho not staying married to) the "right" men, but she got attention where it was useful, helped where it was needed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Cornelisen
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/054/958/589/439/088/original/748bda4cd2d843ea.png

2025-02-23 00:06:23 UTC

I was on a podcast recently where I got to talk about three of my big loves: Vermont, libraries and taxidermy. You might like it.
https://happyvermont.com/2025/02/22/vermont-libraries-podcast/

2025-02-22 22:53:51 UTC

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YES. I get one haircut maybe every five years and I wonder if it is too much,

2025-02-22 17:36:48 UTC

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Book 19: Winter Morning Walks. Ted Kooser was getting cancer treatment and had turned a corner in a positive way. His doctor told him to exercise and avoid the sun so he took walks by his home in Nebraska in the early mornings and wrote short poems also mailed to his friend Jim Harrison. This collection spans December through March and was so familiar to me, living through my own winter both in the weather and at large. Some lovely observations and elegant turns of phrase which stuck with me.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/048/747/825/187/615/original/c783850a2bb701aa.jpeg

2025-02-22 17:35:52 UTC

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Book 18: What You Are Looking For Is In The Library. This is a very sweet set of gentle vignettes about people who are living unfulfilled lives in various ways. They take different paths but wind up at the community center's library where an odd librarian gives them some reading suggestions and a small felted item. These things help them get unstuck. The vignettes overlap barely but subtly in fun little ways. Anyone who has done library work will enjoy these calm stories that go good directions.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/048/743/102/507/079/original/691ec55ab214b2d5.jpeg

2025-02-22 17:34:49 UTC

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DNF: Be A Blessing. I occasionally get books from Library Thing's Early Reviewers program. Free books in exchange for an honest review. This book's blurb did not match what I found inside the book, or maybe I got the blurb wrong. The author wants to talk about the idea of being a blessing, of oneg, of embodying the idea of joy through being a conduit (somewhat) for the divine. But it's VERY Bible-heavy and Israel-heavy and thus not right for this secular pro-Palestine Jewish person.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/048/741/079/781/631/original/5857cf12f387c1f1.png

2025-02-22 17:33:42 UTC

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[rethreading here for a sec, sorry for repeats] Book 17: Brooms. A story place in a world where magic is real but restricted. That restriction is unequally enforced along racial lines in some parts of the country including where the book takes place. A group of mostly women and girls from many backgrounds (queer/non, disabled/non, trans/cis, Black and Choctaw and Chinese American) compete in underground broom racing to help raise much needed cash. Lots of supportive nurturing in this one. A balm
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/048/735/307/005/458/original/13db5ba6cb292dfc.jpeg

2025-02-22 17:18:34 UTC

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I read a book of poetry this past week which was deeply moving. Looked up the poet on Wikipeda, he's still alive in his 90s. His website had an email address (from some local ISP) and I sent a short note just saying that this book he wrote twenty years ago was great and thanks for doing it. He sent me an email back saying how lovely and thank you. What nice human connection, and they are just there for the taking. Here's one of the poems, it's great.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/048/672/669/026/672/original/5d4b3724949c9902.jpeg

2025-02-21 00:05:44 UTC

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Printer lady is a piece of work. She has a Mac and a wireless Brother printer/copier/scanner. "How old is this?" "I don't know, I bought it from a dead person!"
It's wireless. There are three people waiting. It wasn't working well before. I can get it on the library wifi, I can't make it talk to her Mac. She has a cable but the only ports are RJ-45 (OH SHIT IT'S A FAX TOO).
I explain that wireless printing is witchcraft and if there wasn't a queue I'd help, but there is so I won't.

2025-02-21 00:05:22 UTC

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Pat can't figure out why her (Earthlink!) webmail will occasionally open a blank compose window or do other weird stuff. Not sure how to debug ancient stuff that isn't happening now. Also wanted to figure out why videos on PBS will sometimes just be audio no video on Edge. Works fine on Chrome.
Suggestion: use Chrome. Reddit confirms that this sometimes happens. She had a friend who gave her lots of advice (upgrade to Win 11, make backups) but no practical help. I gave her pointers.

