bibliofran
Random stuff I have collected. All opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer. (Icon by Freepik: www.freepik.com)
263 posts
Latest Posts by bibliofran
Pay attention to what is being cut -- public radio and television, libraries and museums, education, research. Elon knows how to count; he's counting the benefits he can take away from the public.
This regime wants to exert even more control over the news and information that the public receives – or doesn’t even receive at all. That's why it is attacking publicly funded media like NPR and PBS. But it's also part of a ploy to gut vital public services and oversight in order to clear the way for more tax cuts (and subsidies) that will predominantly go to the super-rich and powerful corporations. Know the truth. (Art work by @doodlebymeg)
It would be hysterical if, after the Republicans pitched massive fits over attempts to reduce people's student loan debt, they managed to completely wipe out millions of dollars in loans by dissolving the loaning organization. Given the current administration's cruelty in dismantling every part of the government that is designed to help people, I hope we can find more unexpected benefits like this.
hey it's probably a really good idea to download a copy of your Master Promissory Note since most of them stipulate that your loans are *specifically owed to the Department of Education* and if you intend to dispute the debt in the wake of the DoE dissolving that will be really good to have
As a current librarian, I 100% agree with this! Libby also lets you "subscribe" to a magazine, so you get notifications when a new issue is available.
If you don't like reading magazines (or eBooks, for that matter) on your phone, you can log into Libby on your computer at libbyapp.com.
As a former librarian I'm actually required to remind you that many libraries that subscribe to Libby are opted into a program that lets you subscribe and access magazines for free with no wait
And that this is actually a really fun, low cost way to not only access news and larger cultural magazines, but also to get free patterns for many different crafts that you can screenshot if need be and that lower the financial barriers to entry for trying new things
From my experience working in both academic and public libraries, many libraries are use it or lose it funding-- I have to say this because a lot of patrons feel guilty for how much they use the library and how often they're using it funny enough, but the worst thing you can do for libraries is not try out new features and not use what's already given to you as much as possible.
The numbers that come as a result of your patronage are how most libraries justify their continued existence in times of financial hardship, which sucks but, go check out some magazines on Libby!
Know your rights! Also, check your workplace's policy on sharing information about staff, customers, clients, etc.
ICE agents are complaining that the push to make sure people know their rights is making their jobs harder. Keep it up!
If you don't run, VOTE. (Vote if you do run, for that matter.) There is a lot at stake locally and in your state, and the ability for one person to make a difference in these elections is very high.
I know it feels like we just did this, but voting is like doing the dishes or laundry -- you have to keep at it. Unlike housework, you don't want to designate one person in your community to handle the chore for everyone else. (Let's be honest, they would probably fold your shirts wrong, too.)
Hey, USAmericans? Wanna save your country? Run For Something!
Even if you mailed in your ballot, contact your city clerk or talk with a poll worker. You may be able to get a replacement for the ballot where you made a mistake.
Stay safe this election!!
public reminder in this election year that your spouse/SO/parent/partner cannot tell you whom you may or may not vote for
it is illegal for them or your employer to force you to disclose your voting record
it is illegal for them or anyone else to follow you into the voting booth or to view your ballot
it is illegal for them to obstruct your free and open access to your polling place
and if anyone tries to do any of these to you it is your responsibility as a citizen to raise ungodly unholy hell in response
Well, that's massively creepy! My library (and our OverDrive consortium) don't have any eAudiobooks with "synthesized voice" narrators. Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily mean that we don't have AI narrators that aren't identified that way. We do have books by Blake Pierce, Molly Black, Fiona Grace, Rylie Dark, and some of the other authors listed in the article though.
Our Collection Development Policy doesn't specifically mention AI; we'll have to keep that in mind for the next review. I would recommend against purchasing AI-generated materials based on our criteria of artistic and literary quality, and reputation of the author, artist, or publisher. (Not to mention the damage that it does to the literary industry and the people in it!) However, that depends on us knowing that something is AI-generated. We don't have the time to do a deep dive into every author and narrator like Robin Bradford and SB Sarah did for this article.
