tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47718874826823645432024-03-18T23:03:44.867-04:00BeerBrarianLibraries. Beer. DC. ISSN 2328-5656BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.comBlogger198125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-73506938081809197802023-12-28T09:55:00.002-05:002023-12-29T13:00:41.833-05:00Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2023<p>Well, I guess we're still blogging once a year, so here goes. </p><p>I thought 2023 was a very good year for noises. Lots of cool, interesting sounds. In a past life we were arsonists, it's the 2023 list!</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mL9pYyYn0dg?si=l-bNmoT2HElMP08G" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><br /></p><p>1) <b>feeble little horse - Girl with Fish</b>: Saddle Creek Records is known for aggressively twee music, but my favorite album of the year is tweely aggressive. The scuzziest, horniest record the label has ever put out, there's not one clean guitar note on the album, indebted to both 4AD/Creation and Sarah/K albums. Or, if Wet Leg sniffed a lot more glue. </p><p>2) <b>Popular Music - Minor Works of Popular Music</b>: Achingly gorgeous goth-tinged, synthy chamber pop.</p><p>3) <b>The Armed - Perfect Saviors</b>: From maximalist hardcore on their last album to maximalist rock, and pop, on this one. </p><p>4) <b>Smote - Genog</b>: It's drone, it's folk, it's psych. I fell into its spell. </p><p>That's the top 4. Want to quibble with the rest of the list? Fine by me. Really, quibble all you want, it's just opinions. </p><p>5) <b>bar italia - Tracey Denim</b>: "Aggressively British" post-punk in the vein of the xx and Young Marble Giants. They have three singers, and none of them are any good, but that's part of the charm. They have a second album, The Twits, that's pretty good, too. </p><p>6) <b>MSPAINT - Post-American</b>: The "is it hardcore" debate is boring, so here's an identifiably hardcore album with no guitars. Instead you get multiple synths, fuzzed out bass, and drums. Get in the pit! </p><p>7) <b>Home Front - Games of Power</b>: Ever wondered what it would be like to get curb-stomped by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark? Wonder no more! A new wave band that sounds like When in Rome, but they tour with hardcore bands (produced by the drummer from Fucked Up), lyrically are closer to Gang of Four, and are ready to beat your ass. </p><p>8) <b>boygenius - the record</b>: By law this must appear on every 2023 best of list.</p><p>9) <b>Altin Guen - Ask</b>: Turkish psych from the '70s, today!</p><p>10) <b>Inevitable - Summer Haze '99</b>: None of this makes any sense, not the name, not the stylistic departures from heterodox black metal to... Spanish-language pop, with scat!, but I kept listening to it, so here we are. </p><p>11) <b>Mandy, Indiana - i've seen a way</b>: Industrial, beat-driven noise rock in which the aura of capitalist violence permeates everything. There's blood on the dancefloor!</p><p>12) <b>Black Country, New Road - Live at Bush Hall</b>: When the lead singer and lyricist left the band the rest of them chose to sing, and wrote all new material to perform live. It's still very good. </p><p>13) <b>Oxn - CYRM</b>: It's folk, it's doom, it's psych, I fell into its spell. </p><p>14) <b>Gisli Gunnarsson - Momentos</b>: The only post-whatever Icelandic album you need this year.</p><p>15) <b>Joel Ortiz - Signature</b>: It's kinda funny to hear Andre 3000 talk about rap as a young person's genre when you could just rap about how hip hop got you a house in the 'burbs and reflect on how you came up. </p><p>16) <b>Czarface - Czartificial Intelligence</b>: It's kinda funny to hear Andre 3000 talk about rap as a young person's genre when you could just rap about having fun with the comic books of our youth over boom bap beats with the occasional keyboard flourish. </p><p>17) <b>Ragana - Desolation's Flower:</b> A gorgeous mix of doom and black metal. </p><p>18) <b>Protomartyr - Formal Growth in the Desert</b>: Still post-punk, but with more doom, plus they made a beer with my friends. </p><p>19) <b>Algiers - Shook</b>: The vocalist and drummer cede a lot of space to guests on this album, which is a radical move for a radical band. A glorious, overstuffed mess of a record that parties at the end of the world. </p><p>20) <b>Wednesday - Rat Saw God</b>: '90s style indie/alt rock, some shoegazey noise, and a great alt-country song, all in one package. </p><p>Also, because why not: To Be Gentle - What Keeps Me Here; Katie Gately - Fawn/Brute; Nation of Language - Strange Disciple. I've got 5-10 others I could mention here, but I'd like to get this list out, so here we are. </p><p>Cheers to: Slowdive, for aging gracefully, a shoegaze Yo La Tengo; Lankum, for kicking off the micro-genre of folk/drone/doom from the Isles; and both Danny Brown and Joel Ortiz had themselves a good year in what I think was a down year for rap. Two remastered reissues that sound great: Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense and REM's 25th anniversary of Up. Two albums I missed in 2022 that could have been on last year's list: Ashenspire and Liminal Shroud. </p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V8I7JGpeI-E?si=s77vRki7lCxtEuhF" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><br /></p><p><a href="#anchor"><b>Beer</b></a></p><p>We only appear to have lost two breweries inside the Beltway this year (Astro Lab became Third Hill and I'm not counting them for our purposes), and one of them, <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2023/12/15/the-public-option-hits-pause/" target="_blank">The Public Option</a>, could return in 2024. Given what a shit year it was for restaurants, it could have been a lot worse and I hope that it doesn't get worse in 2024. The rough rules of the game are that the beer should be new or new to market in 2023. We'll do the DMV in alphabetical order, then the others. </p><p><b>Atlas - Yawn</b>, Barrel Aged Quad: I don't like quads, but both the base beer and the barreling really shine here, plus I put them in contact with one of the distilleries, so I might be biased. Just a very well done job, with layers of dark fruit complemented by boozy, oaky tannins from four different barrels. </p><p><b>City-State - Air and Space</b>, West Coast IPA: I'd put this up against any other beer in the style made in the DMV.</p><p><b>DC Brau/Pink Boots Society - Pink Phase IPA</b>: A blast of fruit punch and tropical fruit notes from the hops, and a bit of stone fruit esters from the yeast as well. Very well done. </p><p><b>Denizens - Turkey Fest</b>, barrel-fermented Marzen: Too many Oktoberfest beers are too sweet, so here's a clever solution: ferment the beer in a barrel and let the oak dry it out a bit. </p><p><b>Right Proper - Raised by Giant Wolves</b>, Pale Ale: Raised By Wolves is something like 60% of this brewery's production, but I don't love the hopping on it. I do love the hopping on its bigger sibling, named for the Giant grocery chain. I hope to see it again in 2024.</p><p><b>Liquid Intrusion - South of DC Cream Ale</b>: This and Right Proper Senate were probably the two beers I drank the most of this year. Beer flavored beer. </p><p><b>Lost Generation - Back to Oblivion IPA</b>; <b>Dying Moons and Shadows</b> Czech Dark Lager; <b>Tiger Spirit</b> Witbier (with Bluejacket and 50 Hertz Tingly Foods): This is the brewery I drank at the most this year. Just over a year in and it's already the best in the city.</p><p><b>Ocelot - Formal Growth in the Desert</b>, Lager: Ocelot's lager game has never been better, and I thought this was the best one. The brewery's logo is a guitar pick and they're named after a Phish song, so <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2023/01/23/ocelot-and-fcked-up-ask-what-you-would-drink-in-one-day/" target="_blank">a partnership with Merge Records</a> shouldn't be too surprising. </p><p><b>Port City - Colossal II,</b> imperial smoked porter: A re-brew of their second anniversary ale</p><p><b>Troddenvale - Dickie Brothers Orchard</b>, Cider: Virginia Winesap and Black Twig apples from an orchard that's been active for nearly 300 years, with no commercial yeast added. Dry, but not too dry. Funky, but not too funky. Tart, but not too tart. Cider perfection. </p><p><b>Wheatland Spring - Return Estate Piedmont Pilsner</b> and <b>Goslar</b>, Gose. </p><p>The out of towners: </p><p><b>Lindeman's - Cuvee Francesca</b>, Geuze: This came out in 2022 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the namesakes' marriage, but it was new to me in the first half of 2023 and whenever I saw it I bought it. </p><p><b>Troegs and Warwick Farm Brewing - Foraging for Clouds</b>, Hazy DIPA - The unlikely featuring of Azacca as a lead hop, along with BRU-1, Citra, and Simcoe makes for one of my favorite IPAs of the year. Pillow soft, with unexpected notes of vanilla to go along with the obvious citrus and tropical fruits. </p><p><b>Sacred Profane - Dark</b>, Tmave: I have no idea how there is enough of this to go around that DC got kegs and Virginia got cans and kegs, but I'm not complaining. A 4% crushable dark lager. </p><p><b>Schilling and Human Robot - Tmave 10</b>: The day after Snallygaster the best thing you can do is head to Other Half and drink three pints of this and hang out with friends old and new. </p><p><b>Tilquin - Cuvee Marie-Catherine</b>, Gueze: Perhaps the best beer I had at Snallygaster; so good that I bought a bottle the next week. </p><p><b>Xul - PB&J Mixtape</b>, fruited hard seltzer: I can't <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2023/10/18/overthinking-it-xul-beer-co-s-pbj-mixtape/" target="_blank">write this</a> and then not include the "beer." </p><p>Next year is an election year, it's going to be bad. Here's hoping it's as least bad as possible. Cheers and thanks for reading. </p>BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-84518899544693112432022-12-30T09:07:00.001-05:002023-01-03T15:36:07.114-05:00Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2022<p>On Wednesday, September 23rd I saw New Order and The Pet Shop Boys; on Friday the 25th it was Earth and Iceage. Sunday the 27th was The Veldt. That was a good week. Here are my favorites of 2022. </p><p> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sQzafcnb48Y" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe> </p><p>1) <b>Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful</b>: The