2025-02-21 00:05:03 UTC

Drop-In Time! Title: "I knew there were going to be problems when I saw that older woman with her printer on a luggage cart outside in the snow 15 minutes before the library opened" and sure enough, there were.
By the time she got her gear inside, there were two people ahead of her in line. Busy day today b/c weather is less terrible. First up Leslie has a new Mac, wanted to make her pointer larger, add a bookmark to her email, figure out why her battery is charging weird. Done, done done.

2025-02-18 23:06:50 UTC

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I don't know, I haven't been looking at a lot of news lately. Despite the cover there are almost no cats in the book.

2025-02-14 19:19:23 UTC

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Book 16: And the Sky Bled. This book has a well-crafted plot, a lot of interesting female and NB characters, and is a non-stop sufferfest which I should have guessed from the title and somehow not only decided to read it but decided to finish it. The author admits in the afterword that she was "going through some stuff" and I think that shows in the story, no one emerges unscathed. One of those "this is probably a great book for someone else" novels. Approach with caution.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/003/801/057/621/453/original/9b7475fe70a695b3.jpeg

2025-02-08 18:25:58 UTC

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That FAQ says they are a non-profit corporation registered in Canada. Is that a different thing from a registered non-profit? I can see them if I look them up here.
https://ised-isde.canada.ca/cc/lgcy/fdrlCrpDtls.html?p=0&corpId=4355091&V_TOKEN=null&crpNm=Internet%20Archive&crpNmbr=&bsNmbr=&cProv=&cStatus=&cAct=

2025-02-08 17:02:31 UTC

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This does not directly address the recent events but FYI for people who do not know, they do have at least partial mirrors (and this was as of 2016 so I'm sure things have progressed) in Canada and a few other non-US server locations.
https://blog.archive.org/2016/12/03/faqs-about-the-internet-archive-canada/

2025-02-07 21:31:26 UTC

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Book 15: The Tainted Cup. A book I liked okay. I'm not really a fantasy person; I like some and I don't like others. This, at its heart, is a mystery story. Or, rather, a few mysteries. The world described is interesting and somewhat fantastical with no modern tech and with recognizable elements; a city under siege from unseen beings. A maybe-autistic detective and her maybe-dyslexic assistant have to figure out a puzzling set of murders. I liked the world, but wasn't compelled by the mystery.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/964/709/230/316/289/original/890771793912c2a7.jpeg

2025-02-07 15:42:06 UTC

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Book 14: Mall Goth. This is probably a teen/tween level graphic novel about a young bi goth woman who has a family situation that isn't great (overworked mom, absent dad) which leads her to seek connection with people who may not have her best interests at heart. A guy with a boyfriend gives her a lot of attention. A teacher gives her a copy of Lolita, sends inappropriate texts. She knows there are issues but not entirely how to resolve them. Works out ultimately, but its a real seeming conflict
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/963/352/621/843/394/original/d6230f96d3c1444d.jpeg

2025-02-06 19:41:17 UTC

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Book 13: Side Quest, A Visual History of Role Playing Games. This was both delightful and also a little all over the place. Which makes sense, there are a lot of different parts to RPGs (war games, role playing, D&D, fan groups, theater, figurine painting) but I was thinking it might be a bit more linear and in some cases had trouble keeping track. The author and illustrator each came to RPGs from different avenues (and are themselves in parts of the book) which made it more enjoyable.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/958/620/374/454/777/original/f7494b726c120670.jpeg

2025-02-05 04:05:21 UTC

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This was fun to read I think I caught it because someone else replied to it today. I always think of Mastodon as like friend radio I tune in to sometimes. I especially love having read a couple other people's versions of these and the questions seem to be subtly morphing just a little bit over time.