Personally, I'm disgusted by AI-generated material being used in place of human-created works. Machine "learning" should be taking over repetitive, boring, and/or dangerous work to give humans more time for creativity! Using AI for creative work and leaving people to do more drudgery, is sickening. The fact that most of the bases that AIs are using come from people who are neither credited nor compensated for their work just makes it worse.
(This is my personal opinion and not the opinion of my employer.)
Is your library unknowingly buying AI written and/or narrated books?
OK, I know it sounds like clickbait. But smartbitchestrashybooks.com makes a pretty compelling case in their recent article,
AI Audiobook Narrators in OverDrive and the Issue of Library AI Circulation Policy
It's a long article, but worth the read. I wonder if it started before or after KKR bought Overdrive.
Any thoughts, @bibliofran ?
Seriously, this thing is terrifying if you like having, well, rights. Please protect the US from Project 2025 and vote Republicans out of office!
From @stopproject2025comic, here's one about what Project 2025 means for libraries. Full alt text at the site.
This is why it is important to vote your entire ballot in every election! Your state governor and legislature make a big difference in your life. Even your town's mayor and city council (or local equivalent), your school board and library board, your local and state referendums -- they all matter.
I get that sometimes it feels like you aren't making an impact. My district has elected some truly appalling people. However, the more local the election, the more difference a single vote makes, and even in a presidential election, a small number of votes can make a big difference.
Also, Vote Your Whole Ballot in every election! The president has a huge impact on the country, but so does Congress. Your senators and representatives can support or block a president and influence the long-term effects of the president's actions. And as @neolithicsheep shows, your governor and state legislature can make a big difference on your life.
Your city's mayor, council, and other administrators have a narrower impact, but it can literally hit you where you live. Even school and library boards affect what children in your community are taught and whether books are banned. They are either elected or appointed by the mayor and/or city council.
Learn the dog whistles that hide people's agendas. Look at who is sharing advertising space. Check out the groups that support different candidates. And vote like your life depends on it, because it does for many of us.
"Don't vote to teach the Democrats a lesson!" Great thanks my Jewish disabled queer ass will just die then
Agreed -- this is a very good time to remind voters that US presidents come with a built-in backup.
I wonder...
The media cannot get over the Biden Old thing, and of course the more they talk about it, the worse that is for everyone.
There are Dems in power that are calling for Harris to be the nominee.
What if...
Biden and Harris gave a simultaneous speech. Like they're both on stage. They both have their own lines throughout the speech, trading off to make different points. I wonder if you could remind everyone that Kamala Harris is already on the ticket.
If Biden really is too old and really can't do the job, surprise! That's what we have a VP for! He can step aside when that time comes and Kamala can take over, a process that we already have rules in place for. (And hey, Black female president, everyone!)
And you drive that point home by having them tag team a speech, which I'm pretty sure has never been done before, and acting like a team. Like a well-oiled speechifying machine. Maybe people would feel better if they weren't thinking that it's just one old man, alone?
If your library doesn't have the diverse books you want and you're comfortable talking with (usually very friendly and helpful) people, you can also talk with someone on staff. In addition to the purchase recommendation form, they may have an agreement with other libraries to borrow the books from them for you. This helps two libraries! Your local library learns that more people want diverse books, so they are more likely to buy them in the future. The other library gets check-outs, so they know people are reading their diverse books.
If you don't have time to read, look for diverse audiobooks, CDs, and DVDs! If it's hard for you to get to the library, look at their website or call/email them. They may have pickup lockers in different areas of town or even a delivery service. They probably have eBooks, eAudiobooks, and/or streaming music and movies that you can check out from home.
Friendly reminder that if you talk about how representation is important and how there's not enough diverse media, I implore you to seek out the media that already exists. And if you live in an area with a public library, go to see if they're available at your public library. And then go check them out.
