This is not my usual ALA report because the Council meetings at LibLearnX were brief and I was occupied with some legislation I’d been working on. Here are some important notes for those who are interested in ALA topics. 1. American Library Association Updates Core Values This was a 2.5 year process culminating in massaging the existing lengthy list of core values into five: access, equity, intellectual freedom and privacy, the public good, and sustainability. There was some healthy debate about this process with many groups within ALA having mild concerns but the committee who put this toget ..read more

Here was the Mastodon thread of what I read last year. This is the thread of the books I am reading this year. My plan was to read LESS this year than last year and I did a good job. One hundred and fourteen books. I was busier, happier. I think I stubbornly finished every book I started in 2023 although some of them maybe I shouldn’t have. I did lower my “books by men” percentage an amount that felt good. I’ve been actively seeking out non-binary authors and trying to read print a little more. average read per month: 9.5 average read per week: 2.2 number read in worst month: 7 (June, August ..read more

Not a big year for libraries. I didn’t go to any new ones! This was partly because I had a regular shift at my own, and am also sticking to my mostly-no-travel policy. Kimball (79) – Most weeks I worked here one day and I stopped by a lot of other times, for sub shifts or just to get a book. Rochester (1) – I did one drop-in shift here. Kilton/Lebanon NH (1) – Jim and I stopped by when we were in NH. It’s a neat place, has a cool garden and place to hang out behind it that I had never been to. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum (1) – Should have stopped by her more often since my dentist is across the ..read more

I gave my first talk in person to librarians since 2019 this week. I’d been traveling less for climate change reasons but also for “sort of tired of it” reasons before Covid hit. I’d done two talk to non-library groups–one about Fair Use for lawyers and one about Libraries of Things for recreation department workers–but NELA was my first library talk. NELA is always one of my favorite conferences. Good group of people, I have no governance/admin role, interesting programs. I’m also nearly always able to drive there. This time I was able to check out the reports from the New England state libr ..read more

A friend writes in: What are you doing about the idiotic book bannings and attacks on Librarians and what can I do to help?  It’s a mess and part of the mess is that it’s really state by state, so what might make sense for you where you are wouldn’t be the tactic in Pennsylvania or Iowa or Arkansas. The usual advice is still good. Consider joining your local school board or library trustee board. You could even pony up some money to your state library association and join (even as a non-library person) which would help them do this work. In New England we mostly haven’t seen the legislat ..read more

Hello — I recently got back from virtually attending ALA. Virtual attendance at Council meetings continues to work pretty well and I submitted one resolution. We had significantly shorter meetings this time because we’ve gotten the main bylaws changed and the major Council reorganization done which were big jobs. Here is my report. Previous reports from me: June 2020, January 2021 (did not write a report), July 2021, January 2022, June 2022 (did not go to ALA ), January 2023 I filled in for outgoing Councilor Marti Fisk who moved, and was elected to a three-year term starting in 2020. I am pla ..read more

With SRRT Councilor Tara Brady, I sponsored a resolution about making ALA governance available virtually. Right now the bylaws say that Executive Board and Council meetings “may be held in either fully virtual, or hybrid virtual-and-in-person modes.” and we want to change that may to shall. Since this involves a bylaws change (The first one with his new set of bylaws!) it was referred to the Bylaws Committee. Here are my brief remarks on why it is an important resolution. I am Jessamyn West, Vermont’s Chapter Councilor. You should support this resolution because it addresses the following issu ..read more

So it’s funny, I spent a lot of time “working my network” to try to find the right thing for me. I applied for a few jobs, had a few good interviews but no actual bites, put feelers out on social media. And, at the end of the day, the thing that wound up working for me was a random “Hey I’d really like to work here at the point at which you wind up having people working here” email. You can read the announcement about my new (part-time, contract) gig working for Flickr Commons as their Community Manager. I’m beyond stoked about this. First week went well, here’s to many more ..read more

On Wednesday I spoke to the assistant to my congressional representative’s assistant encouraging her to be a co-sponsor of the We the People amendment. I prepared remarks because otherwise I tend to go on. “I’m an elected official in my town, Randolph Vermont, and I work all the local elections. I also work in the public library where we struggle constantly against giant publishers who hold the ebook market under their absolute control, deciding prices and terms while also being the only game in town, not truly subject to market forces. Nationally, public libraries are struggling under constan ..read more

I am looking for work. During most of last year and some of the previous year, selling my mother’s house was my part-time job. That project is done and I’m ready to go more formally on to the job market. I’m looking for something fairly specific but I honestly believe there’s a good fit for me somewhere. Please feel free to connect me with people or placements you think might be a good fit. I am looking for a part-time, work-from-home job doing various kinds of knowledge management. Specifics and finicky requirements below. I’m at my happiest when I am researching and writing Wikipedia articl ..read more