2025-02-03 19:22:27 UTC

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Book 12: Strange Animals I Have Known. Raymond Ditmars was one of the early founders of the Bronx Zoo and nuts about reptiles and other animals. This is a book he wrote in 1935 which shows its age (Ditmars was not entirely sold on evolution for example, also he was racist towards ppl in other countries) but is a fun read otherwise for some of his experiences dealing with the complexities of zoos, animals, and international travel so long ago. A few dull interludes about the weather.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/941/572/231/917/737/original/c5cb82f7e1dc32ce.jpeg

2025-02-01 21:07:47 UTC

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The Lucasie Family were three, maybe four people, with albinism who were from Europe. P.T. Barnum said they were "white Negroes" from Madagascar (the place one of them was born) and spun a whole tale about them, playing on racist sentiments. It was so over the top, he had to take some of it back when he published his next sensationalist pamphlet about them. They were photographed by Matthew Brady and were the subject of Currier & Ives lithographs. Hard to research.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucasie_Family
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2025-01-31 21:13:04 UTC

Friday afternoon reminder to not empty your inbox at the expense of someone else's. I overdid it on the snow shoveling and I am getting up every few minutes to stretch and rewarm the little bag of rice at my lower back. Everyone's got something going on. Try to save your "important" emails for people's work hours or just be mindful of their context as much as you can. Have a good weekend.
Image credit: National Library of Medicine, on Flickr Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47756470@N03/52145309047/
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2025-01-31 15:47:25 UTC

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Book 11. The Husbands. This was a nice light story about a woman who lives in a flat in London and one day she comes home from a night out to find that she has... a husband who has appeared in her flat (complete with retconned history). Weirder still, when he goes into the attic to fetch something, a different husband comes down. She has to manage this situation as best she can, keeping some husbands for a while and turning some back immediately, learning a bit about herself in the process.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/923/745/000/088/616/original/4b9f1902078d2557.jpeg

2025-01-30 23:18:29 UTC

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Is that a timezone thing or really just what time the class is in local time? Because... I would just... not be able to.

2025-01-29 18:13:17 UTC

Helping a friend's mom with a printer that was showing a constant "paper jam" message with no actual jammed paper.
Did ALL the things. Finally asked "Well how old is this printer?" (thinking... maybe under warranty?)
"Oh about 20 years old."
ಠ_ಠ
"OK I am calling it and pronouncing this printer dead at 7:15 pm"
Joke's on me because I got home and it was 6:15 pm and her computer clock was wrong (HOW)
Joke is further on me because she texted me today to say it's now working (ALSO HOW)

2025-01-27 23:49:40 UTC

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Book 10: The Only Ones. This book was dark, not quite too dark for me but close. It takes place in a near future pandemic-ravaged dystopia where some people are immune from diseases for reasons no one knows. These "hardy" genes are sought after and one way to make income is to sell your genetic material. Our female protagonist, who has a very flat affect, does this and things go in a weird way. With a more emotive narrator this would have been unreadable. As it was, it was tough but good.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/902/981/781/274/628/original/e08bdc14c35d588f.png

2025-01-25 19:00:16 UTC

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Meroë Morse was a scientist at Polaroid and oversaw their black and white research lab. She worked closely with Edwin Land and Ansel Adams. She died young in 1969 and many of her accomplishments are buried in the Harvard Business School's Polaroid archive. They're doing an exhibition about her, now her story can be told. Because of umlauts and a middle name, this article has three redirects. I also added her to the Polaroid Corporation template, where she deserves to be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mero%C3%AB_Morse
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2025-01-24 20:02:54 UTC

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Anafesto Rossi was an Italian opera singer. He toured the world with fourteen trunks of costumes and a diamond ring given to him by the Kaiser. His career spanned two decades and ended with the implication of mental health issues (I could not find sources). I just found his photo and was like "Who is THAT guy?" and now I know. And you do too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anafesto_Rossi
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/885/113/593/230/061/original/734f0c23453d1c92.jpg

