Today’s #LibrarianFashion: A T-shirt of my own design, featuring a scruffy and slightly crazed looking owl that I drew myself and then had a fab local print shop, Sonic Bark produce for me.

Due to pinched nerves fiery arm issues, ALL of my #LibrarianFashion lately has been T-shirts rather than button-ups and funky ties (usually more half-and-half), but, I’ve got some funky tees, for sure. This “Amelia & Cory” tee is from an indie silkscreening shop, Love Making, in Revelstoke, BC.

Just finished perusing this list on my prep time… It has absolutely stellar book recs 📚👍 Some of my absolute faves are here. #ReadAlike recs are fab too. This would be especially helpful for #TLsky & #skybrarians newer to Libraryland, wanting to know what they’ve missed. slate.com/culture/2025...

#LibrarianSoundtrack Driving to school, major nerve pain in my arm, revisiting teen metalhead days, Metallica’s wall of noise killer riffs feeling therapeutic, when loud enough, supplants the pain (Master of Puppets has a slightly new nuance to its meaning) a little as medication kicks in.

Related, #ReadingInjuries 🧵… Prepping library for Day 1 this school year, I pushed/pulled/dragged tables,chair stacks,multiple rolling bookshelves back to proper spots after summer cleaning as always…now having peripheral nerve pain due to tweaked shoulder/arm/neck…working to document,treat,remedy

This is wild. Feels more like a sci-fi novel prompt than reality.

Booked off for AM for med appnt, but have extra time to kill before/after, then return to work for PM… Popped into super fab indie bookstore, The Book Man, to get a few next-in-series kid requests, having coffee & treat at indie Harvest Café… Teacher guilt: feels like I’m skipping/skiving/ditching

The point about engagement w/ altright reactionary content is like a conversation w/ the algorithms on most social media platforms, a convo where you’re saying to the algo, I like this, I like felling like this, give me more of this—it’s a good way to frame it, to explain how a content vortex occurs

Hey #TLsky #skybrarians, This is a really fab and very quotable real talk for librarians blog post. I try to live most of these tenets, but needed reminders about others. “…there are as many ways to library as there are librarians.”

Ready for the day. Ready to go do some librarianing in a bit. #LibrarianFashion #TLsky 📚 #Skybrarians

Hey, look at me scoring Accidentally Wes Anderson swag in the snail mail—I found the hidden treasure icon in the newsletter. A wee bit of fun on a Monday afternoon. That’s my #FaveBookmarkToday; and the sticker is going on our sticker wall. I love the AWA books! Thx, @accidentallywa.bsky.social

Doing fiction Genre Cafés again—w/ Gr 3 classes. This was different: A follow-up; focus on just one genre—Fantasy. Put out samplings of fantasy Shorter & Longer Novels, Graphic Novels. Also…Teacher will focus on a new genre in class every couple of weeks. And…she’s doing that study with…

Cool…def need to look into some Tim Flach photography books for the library col’n. Big fan of having these sorts of lush “coffee table” books of animals for the elem crowd—they love them. —Anyone else? His stuff wld make good companions for Doggist & Photo Ark books. —Other sim recs? 📚👍 #TLsky 📚

Hmmmm… I’ve just seen all four Kindergarten classes for the second time this school year… As a general observation, I’ve found the K cohorts last several years to be overall more…feral…less capable…but, this entire cohort seems back to what I thought was on par… Interesting…other anecdotal support?

What a great literature team-up: I love so many of DiCamillo’s novels and Blackall’s illustrations for every project are so fantastic. Will have to get on ordering this for the library…and reading it to booktalk it…

Library programs like this have powerful potential for causing positive community change…doesn’t have to be a big thing either.

It makes this die-hard Martian Manhunter fan so happy to see a MM comic make it into a most-anticipated list www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

In case you wondered why your local librarians seem so out of sorts about eBook costs, and why we are primarily frustrated with the so-called "big 5" publishers, well, here you go 📚 www.infotoday.com/cilmag/jul25...

"Munsch remained uniquely accessible. He answered children’s letters, visited their schools & shared meals in their homes. He listened, absorbed, and gave back—not just stories, but affirmation and empathy. As he once put it, he was not an author, but a storyteller who sometimes wrote things down."

Indeed, so many varying types of libraries…bookmobiles and so much more! Books about that: bsky.app/profile/exli...

Feeling really off my game this morning before school starts…so, I went around adding more books on display…that helped a fair bit. Onward…

Related. Written a while ago by members of a FB group I helped moderate, but still salient.

Update: Finished up this #LEGOwall build this afternoon…enhancing a writing project with a LEGO build…we attached cue cards with a bit of warm-up writing, a few notes about what/why this place…?

"At a time when reading for pleasure, or even for school, can feel like a low priority, when library programs are losing funding, and when so many campuses lack dedicated librarians, the libraries like ours — and librarians like Mr. Biddle — are invaluable." By Aruja Misra & Marium Zahra, Chalkbeat

This afternoon, I was doing the first LEGOwall build of the year…and of course I forgot process pics… Oh well, maybe Thursday when we finish up. Kids are doing a class writing activity on their favourite place in the world and why…so we’re enhancing the activity with a LEGO build in the library.