Brian Wilson of space rock, Jason Pierce's late-career renaissance continues with seven gorgeous songs whose obvious influences start in the '60s (The Beach Boys, Brill Building pop, The Beatles on drugs,...) and continue into pysch, Krautrock, drone, and more, yet the whole album sounds grounded, a man at peace with himself. Long may he run. </p><p>2) <b>Sadness - Tortuga</b>: About 30 seconds into the first track it begins to sound like Swervedriver kidnapped The Polyphonic Spree and forced them to sing at knifepoint in a swimming pool, if you're into that kind of thing. Sure, there's some atmospheric/depressive black metal going on here, but mostly there's something else, maybe post-hardcore, maybe post-rock, maybe slowcore, and whatever it is I want more of it. </p><p>3) <b>The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention</b>: The best Radiohead album in a decade. </p><p>4) <b>Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There</b>: A weird slow burn of jazzy, folkie indie that absolutely explodes in the second half of the album... and then the lead singer up and left the band right after the album came out. Nice way to leave, I suppose. </p><p>5) <b>Ellende - Ellenbogengesellshaft</b>: There's nobody doing atmospheric black metal better right now. It's their world, we just live in it. </p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MHvNapx5PFo" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p><p>6) <b>Freddie Gibbs - $oul $old $eparately</b>: Gibbs has been on my radar for a while now, and I'm not sure why this one, and not his work with singular producers like The Alchemist or Madlib, resonated with me. Gibbs is equally at home on trap beats and soul samples, and is enough of a formalist that he put celebrity voicemails on this album even though doing that was wack in 2001. It's good. </p><p>7) <b>Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems</b>: An exhilarating, bone-crushing, genre-hopping indictment of punk and hardcore, and of race in America and beyond. "Everybody in the pit" means everybody. </p><p>8) <b>Drug Church</b> <b>- Hygiene</b>: A crunchy slice of '90s-style post-hardcore that rips through 10 songs in 26 minutes, as it should be. </p><p>9) <b>Wet Leg - Wet Leg</b>: Look, we knew this was going to be on this list since hearing "Wet Dream" and "Chaise Lounge" last year. </p><p>10) <b>Defcee and BoatHouse - For All Debts Public and Private</b>: I'm into Armand Hammer, euclid and billy woods, but I'm more into their Chicago associates Defcee and BoatHouse, who effortlessly mix boom bap and arthouse. </p><p>11) <b>Conway the Machine - God Don't Make Mistakes</b>: The first album from the Griselda crew that all came together for me is Conway's first for Shady Records, in which the rapper mixes word play with the traumas of his past so deftly that it feels like both an exorcism and a celebration. </p><p>12) <b>Danger Mouse and Black Thought, Cheat Codes</b>: Dense and knotty, with no room to breathe, and yes, that's a Massive Attack sample. </p><p><b>I also enjoyed</b>: Vargatand - s/t; Panda Bear and Sonic Boom - Reset; Half String - A Fascination With Heights; MWWB - The Harvest; Rich Aucoin - Synthetic: Season One; The Reds, The Pinks, and the Purples - They Only Wanted Your Soul. </p><p><b>Singles</b>: Alvvays, Pharmacist; Big Thief, Simulation Swarm; Knifeplay, Promise; Pusha T, Diet Coke. </p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RnatkV_92Bw" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><br /></p><p><a href="#anchor">Beer</a>: Losing 3 Stars and Rocket Frog sucked, especially the former. Small consolation that so many breweries, including the locals, have really upped their lager games. As usual, I'll do the out of towners, then the DMV, and the rough rules of the game are that the beer should be new to market in 2022. </p><p><b>Allagash, Seconds to Summer, Lager</b> - This is basically a 10 Plato Czech-style Pils, except there's Belgian yeast. Crushable. </p><p><b>The Bruery, Portified Black Tuesday, Imperial Stout</b> - This beer-wine hybrid falls <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2022/06/07/savor-2022-the-weird-ones/">just barely on the beer side of things</a>. Bottled still, it's marvelous, as is their Petit Mardi, a worthy replacement that was released later on in 2022. Both are well-balanced post-dinner sippers. </p><p><b>Burial, Deliver Us to Evil, Imperial Stout</b> - Every so often you have a beer and all conversation just stops as people sip. That happened at a bottle share thanks to this beer. Barrel, adjuncts, and base all in perfect harmony. </p><p><b>Fair Isle Brewing, Alicel, Saison </b>- This Seattle-based all-farmhouse outfit started shipping to DC in January and hoo boy is this one of the better saisons you'll have this year or any year. </p><p><b>Fifth Hammer, Jib and Jigger, foeder-aged Vienna Lager</b> - The Andy's Pizza beer game is sneaky good and this was one of the most memorable beers I had there. </p><p><b>Fast Fashion, Hidden Gems IPA</b> - You can read <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2022/06/01/little-fish-big-tale-how-fast-fashion-caught-its-own-hop/">the award-winning article about these folks at DC Beer</a>. </p><p><b>Fox Farm, Annata 2021 Foeder-Aged Mixed Fermentation Ale w/ Wine Grapes </b>- The very first beer I had at this year's <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2022/10/07/snallygaster-2022-power-ranking-over-400-beers/">Snallygaster</a>, the <b>Cohesion lagers</b> lived up to the hype, too. </p><p><b>Lawson's, Black IPA</b> - Perhaps fashionably behind the times to wait until 2022 to release this style, but it was worth the wait, remarkably well balanced between West Coast hops and dark malts. </p><p>Locally your rookies of the year are <b>Landmade</b> and <b><a href="https://dcbeer.com/2022/10/24/lost-generation-brewing-co-opens/">Lost Generation</a></b>. The former's lager game has been impressive right off the bat, with a keen understanding of how foeders can add a little "tang" or "snap" to lagers--Czech out both <b>Maggie</b> (Pils) and <b>Lewis</b> (Helles)--while the latter struck gold immediately with <b>Grave Shift</b> dark lager and <b>Feather Kitty</b>, one of the area's better hazies. <br /></p><p><b>3 Stars, Chillum Lite, Lite Lager</b> - Grim irony that just as this brewery ran out of time their lager game was never better. A plurality of the beer I drank from March to July was probably this. RIP. </p><p><b>Denizens, Barrel-aged Low County Common</b> - Bringing a 4.1% alcohol by volume six-year old beer (!!!) to an event focused on barrels, which usually means big stouts, is a risk, but it paid off here. With nothing else under 11% brewers and guests alike returned to this table to drink this remarkably well-balanced rye barrel-aged Kentucky Common, featuring notes of chocolate, cherry, strawberry, raspberry, and coffee. They should bottle it, and in 2023 I think they will. </p><p><b>Elder Pine, Summon the Moon Lord, Barrel-aged Barleywine</b> - A 24-hour boil to really cook those malts, and then a year and a half in bourbon barrels. Dangerously easy to drink a tallboy. </p><p><b>Ocelot, Jacks and Jokers, Hazy IPA</b> - One of my favorite hop combinations is Amarillo and Simcoe, producing almost bubble gum flavors. The addition of Citra to this year's batch really kicked it up a notch for me. </p><p><b>Other Half and Schilling, 8th Anniversary Lager</b> - Other Half came here billed as an “IPA factory,” but I’m really digging their lagers instead. They ended the year with the Halfway Crooks collaboration <b>Monotonous Miles</b>, a Belgian-style pils that's also very good. The best IPA I had from them was <b>All Riwaka Everything</b>. </p><p><b>Red Bear, 3rd Anniversary IPA, Hazy IPA</b> - Strata remains one of my favorite hops for hazy IPAs. This was a blast of strawberries. Lovely stuff. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilQqUN176EkE2QPpmZ8PsrDUvkCcJHDzkssWFhNjwGcSPMZOiN3pHJeV_OwyWiCupmQfyQy7aMK6mY95fLSobjdR7mW-qxyWcrkzw9U1ZF6sALtPpl5sHPIwsZZzHLVKpIaw7dI4N4rsDaJFYR4VhvGPzvvwCCoiT6YVRfpP4C-kztpfi77MWuG9sv-Q/s2016/IMG_7299.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilQqUN176EkE2QPpmZ8PsrDUvkCcJHDzkssWFhNjwGcSPMZOiN3pHJeV_OwyWiCupmQfyQy7aMK6mY95fLSobjdR7mW-qxyWcrkzw9U1ZF6sALtPpl5sHPIwsZZzHLVKpIaw7dI4N4rsDaJFYR4VhvGPzvvwCCoiT6YVRfpP4C-kztpfi77MWuG9sv-Q/s320/IMG_7299.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p><b>Wheatland Spring, Estate Barleywine, Barrel-aged Barleywine</b> - Barley from their fields, whiskey barrels from the closest distillery, Catoctin Creek, and Georges Mill even made a goat cheese washed in it. </p><p>Here's to 2023, may it treat us better. </p>BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-88909380800048714662021-12-28T09:30:00.003-05:002022-01-03T08:56:29.411-05:00Beer and Music, Music and Beer 2021<p>There's still no commute, but at least the kids are back in physical school (knock on wood), which affords me more time to listen, headphones or not. I've got Buffalo 66 on DVD, hit the lights, it's the 2021 music and beer list! </p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7U_LhzgwJ4U" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p><p>1) <i>The Armed - Ultrapop</i>: <a href="https://thearmed.bandcamp.com/album/ultrapop" target="_blank">This album sounds like everything, all at once</a>, which makes sense because their might be 19 people credited on this album. Think a post-hardcore XTRMNATOR and you're getting closer.</p><p>2) <i>Iceage - Seek Shelter</i>: It's kind of scary how good this group has gotten and their principal lyricist is just 30. Post-punk, and somehow getting a bit "Brittier."</p><p>3) <i>The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore</i>: It's not as good as the last one, but it's still pretty fucking good. What Granduciel has done over the past 3-4 albums, updating the corporate rock sounds of the 1980s in the service of his own nostalgia and memories, is so impressive, both musically and as a meta-narrative. </p><p>4) <i>Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion</i>: When an album gestates for 15 years, and takes 12 months across home studios on two continents--during a pandemic--to record, it better be worth the wait. Well, it's epic as fuck <a href="https://etherealshroud.