"No tests, no grades, design your own major, hippie school" is how I describe the place I went to college. It's closing. It's a bit shocking that it lasted this long. I wrote up a few thoughts about it. www.jessamyn.com/journal/2026...

@erikahall.bsky.social chicken drawing news for you. library.chethams.com/blog/births-...

"The century-old library in Stanstead, Quebec [and Derby Line Vermont] that straddles the Canada-U.S. border now has a new door so Canadians can get in after the U.S. limited entry to the building last year." I know a lot of you pitched in. Here's a nice update. 📚 www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/art...

Did not know I was holding my breath... "The [VT State Library] has received official notification of its IMLS grant award for federal fiscal year 2026. This grant award of $1.2M makes up approximately one third of the Department’s budget and supports library services for Vermonters." 📚

It's #TransDayOfVisibility If you are a young person (13-26) wanting to read books on queer or trans topics in the US that have been restricted/banned in your area, you can. Get a card, read online. booksunbanned.com/card

"Libraries are sanctuaries for knowledge and peace... We should embrace them more, all of us." Bill "Spaceman" Lee's comment when his hometown public library (pop. 1343) was awarded a 25K grant in honor of the 1975 Red Sox. 📚 www.craftsburypubliclibrary.org/yawkey

I am sponsoring a racecar in Vermont, driven by a young woman from my town. The entire hood and back bumper have been reserved for whatever pro-library message I'll put on there. $600 total. 🏎️ I crowdsource this fun project every year. Chip in? Venmo: @iamthebestartist or DM me for other options.

"Librarians We Have Lost," a crowdsourced initiative from ALA's Library History Round Table, seeks to honor the memory, service, and professional contributions of librarians, educators, and library workers over the past 50 years. Read more and learn how you can add a tribute: https://bit.ly/4uPGc4Y

They told you it was inevitable. It’s not. It never was. www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...

📚 If you are someone who is not super aware of Advanced Search options, then I guess you should read this if you can stand Substack (which you maybe shouldn't). Also, talk to a librarian (even online) to ask if you're actually looking in the right place. Many databases aren't searchable via Google

@trackgovinfo.bsky.social is a group of librarians “tracking actions by the current administration that impact government info,” including “removed or modified documents & websites; language censorship; suspension or elimination of agencies, programs, funding, or services; & collection of gov data.”

My town was just named as one of Yankee Magazine's best small towns in New England (#18!) and the tiny blurb mentions the "thriving gathering place" which is my public library. RIP my property taxes eventually I guess, but this is a nice thing. newengland.com/travel/new-e...

Me at work today. Enjoy!

Reading audiobooks is reading. Full stop. 📚 news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

Search your camera roll for hell. (I admit, I did not know my phone did this)

For the record, everything about the Postal Service is cool as hell, and everyone who doesn't support it is a loser who sucks.

Good for them. "Joining the wave of union organizing among cultural workers, employees of the American Library Association (ALA) announced they are forming their union with AFSCME Council 31." afscme31.org/news/america...

Clara Stanton Jones was the first Black president of ALA, guiding them towards a resolution about awareness of racism and sexism. The UAW backed her as the Detroit Public Library director when the Friends and some board members didn't. #BlackHistoryMonth www.library.illinois.edu/ala/2016/02/...

Tomorrow's Town Meeting day. I may be speaking against the library budget (for complicated reasons involving errors in how the budget was created by the Selectboard - this is the library-approved tactic). This guy's story was complex too. Democracy is hard. www.manchesterjournal.com/news/local/a...

"For many years, prevalent, ableist language and stereotypes in books made me hesitant to read romances with disabled characters. This has started to change only in the past few years, as more books by disabled authors get published." bookriot.com/what-romance...

Monteria Hightower was State Librarian of Missouri and left when she felt she was being asked to give special privileges to state employees incl. Governor Ashcroft. She fought the politicization of the library & later became State Librarian of Nevada #BlackHistoryMonth www.jstor.org/stable/25633...

This one is for @kochalka.bsky.social context: we make up fun ballots for the kids to fill-in while their parents are voting. #vermont

Leaonead Pack Drain-Bailey was a library director and bibliographer. She compiled a biographical dictionary of the authors of Broadside Press, a large part of the Black Arts Movement publishing Black authors often who had no other published info. #BlackHistoryMonth en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaonea...

Annie McPheeters was a bookmobile librarian and later managed segregated libraries in Atlanta where she ran adult education programs for Black patrons especially surrounding civics and voting. She campaigned for library desegregation. #BlackHistoryMonth www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/edu...

@erikahall.bsky.social I was at a quilt exhibit today and FOR SOME REASON thought of you.

Dorothy Porter was a librarian at Howard University where she took a small collection of donated materials by and about Black Americans and curated it for 40 years into the 180,000 item Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. #BlackHistoryMonth www.historians.org/perspectives...

Effie Lee Morris was another public librarian and educator who provided materials and guidance for blind children. She was a children's rights advocate and wrote the original selection criteria for the Coretta Scott King Award. #BlackHistoryMonth americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2009/11/16/c...

Arthur Schomburg identified as Afroborinqueño. Using recovery historiography, he collected materials to counter racist narratives. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at NYPL is his legacy. Mamdani was sworn in on Schomburg's Koran #BlackHistoryMonth www.nypl.org/blog/2024/01...

