I created a “Get Ready with Me” video, which is a popular trend on TikTok. The trend usually involves filming oneself getting dressed, doing hair, or make up, but people also use the format to discuss all kinds of topics while getting ready as well.
Get ready with me as I learn to be a Hyperlinked Librarian
@reallifefrizzle GRWM: MLIS grad school project
My report is designed for library directors and librarians to get ideas and inspiration for food justice programs.
The Ukiah Library’s Kids’ Farmers Market!
I wanted to share this program that the Ukiah Library has been doing for 35 years!
“The Ukiah Branch Library invites all children ages five to 17 to join us in our 35th year of hosting the Kids’ Farmers Market! This annual summer bake sale and market is designed as a learning opportunity for young farmers and entrepreneurs to learn the skills of sales and bartering, cash-based math, design, gardening, and display to create, grow, market, and sell products.”
Last summer, the Library established a partnership with the City of Ukiah and now it’s held in the plaza instead of in the small area outside the library.
Reflection Blog Wild Card: Abolish Police in Libraries
Mariame Kaba is one of my favorite abolitionist writers and organizers (I highly recommend checking out her article, Yes We Mean Literally Abolish the Police, it is a great introduction) and I remember being surprised when I learned she was recently completed her MLIS because I didn’t understand the connection between abolition and public libraries until I began working at one. Now, her decision makes perfect sense. I’ve seen first hand how libraries use police to enforce rules and eject marginalized, often homeless patrons.
Kaba recently released Arrested at the Library: Policing the Stacks, a free zine that is available for online reading or printing. This zine examines the history of public libraries and police and demonstrates the harm that libraries have caused with the police. The zine also shares information about organizations working to abolish police in libraries.
Libraries need to focus on supporting their most marginalized patrons, not ejecting them. When we bring police into libraries we are putting BIPOC, disabled & unhoused patrons at risk of harm. This example from Kaba’s zine demonstrates how police & security guards cause harm to patrons. “Increased security is supposed to increase the safety of patrons. Often, though, police and security guards may intimidate patrons, or actively threaten them. In 2017, an off-duty police officer working as a security guard in the Lakewood Public Library broke the jaw of a 17-year old girl who he was forcibly removing from the building. In 2019, a security guard at the DC Public library threatened to remove a patron unless she took off her hijab.”
Libraries should invest in social workers, like Denver Public Library, and replace security with staff led trauma-informed care models of engagement. Having police in libraries makes libraries LESS safe! We have to reimagine safety in libraries, and that means no police.
Resources about Abolition & Libraries
Abolitionist Library Association & article about them from Teen Vogue
Criminalization 101 for Information Workers
For the People: A Leftist Library Project & their newsletter is here
Image from Radical Roadmaps at https://abolitionist.tools/Criminalization-101-for-Information-Workers
Repair Café at the Ukiah Branch Library on Canva
A friend of mine recently introduced me to the concept of Repair Cafes because there is a new one starting in a neighboring county. When I share this idea with the programming librarian technician at the library where I work, she said has always wanted to do a Repair Café! I used this project as on opportunity to research Repair Cafés and imagine how we could bring one to our library! One of my favorite current programs at our library is our Makerspaces and this seems like a beautiful way to expand the Makerspaces into community events that help meet financial & social needs as well as promoting sustainability.
Infinite Learning Modules: Indigenous Languages & Public Libraries
Many libraries around the world are collaborating with Indigenous peoples to support Indigenous language education.
At the Mendocino County Library, where I work, we have bilingual Northern Pomo/English books that were written by Pomo Dancer, regalia maker, Pomo Master basket weaver, wild food and medicine gatherer and cultural teacher, Buffie Schimdt. She created the books on Shutterfly for her students in her Northern Pomo Language Classes at Ukiah High.