2025-01-22 20:14:47 UTC

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Book 9: In Limbo. This is a graphic memoir about Deborah (Jung-Jin) Lee a Korean American young woman who is trying to muddle her way through high school while dealing with school and family expectations, bullies and racists, complicated friendships, and an abusive parent. She attempts suicide, she slowly crawls out of the hole she was in and, like many of these stories, she realizes there's a bigger world out there once she gets out of high school and away from her family. Beautifully drawn.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/873/821/079/187/246/original/731aa8a4875caf1d.jpeg

2025-01-22 17:24:37 UTC

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Book 8: When You Had Power. This book reads like it was written by someone with a PhD and sure enough. It's a "hopepunk" story about a future world ravaged by climate change and trying desperately to create enough sustainable energy to power the planet. But something's affecting the AI-managed power grid, and power engineer Lucía Ramirez is determined to figure out what is going on. A lot of explications of various energy options, wonky but ultimately a good story.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/873/099/783/512/075/original/d502d58abc675c55.jpeg

2025-01-22 16:54:34 UTC

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Book 7: I Shall Never Fall in Love. A regency graphic novel about three young people who are getting close to coming of age where they have to figure out what their plan is. They are are expected to marry (a good match) and one of them does not quite feel that is the path they want. A lot of discussion of class and societal expectations as well as the usual regency "smoldering looks" and missed connection types of interactions. Better than I was expecting.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/873/037/238/952/575/original/eeccc63c0ab3190a.jpeg

2025-01-21 01:28:12 UTC

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Book 6: Constellations. Claire is a kid who gets the "Are you a boy or a girl?" question a lot. They were raised Catholic and get a lot of bad attitude from family and most kids at school. They develop a drinking problem and wind up in youth rehab likely related to these things. Rehab works for them. This is MUCH more of a story about rehab than a story about figuring out your gender but it is both. It's raw and real and tough at times, well told if sometimes a little overly vague about things.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/863/724/683/046/166/original/4f2ebf56631c0a75.jpeg

2025-01-20 17:13:11 UTC

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Book 5: Sorting Things Out. This is a fairly academic book about classification as infrastructure and it looks at a few specific instances (international death classification, tuberculosis classification, new nursing tasks trackers) and the way they both show and shape culture. It's heady and interesting at the same time as it's uneven and a little slow going. It gave me some new ways to think about edge cases in classification systems and the social assumptions that surround them.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/861/782/142/717/649/original/78396756f3c2c3d5.png

2025-01-20 17:07:55 UTC

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Book 4: Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits. I enjoyed this tale of, what it says, futuristic violence for its humor and curious world building. The future contains Blink an always-streaming network that everyone contributes to and people are always doing stunts to get more cred there. Zoey grew up in a trailer park, turns out her dad was one of the wealthiest men in Utah. He dies and she has a quest. The author voice shines through as very white and male and not particularly socially conscious.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/861/760/170/402/638/original/39d58f65f50b9ee1.jpeg

2025-01-19 23:01:44 UTC

A probably-relatable librarian anecdote:
Tell my partner I'm going to work on that article for a few hours.
Fifteen minutes later I'm reading through "Indiana State Egg Board meeting minutes, 2008-2018" (it was not the subject of my article but found via Government Attic which is article-topic-adjacent)
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/857/504/755/452/905/original/c544ff84b90a1abd.jpg

2025-01-18 17:36:15 UTC

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Space twice after a period, get smote.