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">and you should listen to it</a>. </p><p>5) <i>Idles - Crawler</i>: A most welcome return to form for this band. I wrote this about 2018's Brutalism and it applies here: "A sneering, searing piece of post-punk that's alternately witty and too clever by half, propelled by near-industrial drumming."</p><p>6) <i>Sadness - Rain Chamber</i>: What is it? Like that song at the end of True Romance, turned inside out, mutated into orchestral dream pop, blackgaze, ambient, a Polyphonic Spree song, and more. Fucking magnificent. <a href="https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com/album/rain-chamber" target="_blank">They dropped like 3 other albums this year</a> that are worth a listen, too. </p><p>7) Chubby and the Gang: The Mutt's Nutts: Yes, it does feel dumb to type out these band and album names, but listen to tracks like "Life on the Bayou" and you'll see that this group is dead serious. A winning mix of early '80s-influenced punk and hardcore. <a href="https://chubbyandthegang.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Get in the pit</a>! Or, yanno, don't. </p><p>8) <i>Lucy Dacus - Home Video</i>: "Thumbs" is an absolutely gutting song. One of the best lyricists in the business. </p><p>9) <i>Gruff Rhys - Seeking New Gods</i>: I'd like a new Furries album as much as anyone, but if Rhys is going to put out solo stuff this good then everyone can take their time. A bit more rock action on this release compared to others, which is nice. </p><p>10) <i>Wednesday - <a href="https://wednesdayband.bandcamp.com/album/twin-plagues-2" target="_blank">Twin Plagues</a></i>: My favorite shoegaze album of the year marries guitar squalls with some Roger Moutenot-esque wistful indie and alt-country.</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ibj87fwRaM" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p><p>I also enjoyed:</p><p><i>Ellende - Triebe</i>: They, uh, got bored during the pandemic and revisited an album from 2014. These reworked versions are better. <a href="https://ellende.bandcamp.com/album/triebe" target="_blank">Much better</a>. Loud-quiet-loud dynamics where post-rock meets atmospheric black metal.</p><p><i>Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G-d's Pee AT STATE'S END!</i>: They almost sound happy towards the end of this one, which is odd. Look around, what's to be happy about???</p><p><i>Koldovstvo - Ни царя, ни бога</i>: I think they're Russian, and of all the atmospheric, doomy metal I listened to this year, this album is the most atmospheric, thanks to chanting I don't understand. <a href="https://koldovstvo.bandcamp.com/album/-" target="_blank">It's pay what you want</a>, so get lost in it. </p><p><i>Uncommon Weather - The Reds, Pinks, and Purples</i>: Your <a href="https://theredspinksandpurples.bandcamp.com/album/uncommon-weather" target="_blank">sad-bastard-bedroom-pop</a> album of the year. </p><p><i>Violet Cold - Empire of Love</i>: Progressive both politically and musically, this is nominally a black metal album, but has a banjo lead on "Working Class" and chopped and screwed Houston-style rapping on another track. <a href="https://violetcold.bandcamp.com/album/empire-of-love" target="_blank">Dementedly joyous fun</a>. </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R4Y7JIQlv20" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Singles: Chvrches and Robert Smith, How Not to Drown; Tyler the Creator, Lumberjack; Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen, Like I Used To; Kanye West featuring Jay Electronica and Jadakiss, Jesus Lord pt 2; Parquet Courts, Walking at a Downtown Pace; Ducks Ltd, 18 Cigarettes. <p>Cheers to: </p><p>Your Old Droog, whose Space Bar is probably my favorite rap album of the year, plus... he's Jewish! The Alchemist had a pretty good year on the production side of things, too. </p><p>Quicksand, for being my first indoor concert since early 2020, and for "Phase 90," easily the best post-hardcore song about trying to get into a book. </p><p>Wet Leg, for dropping two clever singles, with a The-Breeders-meet-The-Violent-Femmes vibe.</p><p>Des Demonas, for their 17-minute Cure for Love EP. All killer, no filler.</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cw7jOq0op5E" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p><p>What a great year it was for rauchbier, that smoky, slightly sweet collection of styles where malted barley is dried via wood fires, thus picking up some of the smoke flavor. Both <b>Dovetail's </b>(IL) and <b>Suarez's </b>(NY) excellent versions were available because those breweries <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2020/04/28/the-czechs-in-the-mail-breweries-begin-shipping-direct-to-dc-and-va/" target="_blank">ship to DC</a>, and <b>Port City's</b> seasonal Rauch Marzen was excellent, as usual. At one point in my fridge I had those, plus <b>Von Trapp's</b> Torsten (VT), <b>Wolf's Ridge</b> Buchenrauch (OH), <b>Halfway Crooks</b> Smoked Helles (GA), <b>Fox Farm's</b> The Cabin Smoked Helles, <b>Notch </b>Rauchbier (MA), <b>Montclair and Mack's</b> collaboration Fume (NJ), and <b>Commonwealth's </b>Grodziskie-style Puff (VA). What a time to be alive.</p><p>If you're looking for an introduction, maybe <b>Wheatland Spring</b> will make another batch of Reunion, their "smoke-kissed" lager that is a training wheels version of a rauchbier. </p><p>Beers, the locals:</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqfBIMtF8faQuNozQEI2VdqzItvH6vre7xh0oh_o3h9CSI60jPmOg5-ROwQzBjm9VhNy-Bn7OcibppE3aV7Mahhkm5LtS5-_4mHW2px74C2qY2rbE6fwcy5uxxh2GMayjPRXyIV7MPzzyh7w22dvp9luOilQJGRy81aROMRnu64ckJhTPHW-e-vswIAw=s1620" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1620" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqfBIMtF8faQuNozQEI2VdqzItvH6vre7xh0oh_o3h9CSI60jPmOg5-ROwQzBjm9VhNy-Bn7OcibppE3aV7Mahhkm5LtS5-_4mHW2px74C2qY2rbE6fwcy5uxxh2GMayjPRXyIV7MPzzyh7w22dvp9luOilQJGRy81aROMRnu64ckJhTPHW-e-vswIAw=s320" width="284" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Pic via Dynasty</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p>I'm not going to choose between <b>Dynasty's 838 Irish-style Dry Stout</b>, perfectly to style, and <b>Other Half/Rothaus Zipfeltännle Pilsner</b> for my favorite beers of the year. Guinness is kinda sorta local now, but the former is your replacement. I wish it were year-round. As for the latter, if you told me this was the best lager ever made in the District I wouldn't argue and I hope Other Half's Ivy City location makes it again. I've been lobbying a few of the brewers already. Elsewhere, in alphabetical order...</p><p><b>3 Stars Munich-style Dunkel</b> - There's nothing flashy about it, just a beer you can drink three of from one of the newer lager programs in the area. </p><p><b>Dogfish Head Barrel-Aged 120 Minute IPA</b> - I can't hang with the original, but this IPA/barleywine/old ale gets mellowed by blending a Sam Adams Utopia barrel-aged version and a Sagamore Spirit rye barrel version. A great beer for a bottle share.</p><p><b>Elder Pine 10 Plato Pivo</b> - Elder Pine's yearly entry into the best beers in the area; hopefully in 2022 I can have it on a side pour in their brewery. </p><p><b>Other Half Jumbo Slice Double IPA</b> - I was let down by a lot of the hazies coming out of this IPA factory for the first few months. This one, canned on 12/30/2020, tasted the most like those coming out of their original NYC location. </p><p><b>Silver Branch/Right Proper Edge of Time Rice Lager</b> - Two of my favorites making an adjunct lager together? I'm all in! </p><p><b>Streetcar 82 Don't Throw Away That Xmas Tree!</b> - A late contender, this IPA is brewed with 1.5 pounds of spruce tips per barrel (!!!), creating a piney, herbal, dank IPA. </p><p><b>Triple Crossing Precursor Hallertau Blan</b>c - A German lager base and then egregiously hopped with Hallertau Blanc for a nice kick of white wine and herbal notes, all while retaining that crispness you know and love. </p><p><b>Wheatland Spring East Crib Lager</b> - Is this the best Crib? Maybe!</p><p>Further afield: </p><p><b>Keeping Together - We Are Not the Counterculture</b>: Pretty cool of <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2021/04/20/to-go-and-hi-xo-anxos-beer-and-cider-strategy/" target="_blank">Anxo </a>to bring these in. I'm partial to this 6% ABV mixed fermentation saison brewed with wildflower honey, but like Pokemon you should catch 'em all. Anxo is also selling <b>Garden Path's The Spontaneous Ferment</b>, a blend of saisons aged up to 3 years, continuing the ex-Jester King theme. </p><p><b>Rothaus Marzen</b> - The best of the 'fests this year. Glad it made an appearance locally. </p><p><b>Tripping Animals One Tom Triple IPA</b> - I don't usually put hazies on this list, let alone a triple one, but this beer stopped a few of us in our tracks at a beer share. Orange juice (from Citra), lime (that's Motueka), a little dankness,... really well put together. </p><p><b>Troeg's When in Doubt Helles Lager</b> - I bought a six-pack, drank a can, then bought a case.</p><p><b>Wild East Little Patience</b> - I bought two cans, drank one, then came back for a six-pack of this 10 Plato Czech-style Pils. </p><p>Here's hoping I'm able to get on a train, with headphones, and work in person at some point in the new year. As of now I don't see any signs of having a commute in early 2022, which means more time for beer, to start. We'll see. </p></div>BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-74046764234064527812021-03-02T07:47:00.059-05:002021-03-06T11:20:27.730-05:00Resilience in all its Forms: Libraries in the Anthropocene<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resilience has multiple meanings and multiple uses across disciplines, and the portability of this term can cause confusion. This is certainly the case for Rory Litwin, who organized a colloquium, </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://findingaids.library.umass.edu/ead/mums1010" target="_blank">Libraries and Archives in the Anthropocene</a></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the weekend of May 13 and 14, 2017. Litwin and other conference organizers, whom I thank for their hard work in putting together a necessary and fascinating weekend of discussion, accepted a panel from Scarlet Galvan, Eamon Tewell, and myself, in which we explore connections between uses of "resilience." We are not the first group of scholars to attempt this. Indeed, the American Library Association's </span><a href="http://www.ala.org/tools/future/trends/resilience" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Center for the Future of Libraries</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> notes connections between resilience as a preparation for coming climate, economic, and societal disruptions as well as something that may be asked of individuals. </span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-36a50c52-7fff-b07e-2a18-1c3bce461c13"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This crude schematic may shed some light on my thinking. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; height: 103px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 320px;"><img height="103" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/sAjb3M4OOP6_EgvSUu7aXGGXUZ57x8Bqih7-Btq4vLryfSBXnL1xDIq0yA7ztznoh1DrJjOkG_3WMo0GMFvfcfG2Nscquea10N_6zuaETX0Z2jjG24wi-9V0ZVjh-567BlDDR6OS" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="320" /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Center's webpage for Resilience approvingly cites a </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.nap.edu/resource/13457/13457_summary.pdf" target="_blank">National Academies paper on the topic</a></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (PDF), quoting "Resilient communities would plan and build in ways that would reduce disaster losses, rather than waiting for a disaster to occur and paying for it afterward," and a </span><a href="https://www.governing.com/archive/col-critical-ingredients-community-resiliency-environment-economy-well-being.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rockerfeller Foundation initiative</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that defines resilience as "the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience." </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do not view it as a stretch to note that in that first quote the onus is on communities to become resilient and any inability to do so would ultimately be the fault of the community. "Why were you not resilient enough," one might ask following an exogenous shock. The second quote is explicit that people, as individuals, are expected to be resilient in the face of sudden changes. For many workers, capitalism itself is the exogenous shock, an imposition from above that is to be, at best, negotiated and mitigated on unequal terms. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Libraries may find themselves competing for funding with resilient programs or initiatives, especially in an increasingly limited pool of government spending,” notes the Center. The competition over scarce resources will, as it always has been, be balanced </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Making_of_the_English_Working_Class" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on the back of workers</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The rich can </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/15/why-silicon-valley-billionaires-are-prepping-for-the-apocalypse-in-new-zealand" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">escape to New Zealand</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and ride out a climate apocalypse, while the poor of today are labeled “looters” for surviving hurricanes, or freeze to death or die of carbon monoxide poisoning in “once in a century” weather events that now happen once a decade. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“If organized in advance, and with training in advance, the library can be a center for improving community resilience,” notes </span><a href="https://ufdc.ufl.edu/IR00000084/00001" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The U.S. National Commission on Library and Information Sciences</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. What is not mentioned is the staffing and funding necessary to prepare. Library workers will be asked to do more with less, as they were </span><a href="https://www.https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.ntu.edu.sg/dist/8/644/files/2014/06/Vol20_I1_Braquet_Ref.pdf.com/blog/post/edit/4771887482682364543/7404676423406452781#" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">during Hurricane Katrina</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (PDF) in 2005, and to, as Robin James puts it, </span><a href="https://pages.uncc.edu/robin-james/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">perform resilience</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Though Litwin and conference organizers accepted our panel, Litwin’s since-deleted twitter account singled out my portion of the presentation in particular, noting resentment over using the “conference as an opportunity to present an unrelated paper that critiqued a central idea in environmentalism by a kind of insinuation of a conceptual connection without spelling one out.” These tweets from the Litwin Books account have been deleted as well. Litwin’s critique of our presentation came to a head during a question and answer period, </span><a href="https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums1010-i006" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">viewable at about the 1:31:00 mark</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; height: 400px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 279px;"><img height="400" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Xtkk8cczEXZLzWTLisGfPASEXFW17Z5tVlsA7wA1fSqKLWoJsVQDRBAFe3cAySzFayeiTabHh_fLlI5TMX9l4jAj51VicIoDXE_hnJV3lgUft6vP3naPAE3wnEB5OWohPhwdy8ht" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="279" /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Evidently this answer to Litwin’s question-cum-comment was unsatisfactory, given that three-and-a-half years later it became a topic of debate on social media. None of us owes Litwin a more in-depth response; we produced this scholarship and stand by it.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; height: 400px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 249px;"><img height="400" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/fGvIO6g1jAAtRwTkkKtRWA9rmpTuSdXr-FfLOxfVZLzchHpBXRkm27Nowq-vcbcfhDKe-nPrxOUxFO5hJqbnWG52jB6u7cixfJEKWEjFvZai3cwYVPUgBHzmOr63gSBEGEhKKZix" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="249" /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The anthropocene is marked by humans changing a planet, terraforming it with concrete roads, dams, buildings, embattlements, and other structures, as well as altering the planet’s atmosphere through deforestation and greenhouse gas production, among other means. Rising sea levels, changing climates, and increased resource scarcity are some of the products of this epoch. I do not think it is possible to separate what is being asked of communities, to be resilient, from what capital asks of workers. For both, we are to take what is coming, to take reactive measures that are sold to us as proactive ones. The resiliency that communities must show in the face of climate change and other disruptions cannot be separated from the capitalism that has caused these changes and brought about the anthropocene.</span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Elsewhere on this topic: </span><a href="https://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2017/07/academic-libraries-and-false-promises_27.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Academic Libraries and the False Promises of Resiliency</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and Scarlet’s </span><a href="https://asgalvan.com/2021/03/01/a-short-revisiting-of-resilience/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A short revisiting of resilience</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></p><br /></span>BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-65146695614599282492020-12-29T12:05:00.003-05:002021-12-05T17:17:46.834-05:00Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2020 Edition<p>I miss my commute. Well no, not really. What I miss is that "me time," surrounded by people, yet alone. I miss living with an album, inhabiting it. A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory and Midnight Mauraders, Nas' Illmatic, and Quicksand's Manic Compression on the 1/9 train in high school. My commute junior year abroad in Japan, bumping Radiohead's OK Computer and REM's Up, perfect albums about displacement and the surreality of it all as I walked blocks that were at once instantly recognizable and quite literally foreign to me. For two months in 2000 I worked at Bell and Howell, on the outskirts of Ann Arbor, MI. The bus ride out of the small city and into the post-industrial, hollowed-out Midwest, which included walking across two exit ramps of Interstate 94, can't be separated from Godspeed You! Black Emperor's F♯ A♯ ∞.</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FlywGIexOnA" width="500"></iframe><br /></p><p>I learned to love these albums through repeated plays on mass transit, or a 2-kilometer walk through Osaka, or a ferry from the north to the south island in New Zealand, in which a patch of fog in the Cook Straight suddenly had to be soundtracked by Mogwai. </p><p>On Friday, March 13th, 2020 all that ended. That was the last day I had a commute. You always go to the show, yes? Well, on March 12th a friend and I bailed on a concert (Algiers and Hammered Hulls at the Black Cat) because of the pandemic. We still ask each other if we should have gone, now knowing it would have been a last hurrah. We made the correct choice. </p><p>So much has been taken from us over the past nine months. People's health, people's livelihoods, people's lives. Hugging, dapping, hand-shakes. Great and small, people and customs, bars and restaurants and shops... they're gone. </p><p>I mourn my commute not because of physically going from home to work, but because that was my time to discover and live with an album and make it mine, tying it to a place, whether that place is physical or mental. Now my commute is to go down a flight of stairs, becoming both a library worker and a hall monitor for the virtual schooling of two children. No more music, no more audiobooks, no more podcasts; it just doesn't work that way for me in 2020. </p><p>The physical time I've gained back is not for nothing. More home-cooked meals, more time with immediate family and pets, and more time to--see below--drink beer. But damn, being able to turn up the volume and get into an album on the train,... I really miss that.