As a librarian, it is demoralizing to see how low the circulation statistics are on lgbt+ books and books by BIPOC authors. I include them in displays and readers advisory, but people still don't check them out as much. Libraries only have a finite amount of resources, including space. We don't get a book then keep it forever. If not enough people check it out, we have to get rid of it to make room for more books. And when James Patterson Book #69 gets checked out 30 times in one year and cool, subversive Sci fi novel with a Black trans woman main character has never been checked out once, the librarian (me) has to make a hard decision.
If you're looking for something tangible and easy to do this pride month, look for lgbt+ books (there are millions of lists online that you can find. It's easier than it's ever been to find diverse books) and check them out from your library.
No time to read? Look for a short story or poetry anthology and just read as much as you have time for. Or just check out a book cus it looks interesting and read as much as you can. We have movies too.
As cool as it would be for me to just keep the books I want and get rid of the ones I don't, I have to listen to the community on matters of collection development. And the community tells me what books they want by checking them out and leaving the ones they don't want on the shelf.
If you think this doesn't apply to you because you live in a progressive area and obviously the books are being checked out, you're wrong. I once worked in a community with a large lgbt population. Those books were not getting checked out. If you want to tell me you live in a conservative area and your library doesn't have any diverse books, you are legally obligated to check the catalog before replying to this post. I currently work in a conservative community and we have lgbt+ and bipoc books. And if you still cannot find any, you are legally obligated to see if your library has a collection request form that patrons can fill out before replying to this post.
Another librarian who would love to see more people doing this! We have displays of shiny new books and movies, as well as some on various topics to tempt you. However, you can also go into the stacks and search for forgotten treasures! You could find books about salt or pockets or seahorses or doorways to other worlds or forbidden romance.
You can also try that book or movie or music CD that everyone is recommending but you don't think you'll enjoy! If you don't like it, bring it back and check out something else guilt-free -- it didn't cost anything, and it won't keep taking up space on your shelves.
unsung benefit i think a lot of ppl are sleeping on with using the public library is that i think its a great replacement for the dopamine hit some ppl get from online shopping. it kind of fills that niche of reserving something that you then get to anticipate the arrival of and enjoy when it arrives, but without like, the waste and the money.
Vote to queer the narrative. Vote out of spite. Vote like your life depends on it, because that's true for some of us.
Hey, everyone! You want to pull the ultimate prank against the Republican party? I mean this would be EPIC!
On November 5, 2024, all 50 million US citizens between 18 and 30 need to take to the streets and demonstrate against the erosion of civil rights for women, BIPOC, disabled, LBGTIAA+, and transgendered people. Take to the streets...and march right down to your polling station and vote! (Or, you know, early vote.)
This would be the flash mob to beat all flash mobs. The Republicans would never see you coming, because their whole strategy depends on keeping you depressed and disengaged.
Don't like the direction the Democrats are going? Take a page out of the Tea Party's book--they changed the direction of the Republican party by voting for it, and now they own it. Vote Democrat and nudge it leftward this election--then keep nudging it until you can take the wheel. Because the alternative is a hard right turn by the Republicans.
Not only would this be a lifesaver for countless people who are not "White male Christian Conservative Americans", it would also be funny as hell. Want to see Trump have a meltdown on international television? Want to see pollsters and political pundits say "What the fuck?!" Want to see the newspapers suddenly flock to gay nightclubs and college campuses to interview "average voters" instead of rural diners?
Please vote! Even if it feels like you are only voting against the worse candidate or voting for the Less Bad candidate -- we need those votes to make sure we don't get the worse candidate.
Also, vote in all of your local elections if you can. Those are the people who decide whether books get banned in your community's schools and libraries. They decide whether your local police department gets training on de-escalation procedures or bigger guns. They are behind your community's social safety nets (or lack thereof), what types of community events are held, what's in your local parks, and much more.
Voting for Democrats is the "leaving the house, getting some exercise, and drinking more water is good for your mental health" of societal change. Everyone keeps telling you to do it, worst of all your mom keeps telling you to do it, and it's not a magical cure-all, but it actually works and rotting in your room shitposting does not help in either scenario.