I am friends with Buffie and when we were discussing the addition of her books to the Mendocino County Library collection she mentioned that she wished that people could listen to the books so they could learn how to pronounce the words. My spouse has experience with audio recording so we recently collaborated with Buffie to record her reading each of her 5 Northern Pomo Language books and share the recordings online. Now we are in the process of collaborating with the Mendocino County Library to promote the debut of the Northern Pomo Language Books eAudiobooks available for free online on Sound Cloud. The Library is going to release a press release and flyers about the audiobooks and will have free stickers with a QR code and url to the website that anyone with a copy of Buffie’s books can come get for their books (the stickers will also be placed in the library books).
The website with the audiobooks: https://soundcloud.com/northernpomobooks
Teaching Users How to Identify AI-Generated Images
This module had me thinking about AI and how often I find myself trying to teach my Facebook friends how to identify AI generated images. I decided to research if public libraries are already doing education around spotting AI imagery. Here’s what I found:
After reading about what libraries are currently doing, I brainstormed more ideas.
Here’s a great example of an infographic I found from one of my favorite authors, Aiden Thomas!
(Unfortunately, it appears that test doesn’t work anymore but you can see the answers which are educational!)
Reflection Blog: Hyperlinked Environments: Public Libraries:
Fine Free Libraries
I appreciated Salt Lake City’s article about The Fine Free Library: One Year Later. I am very grateful to work at a fine free library! I have seen the positive effects on patrons, especially families, disabled patrons, and low income patrons. I understand the need & purpose for fees for lost or damaged materials, but I have seen how this can become a barrier for low-income patrons. After one of our regular patrons who is currently unhoused, had the majority of their belongings stolen, including two library books, it struck me at how even lost fines create barriers. She couldn’t afford to pay the fines, and the only person authorized to waive fines is the branch librarian and only for our branches’ materials. It felt so awful to have to tell this patron who was experiencing a serious hardship, that she should email the branch librarian of our branch and the library in the sister consortium to explain what happened and see if they would waive the fines. It felt the only options were for her to have to replay her trauma and be vulnerable to two people (one she never met) or not be able to use any of the library’s services. And to me, the unhoused community is one of the populations who needs/benefits from the library the most!!
I plan on doing more research, but I want to know how libraries are finding ways to forgive lost or damaged fines for low-income patrons. San Jose Public Library has a program where patrons can volunteer at the library to clear charges at a rate of $20 an hour. I think this is a fantastic option!
Potential ideas for solutions I have been marinating on:
The City Library. (2018, August 9). The Fine Free Library: One Year Later. https://slcpl.medium.com/the-fine-free-library-one-year-later-d28c69743c15
San Jose Public Library. (nd.). Volunteer Away Your Fines. https://www.sjpl.org/vayf/
This module has my brain going a mile a minute!! I feel so energized about community access and care in libraries.
This week was the first library program I’ve ever facilitated, a Narcan Training hosted by MCAVHN, a local harm reduction non-profit that “provides services and supports to persons affected by substance use disorders and behavioral health conditions.” The idea for this program came from a friend of mine who was supported by MCAVHN when they were going through recovery. My library already has a partnership with MCAVHN, they have been supplying hygiene kits, period kits, Narcan and safe sex supplies for our Little Free Pantry we have outside the library.
This module inspired me to chat with the MCAVHN Program Director since he was in the library for the program. I asked him what services or programs he wished MCAVHN had resources or time for that the library might be able to support. He said a resume workshop would be really helpful for their participants and that MCAVHN has two drop in programs where participants hang out and make crafts/cook, etc and it would be a great time for library staff to come visit and talk to the patrons about what they would like to see in the library. I am excited about getting to build relationships and get feedback from community members that my library doesn’t currently do outreach with. We have 10 Chromebooks for in-library use and it would be awesome to use those for a resume workshop, the workshop could be at MCAVHN or at the library or both! I think bringing library staff & resources to the populations we want to serve is a great way to connect with the community and a good equity practice.
The Little Free Pantry at the Ukiah Library & the Flyer for the Narcan Training