Belle da Costa Greene developed the personal library of JP Morgan, bought many very fancy books, and worked on making them available to the public. There are two novels based on her life. She destroyed most of her private papers before her death. #BlackHistoryMonth www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/...

"Is it still important to have Black librarians in libraries?"asks Rodney Freeman Jr. a librarian at UNC. Jason Reynolds replies. Freeman is making a documentary: Are You a Librarian?The Untold Story of Black Librarians. #BlackHistoryMonth www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFIE... blavity.com/black-librar...

Augusta Baker was a children's librarian at NYPL in the 1930s through the 1970s. She was dedicated to curating collections with positive portrayals of Black people in children's books, becoming a storytelling specialist. #BlackHistoryMonth educatingsouthcarolina.blogspot.com/2011/07/augu...

Before the Tougaloo Nine, the Greenville Eight. These eight people, including the late Jesse Jackson, demanded their right to use the Greenville SC "whites only" library in 1960. They were arrested and defended by Greenville's first Black lawyer. #BlackHistoryMonth en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenvi...

158 - Flickr Commons feat. Jessamyn West It’s a fun one! We’re talking with @librarian.bsky.social about the public domain, new and old technology, blogging at the DNC, and lots of inside baseball.

Sadie Peterson Delaney worked at NYPL then moved to Tuskegee AL to be a librarian at the VA. She was an early advocate of bibliotherapy, pairing people needing care w/ reading material which engaged them and helped them heal. She also taught Braille. poklib.org/sadie-peters... #BlackHistoryMonth

Major Owens was a librarian who helped found the NY Social Responsibilities Round Table. He went on to become a NY State Senator and then a US Rep, following Shirley Chisolm. He shepherded the Americans with Disabilities Act through the House. #BlackHistoryMonth www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2021/05...

Lorene Byron Brown published Subject Headings for African American Materials, an accompaniment to LCSH with 5,000 additional headings relevant to Black people. She was Dean of the Atlanta U. School of Library and Information Science in the 1980s. #BlackHistoryMonth en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorene_...

A Flickr album of hearts I've made or found. Creative Commons licensed so feel free to remix and/or share. www.flickr.com/photos/iamth...

Samuel Starks was the first Black person to be a US state librarian, appointed in 1901 in West Virginia because of his position in the state Republican party. He was very active in the Knights of Pythias, founded a newspaper, and died too young. #BlackHistoryMonth en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_...

Mayme A. Clayton was a librarian and founder of the Western States Black Research & Education Center, then the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum, now held by CSU. Thousands of items, collected to show "black people have done great things" #BlackHistoryMonth lacmaonfire.blogspot.com/2020/07/maym...

As someone from Massachusetts, who got her library degree in Seattle, I love every part of this story. "We are always on the same team in supporting the freedom to read!" 🥹

Jason Broughton was the first Black State Librarian in Vermont. He led the library through the early days of COVID and left to become the director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. He's a librarian's librarian. #BlackHistoryMonth rollcall.com/2021/11/18/j...

Four athletes with hometowns in #Vermont are in the #Olympics. They're from four separate towns, combined total pop. of 3666. Afaict this is the smallest average (917) hometown population size, next smallest being Indiana at 5129 (one guy!) for any of the 32 states that are hometown to an Olympian

One reason we know so much about Black librarians in the early days of library professionalism is because the DC Civic Library Association (an association for Black librarians in Washington DC) published A Directory of Negro Graduates of Accredited Library Schools (1900-1936) #BlackHistoryMonth

The Hampton Institute Library School opened in 1925 and issued professional teacher-library degrees to 183 black women by the time of its closure in 1939. It was funded by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of NY. #BlackHistoryMonth

Elfreda Chatman was a former Catholic sister, known for her research into the info-seeking behaviors of traditionally understudied groups--poor people, elderly, women prisoners, janitors. Her theory of information poverty was foundational in LIS studies. #BlackHistoryMonth eric.ed.gov?id=EJ1311930

Roberta Byrd Barr was a TV personality and librarian who ran one of the Freedom Schools in Seattle during the 1966 school boycott. She worked with Seattle Public Library to promote the development of their African-American Collection. #BlackHistoryMonth

Ann Allen Shockley, an archivist at Fisk U, wrote fiction focusing on the "triple jeopardy" facing black lesbians—racism, sexism, homophobia—& strategies for empowerment. She led the processing of the Rosenwald Fund Papers so they could be digitized. #BlackHistoryMonth direct.mit.edu/books/oa-edi...

In 1965 E.J. Josey became the first Black librarian in the Georgia Library Assoc. which had been whites-only for 68 yrs. He co-founded the Black Caucus of ALA and became president of ALA in 1984. He wrote the Handbook of Black Librarianship. #BlackHistoryMonth www.libraryjournal.com/story/E-J-Jo...

The Faith Cabin Library project (“built on faith, housed in cabins.”) built ~100 libraries for Black students mostly in SC and Georgia supporting schools without libraries (where public libraries were off limits b/c of segregation) #BlackHistoryMonth cdm17173.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

Annette Lewis Phinazee was the first woman and the first Black American woman to earn a library science PhD from Columbia University, in 1961. She was the first Black president of the NC Library Association in 1975. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette... #BlackHistoryMonth