</p><p>Would I fall in love with Helena Deland's debut album Someone New over the course of two weeks on the Yellow Line, my headphones accentuating the musical flourishes, the huskiness in her voice? Which part of the album would play as the train exited the tunnel after L'Enfant Station, transitioning to a bridge across the Potomac River? I don't know, and well, that sucks. I like it well enough on my laptop, often played while onions cook on the stove and two children discuss Legos, The Mandalorian, Fortnite, Overwatch, and Minecraft in the background. But it's not the same. None of this is. </p><p>And so none of these albums are really mine. I've heard them and I enjoyed them. But they're shoes I bought, tried on, and wore a few times. They haven't yet adapted to my contours, nor mine to theirs. I really hope in 2021 we get to change that. </p><p>Here goes. </p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yBQy_S_k-qg" width="500"></iframe><br /></p><p>1) <b>Fontaines D.C. - A Hero's Death</b>: More mature lyrically, slower, darker, and more muscular than their excellent debut. The switch from punk-based rave ups to something closer to post-punk has treated them well. </p><p>2) <b>Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher</b>: Baroque chamber pop, singer-songwriter fodder, and occasional alt-country and psych about... Dodgers fans beating up and killing Giants fans, and how Eric Clapton sucks. Anyway, it's really good. </p><p>3) <b>New War - Trouble in the Air</b>: Melbourne commissioned this hometown band to perform and record on the largest pipe organ in the city. The result is minimalist and claustrophobic, appropriate soundtracking for a year of teleworking and doing without. </p><p>4) <b>Feminazgul - No Dawn For Men</b>: Here are the tags for this album on Bandcamp: appalachian, metal, antifascist, atmospheric black metal, feminist. Interested? Bonus points: one of the band members works at a brewery. </p><p>5) <b>Dogleg - Melee</b>: Post-hardcore/screamo that's maybe learned a thing or two from bands like Japandroids in that it's cathartic and fun to sing/scream along to. </p><p>6) <b>Osees - Protean Threat</b>: John Dwyer released a lot of music this year. These 38 minutes of psych-punk are my favorite of the bunch. </p><p>7) <b>Nothing - The Great Dismal</b>: Shoegaze with loud-quiet-loud dynamics, and the loud gets really loud. </p><p>8) <b>Stay Inside - Viewing</b>: "What if Interpol, but post-hardcore?" It's kind of something like that. Taut, wiry, and insular, this is not the stuff is sing-alongs or fist pumps, but of quiet headbanging on a commute. Maybe one day. </p><p>9) <b>Gum Country - Somewhere</b>: If Electropura-era Yo La Tengo got on the C-86 cassette it would sound something like this. </p><p>10) <b>Kvelertak - Splid</b>: Touching on the past 40ish years of metal from the late '70s British new wave to '80s arenas to '90s metalcore to the present, singing in two languages, and just a joy to listen to. </p><p>The best of the rest, or eight more albums I liked: </p><p><b>Bartees Strange - Live Forever</b>: Impressive genre-bending from across the indie-rock spectrum to RnB and rap. </p><p><b>Brigid Dawson and the Mothers Network - Ballet of Apes</b>: Slow psych, both breezy and languid, from this sometimes Osees collaborator. </p><p><b>Fleet Foxes - Shore</b>: Same as it ever was for this band. </p><p><b>Kiwi Jr. - Football Money</b>: Hits that same jangly, breezy spot as the most recent, woke, Parquet Courts album. </p><p><b>No Joy - Motherhood</b>: Things I heard in the first three songs of this album include dream pop, black metal, EDM, and slap bass. Somehow, all these in juxtaposition work. </p><p><b>Porridge Radio - Every Bad</b>.</p><p><b>Run the Jewels - RTJ4</b>: Same as it ever was for this band. </p><p><b>Touche Amore - Lament</b>: I've long been aware of this band, but hadn't paid them much attention. I'm listening now. </p><p>Best album ruined by a lead singer: <b>Oranssi Pazuzu's Mestarin Kynsi</b>, which sounds something like Acid Mothers Temple doing post-metal.</p><p>Singles, songs, whatever: Silverback - Klub Silberrucken; Bartees Strange - Mustang; The Weeknd - Blinding Lights; Algiers - We Can't Be Found; Protomartyr - Processed By the Boys.</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NQaaiY6B7-A" width="560"></iframe><br /></p><p>In 2019 I kind of gave up on IPAs. I don't really know why, it just shook out that way. Well, they're back, including two stellar double IPAs, normally the bane of my existence. Go figure. Which style declined at IPAs' expense? Saison. I saw significantly fewer cans of that style around, which is a bummer. From March 13th to the end of the year I had three draft beers. Three! On the plus side, everyone put everything in cans, because they had to. Here's what stood out. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Aj4r8Re0xGw9JEYIc98JOosYpk2WsBrTh0hkKQNB2ThkQsFeL_joVdyVxMxEscJBsp1aBfTBKXbt18IfvWpgEuMJk0art9GUAi-OJLO0l9wj0DHirIg-13zjUcBtscCt5Hp4aHYwHp0k/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Port City Brewing Company" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Aj4r8Re0xGw9JEYIc98JOosYpk2WsBrTh0hkKQNB2ThkQsFeL_joVdyVxMxEscJBsp1aBfTBKXbt18IfvWpgEuMJk0art9GUAi-OJLO0l9wj0DHirIg-13zjUcBtscCt5Hp4aHYwHp0k/" width="280" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>In 2020 it was <b>Port City's</b> world, and we all just lived in it. My favorite beer? Pretty much any Port City lager in a can, but also in a bottle like their Helles and Weizenbock. <span>Let's rank them: </span></p><p><span>Rauch Marzen - Just a perfect, flawless beer. </span></p><p><span>German Pils - Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal winner for a reason. </span></p><p>Mexican-style Dark Lager</p><p>Helles (bottle)</p><p>Tmave Pivo - I saw a lot of this style around, which is great, and this one was the most "tmave" in terms of having a Saaz hop bite. </p><p>Dopplebock - I've only had one of these, but it was very very good. I should get an Andechs' and go side-by-side. </p><p>Kellerbier</p><p>Weizenbock (bottle) - This was to be 2020's Colossal release, but in a very 2020 move, it just didn't didn't meet the brewery's standards, so they brewed it again later in the year. It's very good. </p><p><span><span>Note: I didn't have the Export. Not sure how I missed that one. </span><br /></span></p><p><span><span><br /></span></span></p><p><span><span>Elsewhere in locals (plus, uh, Delaware, because why not): </span></span></p><p><span><span><b>Ardent Ales Schwartzbier</b></span></span></p><p><span><span><b>Black Narrows Brewing Company Salts</b> - A gose with oysters makes a lot of sense, hence the name of the beer. Maybe "a creamy, briny, minerality with notes of lemon" isn't for you, but it really works here. </span></span></p><p><span><span><b>Dewey Beer Co Surf Wax Double IPA</b></span></span></p><p><span><span><b>Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, Utopia barrels edition</b> - That this was ready to drink upon an August release was most impressive. </span></span></p><p><span><span><b>Elder Pine Pilsner</b> (little bit of oats and a lot of Loral hops) and <b>Bien Veillen</b> hoppy saison, which scratched all the right itches.</span></span></p><p><span><span><b>Ocelot Ebenezer IPA</b>.</span></span></p><p><span><span><b>Right Proper Le Flaneur</b> - Sherry barrel-aged "barleywine" that was <a href="https://dcbeer.com/podcast/battle-of-the-barrel-aged-beer/" target="_blank">our consensus pick</a> for Boundary Stone's Battle of the Barrels.</span></span></p><p><span><span><b>Right Proper/Pizzeria Paradiso Friend Blend Sour Ale</b> - Just a great balance between stone fruits and their acidity, Right Proper's house character, and foeder conditioning. </span></span></p><p><span><span><b>Wheatland Spring Corn Crib American Lager</b> - So good it spawned a hashtag. Also, I'm going to take a bow <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2020/02/03/savor-2020-breweries-announced/" target="_blank">for writing this on February 3rd</a>, "On the other hand, a lot of people are about to find out how good Wheatland Spring, Dynasty, Elder Pine, and Manor Hill can be, and we’re looking forward to chatting with a lot of familiar and friendly faces." </span></span></p><p>Outside the DMV:</p><p><span><span>EOC Coolship Black Lager</span></span></p><p><span><span>Halfway Crooks Smoked Helles Lager</span></span></p><p><span><span>Other Half Small Riwaka Everything IPA</span></span></p><p>Rogue Coast Haste Wet-Hopped Double IPA</p><p>Schilling Alexandr (10) and Palmovka (12) Pilsners - And I hear a 13 plato amber beer is coming soon. </p><p><br /></p><p>2021, please treat us better. Thanks for reading, and be safe. </p>BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-61504188905041493262020-01-02T09:13:00.000-05:002020-01-02T09:13:19.053-05:00Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2019 EditionI wasn't too thrilled with doing a top ten list this year come September, but then something like "Oscar season, but for music!" happened and I feel pretty pretty good about what follows. I go back and forth on my top three, but here's the order as it stands now.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1okqvhq7ZaI" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
1. Somos - Prison on a Hill: Gorgeous antifa new wave.<br />
2. Elbow - Giants of All Sizes: Aggressive, off-kilter guitars; synth gurgles; strings, 7/4 time signatures; and lyrics to match. “Empires crumble all the time / Pay it no mind / You just happened to witness mine.” Elbow shows no interest in playing it safe and their weirdest, yet most direct, album to date is also their best.<br />
3. Fontaines D.C. - Dogrel: “Dublin in the rain is mine/A pregnant city with a Catholic mind.” The "go go Rimbaud" aesthetic suits these Irish punk rockers, coming through like Mark E. Smith at his most focused.<br />
<br />
4. Danny Brown - uknowhatimsaying: Q-Tip isn't the obvious choice to produce this album, but this pairing really does work.<br />
5. Ty Segall - : No guitars, no problem. Segall uses Japanese, Greek, and other stringed instruments to create his tightest psych-rock album yet.<br />
<br />
6. Alcest - Spiritual Instinct: The band at their most dark and brooding. Someone needs to add "goth" to the blackgaze sub-genre.<br />
7. DIIV - Deceiver: Heavier than previous efforts, and more economical at 10 songs and 45 minutes.<br />
