On 20 Years of Blogging at Information Wants to be Free
Today is the 20th anniversary of this blog. I put that on my calendar about 6 months ago when I realized how close to 20 years I was and then…
Slowness, disability, and the art of losing
A few weeks ago, I had what honestly felt like a perfect day. It was a bright sunny day in December that felt almost stolen from the jaws of our…
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The power of shame and belonging
In my last post, I wrote about the absolutely monstrous difficulty I was having getting off the migraine prevention medication (that wasn't actually preventing migraines) I had been taking for…
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Saying goodbye to American Libraries magazine
I’ve been pretty good about not making big life changes during the pandemic. We didn’t get a pandemic dog, even after finally getting our yard completely fenced-in last August. I’ve…
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Drop the ball
When I visited my parents in December of 2019, they asked me to go through a box of old stuff they wanted to get rid of. My mother had kept…
#LISMentalHealth: That time my brain and job tried to kill me
Happy LIS Mental Health Week friends! I want to start this post by recognizing someone who has done a great deal to support library workers' mental health in the face of…
My year in books (and podcasts) 2019
This was a pretty good year for me. Nothing particularly amazing or wonderful or eventful happened to me, though my son has been such a source of pride and light for…
Thoughts at Mid-Career Part 5: Where to From Here?
This is the fifth in a series of essays. You can access the rest here, though it’s not necessary to read them all or in order. "To me, the only habit worth ‘designing…
Thoughts at Mid-Career Part 4 – The Cult of Productivity: You’re Never Doing Enough
This is the fourth in a series of essays. You can access the rest here, though it’s not necessary to read them all or in order. “These days, I just want to slow…
Thoughts at Mid-Career Part 2 – Ambition: You are Not Enough
This is the second in a series of essays. You can access the first here, though it's not necessary to read them all or in order: “So maybe my great…
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Thoughts at Mid-Career Part 1 – Letting Go, Questioning, and Pathfinding
This is the first in a (probably) five-part series of essays. For about two years, until January, I felt a disturbing lack of ambition. I felt directionless and passionless; devoid…
Wayfinding and balance at mid-career
It's LIS Mental Health Week; a week focused on raising awareness of mental health. This post isn't about mental health per se, but something that I think, for me, is very…
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My year in books 2017
Reading this year has been so many things for me. An escape. A way to educate myself. A way to see my own struggles in a different way through another's…
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2016 wasn’t all bad
As I alluded to in my last post, this year was a difficult one for me personally that ended up turning out for the better. I know that many of…
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Playing the super-productive librarian. My #LISMentalHealth Week post
I know a lot of librarians who've suffered with depression or anxiety, take psychotropics, or who go to therapy. It makes me wonder if people with mental illness are drawn…
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My year in reading, 2015
I've learned over time that work/life balance not only looks different for every person, but looks very different for an individual from one moment to the next. The needs you…
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Should the horrible first job search be seen as a rite-of-passage?
I felt really sad when I read Kyle Shockey's post on the Librarian Burnout blog about feeling burnout after library school and being in the midst of the job hunt.…
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True confessions
When my brain was completely full on Thursday at the ACRL Conference, Jad Abumrad's keynote felt like a spa for my brain. For those who don't know, he is the…
My year in books
Growing up, I was a voracious reader. What a surprise, right? Gee, a librarian who likes to read. But something happened to me between college and grad school where I lost…
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A decade of blogging
It has been exactly 10 years today since I started Information Wants to be Free. My life has changed in so many ways since then. I'm not sure I really had…