If you don't have the manual for your car, you can probably find it online. Once you find it, download it! That way, if it gets moved or taken down because your car is older than the company wants to deal with, you still have a copy of the manual. (If your car is relatively new, you may be able to get a physical copy from a dealership, but they will probably charge for it.)
If possible, put the file on your phone so you have it available when you're away from home. Even if you only have access at home, at least you can look up things.
If you can't get a manual or your manual doesn't have instructions on changing a tire, print out instructions and put them with your spare tire. As other people have mentioned, having to change a tire almost always happens in miserable conditions. Having instructions easily available makes it less bad.
in the same spirit as those posts reminding you to drink some water and take your meds:
if you have a car, when’s the last time you checked your spare tire? because i know at least two people who’ve recently discovered that they couldn’t actually access their spare because they’d misplaced the necessary tool or some other thing. check your spare tire!! make sure you’ll be able to use it when you need it!!!
As a librarian, and especially as a cataloger, I have Feelings about the arrangement of books. However, one of those Feelings is that, in your own personal/household library, you should arrange your books in ways that make sense for you/your household. Part of that is going to depend what types of books you have, part on how much shelf space you have where, and part on how you use and look for your books.
In my household, we have several broad areas for books. General fiction is arranged alphabetically by author; books by the same author are alphabetical by title unless I can remember a series order easily or at least separate distinct series from one another. Anthologies are arranged alphabetically by title. Graphic novels and collections of comics are arranged by series, character, or title (depending on whether they're part of a series and/or how we would look for them).
Nonfiction books are organized by subject, with similar topics generally grouped together and flowing into each other in ways that made sense when I set up the shelves after we moved here. For example, one shelf has yoga/stretching -> massage -> first aid -> general science -> animals -> field guides for birds and plants -> pets -> art books (because we have some art books focused on different animals) -> biographies (because we have biographies of artists).
A few collections are separated out for various reasons. Picture books are in their own area because I had a small bookshelf with high enough shelves for them to fit in (mostly) comfortably. Cookbooks are on their own set of shelves in the kitchen, roughly grouped by topic or type of food (general, slow cooker, chocolate, bacon, etc.). Gaming books are organized by gaming system, then generally by title. Books on sex and sexuality, erotica, and NSFW graphic novels/comics are in the bedroom but otherwise mirror the organization of the main collection.
The guest bedroom has collections of miscellaneous information and short essays, as well as books that we have two copies of, so we don't mind if someone borrows them indefinitely.
This is very important research so I can figure out how to arrange my books
If you don’t think this makes a difference, look at what the Minnesota legislature accomplished so far this year:
Set up free breakfast and lunch for all K-12 students
Implemented automatic voter registration and a number of other reforms to increase voter access
Made abortion access and reproductive care a fundamental right
Provided up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave
Banned conversion therapy and made Minnesota a safe state for trans people
Indexed school funding to inflation
And much, much more
Our cities, our states, our country -- they can do this, too! The Minnesota legislature isn’t filled with perfect people, but it has enough people who are willing to work together to get things accomplished.
Vote for people who will make progress. If you don’t have that option, vote for people who won’t push us farther back!
We are not going to let that fuckwad DeSantis gain a foothold in the 2024 election.
You are going to fucking vote for Joe Biden, and you are going to give us a fucking chance to save our country from fascism, and you aren't going to fucking complain about it, because there is literally no other choice.
We will not let another election be a close call. Are you listening?
Vote for Biden. Vote for whatever Democrat is most popular in your local elections. Our system sucks, but this is what we're working with. Just fucking vote.
Every time I see news about a new piece of hate legislation, I want to curl up and cry. I don’t know if my life-entwined partner will ever be able to visit my family in Kansas again, especially since we have to go through Missouri and/or Iowa to get there.
It’s scary how many states went from “moderate risk in 2 years” to “worst active anti-trans laws” between December 2022 and May 2023. Most of these laws will be challenged, and many may be overturned. How many people are going to die in the meantime though? Even when laws are struck down by the courts, will people ever feel safe there again? How long until those laws are replaced by new ones that are just as bad but more subtle, or until people don’t have the energy and money to keep fighting against them?