8. Beth Gibbons, Henryk Górecki, Krzysztof Penderecki - Symphony of Sorrowful Songs: Gibbons is the voice, Górecki the composer, and Penderecki conducts the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. I can't recall ever placing a purely classical work on a year-end list (shout out to Kronos Quartet!), but this is excellent.<br />
9. Bon Iver - i,i: Justin Vernon's actual voice is quite nice, and here it's not hidden behind auto-tune, processors, and other effects. More, please.<br />
10. Low Life - Downer Edn: It's post-punk, it's coldwave, it's goooooooood!<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VbcAOPA-9Yw" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<br />
The best of the rest:<br />
<br />
Courtney Barnett - MTV Unplugged Live in Melbourne: Did you know these were still a thing? Well they are, and Barnett's excellent rearrangements are worth a listen.<br />
Kaatayra - No Ruidar da Mata que Mirra: Heterodox melodic black metal from Brazil, with asides into traditional and Portuguese-inflected instrumentation and arrangements. Very good.<br />
Wand - Laughing Matter: There's a lot going on on this album and while I don't like all of it, I like most of it (and I admire all of it).<br />
Thom Yorke - Anima: That I enjoyed this is perhaps the most pleasant musical surprise of 2019.<br />
<br />
Cheers to: Sturgill Simpson (Sound & Fury), for keeping country weird; and Lankum (The Livinglong Day), for doing the same with Irish music; Hammered Hulls, for bringing back that harDCore sound.<br />
<br />
Best album that I'll never listen to because it hurts too much: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Ghosteen.<br />
<br />
Best use of pedal-free tremolo to recreate 1990-era My Bloody Valentine sound: Fleeting Joys - Speeding Away to Someday.<br />
<br />
Singles: L'Eppee - Springfield 61; Vampire Weekend - Harmony Hall; Wand - Scarecrow; Schammasch - A Paradigm Of Beauty; Brutus - War; Danny Brown - Dirty Laundry; Weyes Blood - Movies; A.A. Williams - Control; Stormzy - Vossi Bop; Hammered Hulls - Written Words.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mycVWg_2dqs" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Now on to the beers. When I started doing these lists there were 1,500 breweries to choose from. Now there are about 8,000. I know I'm missing some stuff. It's going to keep happening. One thing that makes it easier: I've pretty much given up on double IPAs as a style. Hazy, East Coast, West Coast, it doesn't matter. The combinations of over-hopping and high-gravity just don't do it for me anymore. So it goes. The locals, in no particular order:<br />
<br />
Guinness Milk Stout - A 5.something percent milk stout from the people who know a thing or two about stout. Here's a pastryboi you can session?<br />
DC Brau Joint Resolution - The savviest brewery in DC pivoted from a Belgian-style golden ale to a <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2019/02/12/the-citizen-the-haze-and-the-flagships-dc-braus-smart-move/" target="_blank">year-round hazy IPA</a> (and later <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2019/11/13/dc-brau-enters-hard-seltzer-market/" target="_blank">added hard seltzer</a>). Here's one you can drink two of.<br />
Aslin Baby Shark - Here's another hazy IPA you can drink two of.<br />
Black Narrows Wild About It - A lager brewed with corn, and then bretted for an extra dry finish. More please.<br />
Commonwealth and Allagash Toji - These two collaborated on a foeder-aged saison, brewed with dates and yuzu. It was an excellent pre-Thanksgiving meal beer.<br />
Port City German Pils and Tmave - One of these took a Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal. I'll add that 2019's Rauch Marzen was their best version yet.<br />
Silver Branch Glass/Killer Castles - One of the really nice things about 2019 is how many new breweries hit the ground running. Right from the start Silver Branch was making very good beer. Killer is the unfiltered pils, Glass is the easier to find one. You can't go wrong.<br />
Silver Branch Umlaut Love - Or you could drink the Kolsch-style ale.<br />
Precarious Leicht - This also took gold at GABF and I just happened to be maybe 5 miles away from the brewery when the win was announced. I had never heard of them (Williamsburg, VA) before. This 3.9% lager is excellent.<br />
Triple Crossing Pathway Pils - I tried to kill the keg of this at Brookland Pint.<br />
Red Bear/DCBeer <a href="https://dcbeer.com/2019/12/19/ruby-lager-red-bear-dc-beer-collab/" target="_blank">Ruby Lager</a> - We did a few collaborations this year, and this one was my favorite. Really well balanced with a pillowy soft water profile.<br />
Right Proper Scenicruiser - It's billed as a biere de garde, but there's grapes, and exotic hops, and it's fermented in a foeder. There's a lot going on here and all of it is good.<br />
Union Schmoke - The second best beer name of the year (thanks, Crispocurrency!) and my favorite smoked beer. More on that over at DCBeer.com soon.<br />
<br />
<img alt="Image result for crispocurrency beer" src="https://untappd.akamaized.net/site/beer_logos_hd/beer-3446378_9443e_hd.jpeg" /><br />
<br />
<br />
Also, we <a href="https://dcbeer.com/podcast/2019-dc-beer-breweries-review/" target="_blank">podcasted </a>about the year that was.<br />
<br />
Elsewhere:<br />
<br />
OEC Coolship Lager - Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores isn't known for stuff like this, but maybe they should be. Proof that they can stand on their own two without the B. United imports.<br />
Anderson Valley Black Rice Ale - I'm not going to find Asahi Kuronama around, and if I do it won't be fresh. This beer takes me back to what I remember drinking so often in Japan (yes, one is an ale, the other a lager).<br />
Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest, with Bitburger - These are reliably very good.<br />
Casa Agria Stone Fruit in Harmony - It's a saison, it's a fruited sour. Excellent blending going on here.<br />
Fernson Plains Beer - Late into SAVOR I visited this table and hung out drinking light lager for the rest of the night.<br />
Switchback, Flynn on Fire series - This Vermont brewery brought three smoked beers to SAVOR, each helpfully labeled with a "smoke-o-meter." The saison was my favorite, but what a cool thing.<br />
<br />
Cheers to 2020, may it be better.<br />
<br />BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-88357393591473343522019-06-12T09:17:00.000-04:002019-06-13T15:47:23.193-04:00The BeerBrarian's Guide to... ALA Annual in DC!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhOwNyPpLOCmgSoEpk0F3whGk7Eq5F5krDCsq-BAZVBS2NBc1F8EaOd3dxTIAhVW5xkWF6U5E9Vo2GUQwsuj8zsj4hVgqDVSobgRVAhAhg92vKen2pXFbiKP-ACYcaKSjdKtv18oq2eT67/s1600/181015-ac19-web-badges-1-attending_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="124" data-original-width="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhOwNyPpLOCmgSoEpk0F3whGk7Eq5F5krDCsq-BAZVBS2NBc1F8EaOd3dxTIAhVW5xkWF6U5E9Vo2GUQwsuj8zsj4hVgqDVSobgRVAhAhg92vKen2pXFbiKP-ACYcaKSjdKtv18oq2eT67/s1600/181015-ac19-web-badges-1-attending_0.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Since I live in DC, I thought an insider's perspective might be useful for the upcoming <a href="https://2019.alaannual.org/" target="_blank">American Library Association Annual Conference</a>, which meets at the Walter Washington Convention Center from Thursday, June 20th to Tuesday, June 25th.<br />
<br />
A brief word about the guide:<br />
<br />
With a few exceptions these are places I frequent, or at least have been in. <br />
<br />
7th and 9th are the main commercial streets near the Convention Center, 5th and 6th are more residential (8th Street gets cut off by the Convention Center).<br />
<br />
Blagden Alley, off of 9th, is pretty cool, and there will be <a href="https://www.lostandfounddc.com/calendar/popupsummermarket" target="_blank">a pop up market</a> on Saturday the 23rd.<br />
<br />
Coffee is important. I'd go with La Colombe and Buttercream, both on 9th Street. There's a Compass Coffee inside the Convention Center. That convenience wins out.<br />
So is beer. I vote for Lost and Found, also on 9th.<br />
<br />
If you don't mind walking, the Shaw and Penn Quarter neighborhoods, along with what's left of Chinatown, offer a bit more. The same is true of private developments like City Center DC and City Vista.<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe height="405" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=16eb4OvK6LCDMsvG8adXPPBAi5l22VPIr" width="540"></iframe><br />
<br />
Go forth, enjoy, and say hi. BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-67181260470317634302019-01-22T11:09:00.000-05:002019-01-28T09:16:59.273-05:00Actually it's about ethics in catalogingKaren Snow, Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, Dominican University; and Elizabeth Shoemaker, Rare Book Cataloger, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library, Emory University are conducting a survey concerning the role ethics plays in cataloging library and archival materials.<br />
<br />
"The purpose of this study is to explore cataloger perceptions of cataloging ethics, what they feel are the important ethical issues they face, and how they choose to address ethical issues in their work."<br />
<a href="https://dom.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_71xtQqZHnwHQkFD" target="_blank">Please take the survey</a>.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="giphy-embed" frameborder="0" height="347" src="https://giphy.com/embed/YkkAUuhZ8Efok" width="480"></iframe><br />
This was one of the top search results for "critical cat," so good job with metadata, <a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/cat-cute-YkkAUuhZ8Efok">GIPHY</a>.<br />
<br />
Here's how I answered some of their open-ended questions.<br />
<br />
First, I define cataloging ethics as making library items and materials, either owned or leased, discoverable, findable, and searchable<br />
1. Using language that promotes equity and inclusion<br />
2. Taking the political economy of copyright and intellectual property into account by recognizing that ethical use and laws may be in conflict<br />
3. Respecting the right of subalterns and historically marginalized groups' and peoples' right to privacy, as exemplified by <a href="https://tararobertson.ca/2016/oob/" target="_blank">Tara Robertson's work on zine cataloging</a>.<br />
<br />
