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Golden statue of Atlas struggling under weight at the top of a copper building roof.
Posted inDisability librarianship Work

The Crushing Mental Load of Disability

Photo credit: Statue Atlas by PeterKraayvanger on Pixabay This isn’t the essay I was planning to publish next. I’ve been working on an essay about the lack of solidarity around…
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Original homepage of my blog, a closeup picture of green grass with Meredith Farkas Information Wants to be Free in white letters on top of it.
Posted inabout me blogging librarianship mid-career slow librarianship

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…
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A review of Information Literacy and Social Media by Santamaría and Pfannenstiel
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…
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Tiny mushrooms covering a tree stump in the forest surrounded by Fall leaves
Posted inlibrarianship MPOW slow librarianship Time Work Work-life balance

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…
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Impressionist painting of four people in flowing clothes resting on the bank of a river
Posted inlibrarianship management slow librarianship Time Work Work-life balance

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…
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Two men in suits record the actions of women doing sewing work in a factory
Posted inlibrarianship slow librarianship Time Work-life balance

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…
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Open Offices are Neither More Open nor More Equitable
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…
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Mountain trail with beautiful view
Posted ininstruction librarianship libraries online education screencasting Work

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,…
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Slow librarianship and prioritizing life over work
Posted inlibrarianship slow librarianship Work Work-life balance

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…
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Image of a gnarled dead tree in a field of tall grass
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…
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Clouds and sun in the background with a phone in the foreground that says God Calls.
Posted inlibrarianship slow librarianship Work Work-life balance

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…
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Tall pink flowers and fluffy greenery in the foreground and an old white farmhouse in the background
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,…
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Bye Bye Birdie movie poster from the 1963 film
Posted infree the information! librarianship our digital future social software tech trends

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,…
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Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey book cover
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…
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Care ethics word cloud
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…
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Posted inlibrarianship libraries management slow librarianship Work Work-life balance

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,…
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Conspiracy theory meme from the show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
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…
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Picture of two paths diverging
Posted inlibrarianship management slow librarianship Work Work-life balance

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…
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Mark Lindner
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…
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“Listening theater” and employee voice
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…
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Meredith Farkas, Author, Information Wants to be Free

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