2025-01-17 21:14:02 UTC

Friday afternoon reminder to not empty your inbox at the expense of someone else's. My inbox is fine, actually, it's all these scraps of PAPER that are my undoing. Maybe this weekend I'll get to them. Mindfully. Maybe. Have a good weekend.
Image credit: Florida Memory, on Flickr Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31846825@N04/17722164208/
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/845/760/224/521/861/original/96c1eaef9382fdfa.jpeg

2025-01-17 00:52:54 UTC

People who make training videos I am begging you to get some better clip art. Or let me find some for you.
Otherwise I must note this training was excellent, it was all examples like "The plow guy has offered to give you tickets for tonight's hockey match, he has season tickets and can't go. BUT he's bidding on a job to plow the town's roads. As a municipal employee, can you accept these tickets....?"
Answer: only if you pay him full price for them, otherwise it's a disallowed gift.
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2025-01-17 00:29:55 UTC

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What a treat to have this. I have a few images of my dad's dad's dad's dad (1823-1887)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/iamthebestartist/6450151117/

2025-01-17 00:22:00 UTC

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Thanks for sharing this. Are there good places to meaningfully and constructively engage with the other chapters to encourage them to exit X?

2024-12-18 00:56:55 UTC

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I still think this was some of my best early work (I made that website, I owned that account, I worked for that ISP).
https://web.archive.org/web/20040603220033/http://www.speakeasy.org/~username/

2024-12-01 16:54:23 UTC

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Book 125: Milk! A 10,000 Year Food Fracas. Kurlansky writes nice predictable books on broad topics, full of trivia that is interesting and not too judgey. That can be tricky to do with a topic like milk which has a history which is full of drama! He goes to places where they make artisanal cheeses, talks to people who are raw milk enthusiasts, talks about the history of "swill milk" (did you know about this? I did not) and includes a lot of hand-drawn pictures of cows.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/578/606/094/491/223/original/0b5a7870dcb9060f.jpeg

2024-12-01 16:32:19 UTC

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Book 124: Absolution. I enjoyed VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy ten years ago and was excited for this. Unfortunately, it did not work for me. I wasn't sure if this was because I didn't remember the original books well (who are these people), or if he needed an editor, or if it was the fact that the narrator (and the story, mostly) takes a dramatic shift 60% through the book (who does that) and the 2nd narrator is significantly less fun to listen to. What was this? Long, was what it was.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/578/510/734/947/893/original/e4278857e54e5b88.jpeg

2024-12-01 01:51:40 UTC

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Yeah they hid it in a kind of dumb place, as D'Arcy notes. I had the exact same feeling.

2024-12-01 01:49:55 UTC

My Friendsgiving (delayed b/c snow) wound up happening immediately after a wedding ceremony I'd already agreed to perform.
The brides were both from West Virginia and came to Vermont to get married. I did not ask who they had left the front row empty chair for--we had just met and it didn't seem like the right time--but I think the ceremony (which they wrote) speaks to the love they found and the better world they envision. I was honored to be a part of it.
https://vermontjp.tumblr.com/post/768623880690696192/thirty-third-ceremony-rose-and-skye
#vermont
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2024-11-29 21:06:03 UTC

Friday afternoon reminder to not empty your inbox at the expense of someone else's. It's Buy Nothing Day here and also happens to be my delayed Friendsgiving (thanks to yesterday's snowstorm) and I'm also performing a wedding. A great time to not check email. If it's a holiday of any kind for you (or not), please enjoy it
Image credit: Provincial Archives of Alberta, on Flickr Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alberta_archives/51889818961/
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/568/275/612/511/251/original/bd8a8c4dc1a6f286.jpeg

2024-11-24 23:06:56 UTC

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Well how about that? I did not know. Applied!