UPDATE: Just starting Week 2 of the new school year and ALL #BooksOut4Summer loans are back—ZERO BOOKS LOST!(again) Nice! Stats:

Today’s #LibrarianFashion highlights that I’m a citizen of the city of Chilliwack who is More Chill, Less Wack. Walking the ally talk. Always advertising that I and our library are a safe space.

Been bringing the geek chic back, bringing the #LibrarianFashion now that school’s back in this week. Today, my friend, who I carpool with, also wore green sneakers to school + wore a green t-shirt similar shade as my tie…looked like middle schoolers who planned night before to coordinate looks.

Woohoo!

First day back to librarianing and so was glad to see @cdnschoollibrary.bsky.social representing #TLsky #skybrarians on or off the platform ever so well. Great start. Now just ban the book banning squad. canadianschoollibraries.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?...

Alright, Day 1 of the new school year…easing back into my #skybrarians #TLsky spaces here after a summer hiatus…

✨ Teacher Organization Hack! Created my dream toolbox system (and sharing all the details)! Free customizable labels + money-saving tips for supplies. Your classroom desk is about to get a glow-up! 🧰 Link: buff.ly/3Gy0V6P #EduSky

A wildly funky picture book about Ramones singer Joey Ramone… Yeah, I’m in. Ever since my teenage lobotomy, I’ve been a big fan. Hey Ho! Let’s Go!

In the last year, I’ve turned some writing I’ve been doing into literary #zines for local shops. I’m quite fixated on the challenge of #microfiction, so did this Dribs and Drabs zine with various micro stories. I really like this one.

After feedback from posts on two platforms, I went with starting Women in Art for times when I’ve only got 5 min or so to read (it has two-page bio chunks) and with The Rook to start…all other recs to follow rapidly upon completion! Thx for playing along, folks who did.

Help! What book (see pic) should I read next? And, why? I can’t quite make up my mind. This is my super scaled-down TBR pile on my bedside table—only projected potential next reads now go here (…though there are 33 on the “reserve TBR” pile kept in another shelf now). 1/2

I like to make weird pseudo-ads for the zines I sell locally. Recently, when two friends bought a couple #zines and sent photos of their cats “reading” them, I created my newest ads.

Wasn’t sure if I wanted to watch the Murderbot show version recently released. Wasn’t sure sure they’d not botch it. BUT, we just finished watching the series a night or two back (except for the finale to be aired Friday) and I’m so happy that they totally nailed it, especially the humour. Whew!

Mostly on hiatus from socials this summer. School’s out, so no library shares from me… @sartoriallibrary.bsky.social podcast on summer holiday… BUT, might use this space to share writing, zines, Qs about process, Qs on sites/ways to sell zines, Qs re: submitting microfic/poems for publication…

Trying to get back to some writing this summer… Maybe make some more literary zines (though, honestly, barely sold in my city…yet, moving through discouragement…part of process). Anyway, I re-found this poem I wrote a couple years back after devouring some more e.e. cummings work—love his stuff.

Thinking about angry adults not wanting SEL in schools; saw this. Ever notice that people of extreme conservatism, of altright tendencies—soooo many of them with zero SEL skills—viciously attack anyone who teaches/suggests/offers anyone else some emotional regulation learning, basic human decency…?

Last Day of School (with students); just our admin day tomorrow, then…summer holidays! The last families signed up for #BooksOut4Summer checked out today to help #SetTheBooksFree!

LIES! Packaging lies. Felt like the ultimate prank on the penultimate day…folks know I love treats…there they were in the staff room after work…somewhere colleagues are laughing at video footage of my reaction to the blech I tasted. (See also, ALT details on taste)

YES! The first 11 kids signed up to borrow #BooksOut4Summer came in this morning…chose 20ish books each. More families will come by after school and before/after school tomorrow. I love to #SetTheBooksFree rather than leave them in the library shelves all summer.

Today’s inventory/etc/etc #LibrarianSoundtrack brought to you by inspiration from a REM variant in my head this morning (It’s The End of the *Year* As We Know It…and I Feel Fine—but overdramatic for school end, though for state of the actual world…) so selected an REM playlist.

Naturally, I’d be a sucker for a sci-fi story of a library, an apocalypse library… This was a good one! clarkesworldmagazine.com/mehrotra_05_... There’s this one short, simple line that gets repeated in a variation that I especially loved in context of the plot. Need to try some other stories…

DANG! Lost at least 20 minutes of inv/cataloguing/shelving with email replies related to local T-L talk about rolling out an online reader app access because some families might be upset that middle schoolers could have access to YA, some kids not ready for YA, etc, but…sighhhhhhhhh…makes me tired.

Since I know that my #LibrarianSoundtrack will be ever-so-important to all #skybrarians and #TLsky folks, here’s an update… Switched to Ramones… Ay, oh, let’s go!

Nice! I get a quiet day of year-end inventory, shelf org, late cataloguing catch-up (kids out on sports day, etc)…so, solo hanging and pseudo-rocking-out with my stellar Canadiana #LibrarianSoundtrack