When we moved to Oregon in 2019, we always planned eventually to move back "home" to Pennsylvania, the state where, before that, I'd spent all but a year of my life since we moved there in '88.
Today, I'm going to have a conversation with my partners. I think we just have to assume I -- we -- can't go home.
Maybe ever.
Pennsylvania itself is in a low-risk category within two years, but it could easily -- well I know it -- swing into red if the next election cycle breaks another way.
That's not the kind of place where you buy the house that you intend them to "take you out of toes first," as I joked with my wives when we last talked about our plans.
That's what these laws mean to people like me. They mean "the state you consider home might become actively hostile to you within the next 5 years, so you can't plan to buy a home there." They mean "you shouldn't even board a plane that has a likelihood of having a layover in Florida, and you're definitely not going to repeat your 2019 drive across the country, one of the best and worst experiences of your life and the most time you've gotten to spend with your brother in one week since you graduated from high school." They mean half the states in this country are actively hostile to you, legally speaking, in a way you thought was finally behind you.
Sometime soon, I'm going to call my mother and tell her that we're not planning on moving back.
I don't have a clever closing line for this. I'm just sad.
Also, librarians are being called groomers and pedophiles for having books about LGBTQ+ people in their collections, and for having books about actual history as it pertains to people who aren’t WASPs. The people who are trying to legislate and scare us out of existence are going after anyone who supports us as well.
Even if you aren’t LGBTQ+ or BIPOC, if you think we deserve to have rights, you need to speak up before the leopards starting eating your face, too.
every time i see discourse about pedohysteria amidst a trans genocide i think about that news article from 2016 about the mexican immigrant who voted for trump because trump said he’d get rid of all the “bad hombres” from mexico, only to be deported himself because it turns out what trump was really saying was that he wanted to deport all mexicans, not just “the bad ones”
not just him, but there were many other examples too, like white conservatives who have mexican immigrant friends and family or people in the community important to them who were mexican immigrants, and they voted for trump because they thought trump was just getting rid of “criminals”, and then they regret it when their families and communities get torn apart by deportations of their spouses, their friends, their favourite restaurant owners, etc.
anyways, i hope young queers, trans people esp, understand that when conservatives talk about “pedophiles” and “groomers”, they’re not talking about actual child abusers, they’re talking about all queer people. they’re talking about all trans people. it’s why in florida, they’re categorizing “drag” as a child sex crime, and making sex crimes against children punishable by death. they’re trying to execute every single trans person, and that’s just the rhetoric they’re using
so stop buying into the pedohysteria. it’s easy to think “well, i’m not a pedophile, so i’ll be safe” when you don’t realize that in the eyes of conservatives, every single queer person is a pedophile and deserves death, and contributing to their rhetoric by trying to figure out which trans woman is a pedophile is just accelerating your own march to the gallows
If this is your attitude, you need to
A: Learn to care about people who aren’t yourself, and
B: Learn some freaking history!
Everyone else is having their rights taken away, but they’ll stop before they take MINE away…. Right?
@katy-l-wood put this in the tags, "#deciding what to eat for dinner #EVERY NIGHT #what should I cook? #babe what do you want for dinner? #I love food #but when I have to ask that question #I suddenly forget every food I like #and it never ends #personal"
My partner and I have this problem! It doesn't help that neither of us are good enough cooks to decide something on the spur of the moment that we'll both enjoy, so we have to plan a week's worth of dinners before we get groceries.
One thing that helps us is having a spreadsheet of dinner options. It includes where the recipe is, what type of protein it has, and what cooking method it uses. (We should probably add how long it takes, but we haven't gotten around to that.) This lets us look for slow cooker recipes or a way to use up the package of ground beef in the freezer.
This isn't perfect -- we still spend a lot of time staring at the spreadsheet, trying to find something that we're in the mood for and haven't done two of the last three weeks. However, it helps a lot with the "I suddenly forgot every food I like" problem!