Most of my cataloging work is of the copy- variety, so I rarely encounter ethical issues in the wild outside of adding keywords in the 650 fields to make items more discoverable. However, I've been tasked with acquiring and cataloging materials relating to <a href="https://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2017/07/academic-libraries-and-false-promises_27.html" target="_blank">grit and resilience</a>, especially those that would promote these concepts. I also purchased materials that took a different approach and made sure that these were discoverable by people looking for the originally requested purchases.<br />
<br />
Elsewhere, I've noted that some Library of Congress Subject Headings are contested sites, and used multiple terms in local records. <i><a href="https://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2012/06/libraries-and-postmodernity-review-of.html" target="_blank">Radical Cataloging</a></i> may be of some use here as well.<br />
<br />
How do you define and practice cataloging ethics?BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-60424823508427100262019-01-16T09:13:00.001-05:002019-01-16T09:13:26.194-05:00FurloughedThe last time I went to work was Friday, December 21st, 2018. I set up an out of office message, took a look around, and left. I still have some trail mix and chips on a shelf in my office. I wonder if they've gone stale, or if a library mouse is enjoying them and the solitude.<br />
<br />
When the shutdown started, our living room furniture was set up just so. Since then it's been moved two more times. I think we're finally happy with it.<br />
<br />
I do some quick calculations in my head about our food situation. We're fortunate that we can miss a month or two of paychecks and be okay, but just in case, better to buy in bulk now--hello, Costco--and supplement with Aldi or the "seconds" produce at the weekly farmers market. I update my resume and CV, just in case.<br />
<br />
The second week of the shutdown my wife notices some water damage on our bedroom ceiling. We call a roofer. They spend maybe twenty minutes poking around, and two days later write us an estimate for $11,000. We laugh.<br />
<br />
I also apply for unemployment in the second week. I figure I pay into this system, I may as well use it. At the end of the process the unemployment website gives me fifty-eight jobs to apply for that are either in a library or library-adjacent. I filter them by distance to my house, fifteen miles or less given Metro and the state of local roads, and an hourly rate of $20 and over. The updated search returns zero results.<br />
<br />
I hear nothing for over a week, then get a letter in the mail, instructing me to use their website to file a weekly claim. There is no information on how to file a weekly claim on the website. I call instead. Due to the volume of callers, I'm asked to try again later.<br />
<br />
I meet fellow furloughed friends for lunch downtown. The takeout traffic looks okay, but the dining room is empty, and a server confirms that business is down about seventy percent. Some of the staff are losing shifts.<br />
<br />
Mr. 12 in particular thinks the shutdown deals are a hoot. We live within walking distance of an &pizza, a fast casual chain that cooks made-to-order pizzas in a high-speed oven. They're offering a free pizza with a federal or contractor ID card between 6 and 8pm every day, and bless them for it. On Friday, January 11th, the day of the first missed paycheck for federal workers, there's a line out the door at 7. I don't tell Mr. 12 that I could buy about eight pizzas at the hourly rate my contractor bills.<br />
<br />
My aunt sends me $100 Trader Joe's gift card. We don't need it, but the thought, the kindness, matters so much more. When I go "public" on social media about filing for unemployment, I receive more kind messages, and some friends asking about the process, which they'll choose to go through.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Ahh, of course they did. Meanwhile this is costing me thousands of dollars. <br />
<br />
‘Could you make these guys essential?’: Mortgage industry gets shutdown relief after appeal to senior Treasury officials <a href="https://t.co/fbWFYO6nq9">https://t.co/fbWFYO6nq9</a></div>
— Kakistocracy Man (@jacobsberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/jacobsberg/status/1083871752663547904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
People ask me how I'm holding up. I tell them that the laundry is done, the house is clean, the meals are home-cooked, I'm caught up on prestige tv, and the dogs are walked. But at about week three I start thinking about the $6,000 or so I've lost thus far. As a contractor, I'm almost certainly not getting that back. My anxiety spikes.<br />
<br />
It spikes a second time when I think about going back to work. The emails I'll come back to, the feelings of being overwhelmed that other staff will almost certainly have and how I'll manage that, the accreditation committee that hasn't been tended to in almost a month, the missed deadlines. I bake cookies. I walk the dogs again.<br />
<br />
<br />
If you'd like to help, and have the means, the following organizations do good work:<br />
<a href="https://breadforthecity.org/" target="_blank">Bread for the City</a><br />
<a href="https://www.capitalareafoodbank.org/" target="_blank">Capital Are Food Bank</a><br />
<a href="https://greaterdcdiaperbank.org/" target="_blank">Greater DC Diaper Bank</a><br />
<a href="https://www.some.org/" target="_blank">So Others Might Eat</a><br />
<br />BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-68899196793293988732019-01-03T08:59:00.001-05:002019-01-04T08:58:15.377-05:00Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2018 EditionWell, that was a year. 2018, with the never-ending news cycles, sapped much of my ability to concentrate. Pretty sure I'm not alone in that. To "celebrate," my top ten of 2018 is unranked, in alphabetical order.<br />
<br />
Smash that play button and let's go.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s7tnTucP1UM" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Beach House - 7: Their biggest, most extroverted album.<br />
Charles Bradley - Black Velvet: You come for the searing cover of Nirvana's "Stay Away," but you stay for his voice and the Daptones on his final record. Rest in peace.<br />
Holy Fawn - Death Spells: Shoegaze with touches of black and doom metal. The sequel to Sigur Ros' Kveikur you didn't know you needed.<br />
Kraus - Path: The shoegaze album of the year marries emo-style lyrics to breathtakingly loud guitar and pedal work.<br />
Panopticon - The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness Parts I and II: A double album that's black metal and bluegrass, doom and Americana, with an ecological bent. And yet it works. Loud or quiet, it's beautiful.<br />
Parquet Courts - Wide Awake: I didn't know they had it in them to make a political record, but it's here and it works.<br />
Pusha T - Daytona: At 21 minutes I've got hardcore albums that are longer, but here are 7 bangers with no filler. Maybe burn it onto a CD-R with his highly entertaining diss track-slash-investigative journalism of Drake.<br />
Ty Segall - Freedom's Goblin: The Use Your Illusion of psych-garage-punk maybe could have benefited from being edited into a single album, but it's surprisingly funky and well-done.<br />
Shopping - The Official Body: Gang of Four-style post-punk. Most impressive.<br />
Spiritualized - And Nothing Hurt: Jason Pierce aging gracefully, making Brill Building-, Beatles-, and Brian Wilson-style pop and R&B. Some songs are warm, some are abrasive, all are exceptionally well-crafted.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5A-XyMzTSWc" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
The best of the rest:<br />
<br />
Amen Dunes - Freedom: Damon McMahon sounds like early Mick Jagger on a few of these slow-burners. Most impressive.<br />
Belle and Sebastian - How to Solve Our Human Problems: Nice to have them back, making perfect pop songs.<br />
Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy: I've come to terms that the boom bap sound of my youth isn't coming back, and maybe, finally, that's a good thing. I wish that JID album hadn't come out so late in the year.<br />
Des Demonas - s/t: The album came out in late 2017, but I didn't discover it until early 2018. US Girls seems to get the critical love as far as bands from DC go, but this political and polemical garage, surf, and punk band is well worth a listen.<br />
Iceage - Beyondless: They've become one of the more interesting bands out there, and they're not even 30 yet. This album's more post- than punk and it works. The Jam for our times?<br />
Jesus Piece - Only Self: The year's artiest hardcore album.<br />
Lucy Dacus - Historian: This, plus the boygenuis EP.<br />
Mitski - Be the Cowboy: I didn't get the hype before this one. Now I do. What a lyricist.<br />
Nicholas Paschburg - Oceanic: My favorite ambient record of 2018.<br />
Sleep - The Sciences: They're back, so pass the bong.<br />
Thee Oh Sees - Smote Reverser: They sound more like Sleep now, so pass the bong.<br />
Anna Von Hausswolf - Dead Magic: Something like a goth Kate Bush making doomy, funereal pop.<br />
<br />
Singles: Tracey Thorn - Sister; Cardi B - Get Up 10; Shopping - The Hype; Snail Mail - Pristine; 1975 - Love It Cause We Made It.<br />
<br />
Jeers: I wasn't into albums from a few bands I'm normally into. Sorry Courtney Barnett, Churches, and Deafheaven.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Beer</b><br />
<br />
I thought DC Brau had comfortably entered their middle age, making beer that's "good enough." They killed it in 2018, releasing an excellent British-style barleywine in Sleep Standing Up; then made a hoppy rice lager, Tuk Tuk, that's very good, and that was just last winter. They followed it up with the Jameson-barrel aged Pet Your Cow milk stout this fall and then finally put their keller pils in tallboys. They had a really good year.<br />
<br />
Some thoughts:<br />
1) Our post-whalez scene continues, with Bourbon County and Canadian Breakfast Stout sitting on shelves, which is how it should be. Overall I saw a lot fewer lines in 2018, too.<br />
2) There's more attention being paid to how breweries conduct their business, from dealing with intellectual property and trademarks, to racism and sexism, and wages. Keep shining a light and calling it out.