2024-11-23 19:05:45 UTC

While my web host moves me to a new virtual machine, I will hand carry these blog links over like a caveman. Here's my librarian.net post "Connecting this to that" about how library tech support is rarely about learning to use one tool and is much more about how all these tools interrelate, with one fun example.
https://www.librarian.net/stax/5610/connecting-this-to-that/
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2024-11-23 18:05:53 UTC

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Book 123: Lucy Undying. As someone who used to live in Transylvania, I am abashed that I don't know more about the original Dracula story. I still loved this story which postulates "Hey what if his first victim... lived?" It's a sapphic vampire tale of female empowerment (unlike the original) which takes place both through journals at or about the time of her original death and then a more modern day story. The stories converge in sometimes expected and other times unexpected ways.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/533/572/753/403/341/original/d491bdea8a5270e7.jpeg

2024-11-23 01:22:45 UTC

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My partner reminded me of this excellent e. e. cummings poem about Buffalo Bill.
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2024-11-23 00:48:59 UTC

I love when libraries put their digital images online with rights statements, particularly if they're permissive. I enjoyed this article about the Buffalo Bill collection and was delighted to learn that the family photo in the collection was out of copyright, so I got to add it to Wikimedia Commons and then to the Buffalo Bill Wikipedia article. Maybe I'll get to an article on his sister next.
https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2024/11/where-the-data-may-roam-bringing-wild-west-performers-to-wikidata/
Thanks @npub1ua0…ccmx
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2024-11-20 20:15:21 UTC

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Saaaaame.

2024-11-16 20:27:31 UTC

New names for #Vermont snow plows 2024, selected by Vermont schoolchildren. Some selections...
Skibidi Scooper
No More Mr. Ice Guy
The Snowy Pl-Owl
Clearopathra
Snoah Kahan
Salt-O-Saurus
https://vtrans.vermont.gov/name-a-plow
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2024-09-25 16:37:39 UTC

After reading @npub12zl…4rkn talking about digital decluttering I thought a bit about how much of helping people get organized is part of the work of technology instruction in 2024.
https://www.librarian.net/stax/5585/be-organized-from-the-very-beginning/
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2024-09-18 15:11:19 UTC

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I've been eating at the Wayside Restaurant since before it was 100 years old (over 25 years ago) and you'd think a place this embedded in Vermont history would have had a Wikipedia page but it did not.
Bonus: got to use my own parker house rolls photo in the article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayside_Restaurant

2024-09-14 20:30:43 UTC

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It's possible they were a spam-bot and got banned/blocked by your instance?

2024-09-13 20:51:43 UTC

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I have... never heard of them before? I guess this was their opening salvo
https://hxlibraries.substack.com/p/introducing-the-association-of-library
I'll note that they don't have a single member in Vermont
https://www.facebook.com/AssociationOfLibraryProfessionals/

2024-09-12 20:24:19 UTC

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I think so far the answer may be "ten" which is fine with me? Ultimately I was only ever a blogger because my mother liked to know what I was up to and I didn't call her enough. I think sometimes people like to know that other people are doing things that make them happy. I was delighted to get that text back from my SO in response to mine and wanted to share that joy. That's it. There's no "should" involved; it's a gift and if it's not your jam, that's also okay.

2024-09-12 20:11:16 UTC

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Ah sorry, yeah it's something that can't be recreated in an easier way though the alt text does describe it decently well. Basically I have a typewriter. I typed a small note that said "hi honey" and texted a picture of it to my boyfriend. He replied, nearly immediately, with a picture of a typed message of his own (the nonsensical "b0ogie") which was adorkable to me since it meant he had ready access to a typewriter, indicating that we are well-suited to one another.

2024-09-10 00:25:45 UTC

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Hi -- yeah MLTSHP is all an all-volunteer non-profot (or, owned by a non-profit) which probably explains the FAQ. If there's a thing that should be there but isn't, drop me a note and I can probably fix it.

2024-09-09 00:27:24 UTC

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Loading here but slowly.

2024-09-08 23:21:03 UTC

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Yep, agree. I help people with computers at the public library and often when I suggest "accessibility" features (not even using those words just saying like "Hey wouldn't you like your mouse pointer to be a bit bigger?") they're often like "nope, thanks" but then when I show them that *I* am using them and how nice it looks, sometimes they change their mind. It helps everyone!