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…
Posted ininstruction social software
A review of Information Literacy and Social Media by Santamaría and Pfannenstiel
Santamaria, M., & Pfannenstiel, N. (2024). Information literacy and social media : empowered student engagement with the ACRL framework. Association of College and Research Libraries. When I started writing my book…
Community Time and Enoughness: The heart of slow librarianship
Photo credit: Mushrooms surrounded by trees by Valentin S. This is the sixth and final essay in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list…
Slow productivity is a team sport: A critique of Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity
Image credit: Dolce far Niente by John Singer Sargent This is the fourth in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list of all of…
The Productivity Trap
Photo source This is the third in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list of all of them on the first essay. In my…
Posted inlibraries management MPOW Work
Open Offices are Neither More Open nor More Equitable
I can’t properly describe the level of annoyance I felt when I read Steven Bell’s latest piece in College and Research Libraries News about open offices entitled “We’re all about…
Out of sight, out of mind? prioritizing support of online learners
It’s been eighteen years and I can’t believe this is still an issue. In 2005, I started my first professional library job as a distance learning librarian. At the time,…
Slow librarianship and prioritizing life over work
I recently wrote an essay for CHOICE's LibTech Insights blog entitled "Building a Better Library Tech Future with Slow Librarianship." It provides a brief introduction to slow librarianship, how it…
Posted inabout me instruction librarianship libraries Work
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…
Vocational awe is always harmful
A friend of mine wrote a tweet that really made me think the other day: I understand arguments against a default "vocational awe," but much of the discourse denies the…
Posted inlibrarianship libraries slow librarianship Work
Valuing maintenance
My town maintains an old dairy farm from the turn of the 20th century that now contains public gardens, a CSA, and community garden plots. In the Summer and Fall,…
The end of Twitter?
The tl:dr is in whatever online communities you frequent, do you ever ask yourself "who isn't here? Who doesn't feel welcome here? What barriers are there to participation?" If not,…
Posted incommunity college libraries instruction librarianship mid-career slow librarianship Work Work-life balance
Stop normalizing overwork
In the years that I have been trying my best to avoid overwork, I've become more attuned to the signs that I am indeed overworking. I usually notice one of…
Posted inlibrarianship slow librarianship Work
Cultures of care and solidarity
I had a dream the other night about my high school history teacher Mr. Farina who I haven't seen since I graduated and he retired. I was ridiculously happy to…
Universal design for work?
I've had migraines for over 20 years. I didn't seek workplace accommodations for them until this year. The biggest barrier to getting accommodations at work was my own internalized ableism,…
Posted infree the information! librarianship management Work
So I’m a conspiracy theorist now? A call for retraction
I know a lot of librarians get mad about poorly informed articles about libraries all the time. It's rare that I ever really get truly angry about an article. I…
When to say yes (or no)
Workaholism is a hard addiction to recover from. It's not like some addictions where you can avoid the places or substances that played a role. Most of us are not…
Posted inblogging General librarianship
Losing my friend, Mark Lindner
Our profession has lost one of its best. My friend, Mark Lindner, died on Monday. Mark wrote one of the best library blogs during that lovely golden age of blogging in the aughts…
Posted inlibraries management Work
“Listening theater” and employee voice
I’ve been reading a lot about employee voice and silencing in organizations and there’s a phenomenon I haven’t really seen discussed explicitly in the literature, though it's possible I've missed…
What is slow librarianship?
Last week, there was a lot of chatter about slow librarianship on social media. People were looking for writing on the subject and I realized that my work is scattered…
