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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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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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Painting of three workers harvesting wheat and others lying or sitting down and eating
Posted inslow librarianship Time Work Work-life balance

Queer Time, Crip Time, and Subverting Temporal Norms

Photo credit: The Harvesters by Pieter Bruegel the Elder This is the fifth in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list of all of…
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Dolce Far Niente painting, woman in a dress lying outside on a bed of animal skins
Posted inmanagement slow librarianship Work Work-life balance

Meredith’s Slow Productivity (not to be mistaken for Cal Newport’s Faux Slow Productivity)

Image credit: Dolce Far Niente by John William Godward This is the fifth in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list of all of…
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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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Old photo of two women in a field gathering wheat
Posted inslow librarianship Time Work Work-life balance

With Work Time at the Center

This is the second in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list of all of them on the first essay. Once upon a time,…
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Three pocket watches
Posted inslow librarianship Time Work-life balance

Time: It doesn’t have to be this way

“What we think time is, how we think it is shaped, affects how we are able to move through it.” -Jenny Odell Saving Time, p. 270 This is the first…
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White flowers hanging loosely off their stems
Posted inabout me career slow librarianship Work-life balance

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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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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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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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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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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What is slow librarianship?
Posted inlibrarianship libraries slow librarianship Work Work-life balance

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…
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snail image
Posted inBook librarianship slow librarianship speaking Work-life balance writing

Slow life, slow librarianship

It's been a quiet summer over here, focused on family, recovering from the stress of the academic year, and doing a lot of reading. I'd had fantasies of getting a…
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Meredith Farkas, Author, Information Wants to be Free

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