<br />
3) I don't know if this is good or not, but the DMV burbs are where it's at right now, maybe at the expense of some of the city's breweries. Sure, the quality in the city is there; see the DC Brau rave above. And Right Proper and Bluejacket are particularly locked in, but Port City's lager series continues to impress, as do Crooked Run's IPAs, and pretty much everything I had from Ocelot and Dynasty. And that's just Virginia.<br />
3a) Then again, I saw a local brewery charge $65 for a bottle of stout at a pop-up event in the city. Not for a case of stout, but for one 500ml bottle. Do what you want with your money, but that's foolish.<br />
3b) And I continue to be unimpressed with the most of the breweries in Montgomery and Frederick counties, especially those along MD-355 and I270/70.<br />
<br />
The locals, in no particular order:<br />
<br />
Port City Schwartzbier and Baltic Porter.<br />
DC Brau Sleep Standing Up barrel-aged barleywine, Tuk Tuk rice lager, Jameson barrel-aged Pet Your Cow, and Keller pils.<br />
3 Stars and Finback Low Riderz IPA: 3 Stars did a whole series of these and this was the most floral, and also the lowest ABV.<br />
Ocelot Home IPA: a new hazy version.<br />
Ardent Pils.<br />
Rocket Frog Wallops Brown Ale, and, uh, Snark-Infested Waters Schwartzbier was pretty good, too.<br />
Penn Druid Table Beer.<br />
Dynasty and Lost Lagers 1858 Mild Ale and Dynasty Festbier, the most Teutonic of the locals. The hazy pale is also very good.<br />
Right Proper White Bicycles aged in peach mead barrels from Charm City.<br />
Black Narrows How Bout It American Lager.<br />
Devils Backbone and Chuckanaut Dunkle.<br />
Anxo Cidre Blanc in cans: Goldrush is bae.<br />
Bluejacket For The Company in cans.<br />
Mad Fox's Brut IPA was my favorite of the ones I've had. I know it's a divisive style, but I'd pay to drink this one.<br />
<br />
The out-of-towners:<br />
<br />
Suarez Palatine Pils and Round the Bend porter. I'm not sure if these were 2018 releases, but they showed up in DC this year, and I'd like to see more of them.<br />
Fat Orange Cat White Stout.<br />
Deschutes and Bells Schwartzbier collaboration, if you're noticing a trend.<br />
Allagash Brett Pils and Brett IPA: So pretty much anything they do with Brettomyances is good.<br />
The Bruery's Yount, a blend of Black Tuesday imperial stout and cabernet that somehow works. The perfect beer for Savor.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Want DCBeer's take on the year that was? <a href="http://www.dcbeer.com/news/dcbeer-staff-reflects-2018-year-beer" target="_blank">Here ya go</a>.<br />
<br />
Here's hoping 2019 treats us better than 2018 did. Cheers.<br />
<br />BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-14639313801838362592018-07-12T09:35:00.002-04:002018-07-12T09:51:45.727-04:00The American Library Association: Neutrality, Civility, and What Comes NextThe American Library Association has not had a good run under the current presidential administration.<br />
<br />
<b>How We Got Here</b><br />
<br />
First, in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161119133324/http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2016/11/ala-offers-expertise-resources-incoming-administration-and-congress" target="_blank">a since-rescinded press release</a> from shortly after the 2016 election, the Association offered "its expertise and resources to the incoming administration," despite that administration containing racists, Islamophobes, and white nationalists like Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, and Michael Flynn. And despite a president-elect that, as a candidate, bragged about sexually assaulting women, called Mexicans "rapists," and mocked a reporter with a physical disability. Offering the expertise of information professionals to this group of people was understandably not well received, and the press release was updated.<br />
<br />
Second, ALA's Washington Office <a href="https://lj.libraryjournal.com/2018/03/legislation/net-neutrality-concerns-spark-criticism-of-ala-madison-award-pick/" target="_blank">presented an award</a> to Representative Darrel Issa (R-CA) for his introduction and sponsorship of the Research Works Act, which mandates that federally-funded research be open access, a worthy goal. However, Issa was, and is, opposed to net neutrality, opposes some internet privacy measures, and has voted to cut funding to libraries on many occasions. In addition, there is some controversy over whether or not the Washington Office received adequate feedback from the ALA Committee on Legislation or an appropriate subcommittee prior to awarding Issa and a congressional colleague.<br />
<br />
Third, the Association allowed librarians at the Central Intelligence Agency to post content from the ALA's Instagram account. The CIA then recruited from a booth in the expo hall of the ALA's annual meeting. No doubt the CIA offers good paying government jobs, with excellent benefits, but that organization is, ahem, problematic at best and there was <a href="https://medium.com/@d.t.fife/no-legitimization-through-association-the-cia-should-not-be-exhibiting-at-ala-795bbaecd3e9" target="_blank">some understandable push-back</a> to their presence.<br />
<br />
Fourth, and also at ALA's annual meeting, the Council amended and added an Interpretation of <a href="http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/meetingrooms" target="_blank">Article VI of the <i>Library Bill of Rights</i></a>, which pertains to meeting rooms. One such change was the explicit naming of "hate groups," left undefined, and that libraries may not discriminate based on hate speech, which, per multiple Council-members and ALA office-holders, was not presented to the deliberative body. "The statement I read and commented on, all the way up until ALA Annual in late June, had no specific mention of hate speech or hate groups," <a href="https://aprilhathcock.wordpress.com/2018/07/11/my-bought-sense-or-ala-has-done-it-again/" target="_blank">wrote one</a>.<br />
<br />
Taken individually, one could, maybe, forgive the first three offenses. Taken as a whole, they are a damning indictment of the ALA. In the fourth, the ALA <a href="http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/meetingrooms" target="_blank">discursively treats hate groups and hate speech as co-equals</a> to civic clubs and groups: "If a library allows charities, non-profits, and sports organizations to discuss their activities in library meeting rooms, then the library cannot exclude religious, social, civic, partisan political, or hate groups from discussing their activities in the same facilities." The existing case law seems to support the ALA's cautious interpretations, but this was true prior to any revisions to Article VI. As a result, the amendment appears to, on some level, tacitly advertise library spaces to hate groups, potentially drawing attention to library meeting rooms as welcoming. One expects to see the sentence quoted above used in a courtroom in the near future. <a href="https://twitter.com/AprilHathcock/status/1017065009090912256" target="_blank">By counsel for hate groups</a>, not libraries and information professionals.<br />
<br />
As was the case with the Issa award, amending Article VI points to a disconnect between those who work for ALA and the people information professionals elect to various divisions and groups within the organization. The Washington Office chose Issa for an award, seemingly without much oversight from elected representatives. Article VI was altered and multiple Council-members expressed surprise.<br />
<br />
More importantly, drawing attention to hate groups will do nothing for diversifying librarianship. It is hard to imagine a member of an underrepresented and historically marginalized group wanting to join the information professions given these revisions. James LaRue, head of ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom, put the phrase "<a href="https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=14997" target="_blank">safe spaces</a>" in quotes in response to criticism, but for some people this is literally a matter of safe space. Sure, libraries are afraid of being sued, but information professionals are afraid of being assaulted by white supremacists. No amount of <a href="http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2018/07/ala-president-unveils-enriched-ala-apa-workplace-wellness-website" target="_blank">wellness</a> <a href="http://ala-apa.org/wellness/" target="_blank">initiatives</a> can make up for that, nor will pointing out, <a href="http://seadoubleyew.com/rethinking-intellectual-freedom/" target="_blank">unhelpfully, as Carrie Wade notes</a>, that free speech and free association are legally allowed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>The White, Neutral, Radical Centrism of ALA</b><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioT0Z5nIR04SeQ8Pgv6kdoA6_JFmK_8xWyEOCftPr1EoJ-fq1MYKJVU8QFi-PoGgjRhqJkh9r7XJNTZJWP8KL7OCbR2tsB-bGafbCmnT_JA_WwPVwkkFwcLopa8PTusOlcA51lOpCcZwDJ/s1600/paradox.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioT0Z5nIR04SeQ8Pgv6kdoA6_JFmK_8xWyEOCftPr1EoJ-fq1MYKJVU8QFi-PoGgjRhqJkh9r7XJNTZJWP8KL7OCbR2tsB-bGafbCmnT_JA_WwPVwkkFwcLopa8PTusOlcA51lOpCcZwDJ/s400/paradox.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.redd.it/i69jnt27a8gz.png">https://i.redd.it/i69jnt27a8gz.png</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It seems that few, if any, members of the ALA staff involved understand <a href="https://i.redd.it/i69jnt27a8gz.png" target="_blank">the paradox of tolerance</a>. As a Jewish person in America, I understand my whiteness, and the privilege that comes with it, is very much contingent. White supremacists meeting in my neighborhood library make it much less likely for me to want to be there. I can stay, putting my physical and mental health at risk, or I can leave, ceding that space. There is no civil discourse to be had with such actors. That is not an option. I know many information professionals who have it much, much worse. Extremists can infiltrate library spaces, pushing out moderates. The both-sideism of the ALA here, under the guise of neutrality, is anything but. By tolerating the intolerable, they will put information professionals and patrons at risk with only potential legal liability as an excuse.<br />
<br />
Further, the applications of "equal treatment" will be anything but. Power and social relations are asymmetric. Here is the head of OIF, prior to his accepting the position, siding with the powerful, for example.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc72Py76syW8pHtpWh7doriklGo-yeyJ_OHRWD_jHK9PwA5R3UtNrj512JKMznju3nvemlu7SJnekD0nZqURNvIjBbUgv3hyphenhyphenq9cUvkNYulRrkaykLLWVP63JoVv_6itbUT-VSHTRnttUFP/s1600/jaslar.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="90" data-original-width="618" height="56" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc72Py76syW8pHtpWh7doriklGo-yeyJ_OHRWD_jHK9PwA5R3UtNrj512JKMznju3nvemlu7SJnekD0nZqURNvIjBbUgv3hyphenhyphenq9cUvkNYulRrkaykLLWVP63JoVv_6itbUT-VSHTRnttUFP/s400/jaslar.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://twitter.com/jaslar/status/768918655308488705">https://twitter.com/jaslar/status/768918655308488705</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That link leads to:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1j5qGHJIWeUP4COa1JGDnWBgdrAr6QqxEfD0MhIbyzFeYP7e-2MtVGDP959T70ycAhTKTVErogpceHQ5f23HTCM96VyHBWLRvN0g7lVDmpo2NjNb0TUOdT6UjWpjlUlgu9hdJ5OsWK5Gw/s1600/jaslar1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="896" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1j5qGHJIWeUP4COa1JGDnWBgdrAr6QqxEfD0MhIbyzFeYP7e-2MtVGDP959T70ycAhTKTVErogpceHQ5f23HTCM96VyHBWLRvN0g7lVDmpo2NjNb0TUOdT6UjWpjlUlgu9hdJ5OsWK5Gw/s400/jaslar1.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://nextdraft.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=ed102783e87fee61c1a534a9d&id=644f08388d&e=06ef6feea7%20%E2%80%A6" target="_blank">nextdraft.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=ed102783e87fee61c1a534a9d&id=644f08388d&e=06ef6feea7 …</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That a white man who heads OIF does not understand the power asymmetry at work here is sadly to be expected, but also gives me pause because of the office he holds. The University of Chicago's Dean of Students' words played well with donors, boards of trustees, and wealthy alumnae/i, but not <a href="https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2016/9/13/letter-faculty-respond-ellison-letter/" target="_blank">with faculty or students.</a> Whose speech, whose expression, was being suppressed here, and at whose expense? I am not convinced that he, or any of us, really, know how to accommodate hate speech while making people feel welcome and safe to speak, and one can also see this in <a href="https://www.slj.com/2018/07/industry-news/free-speech-debate-erupts-alas-inclusion-hate-groups-bill-rights-revision/" target="_blank">the response from Martin Garnar</a>, co-chair of ALA’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Implementation Working Group. That is the paradox of tolerance. There is a choice here. Neutrality is a myth, benign neglect and the status quo are choices. I was not convinced <a href="http://www.jlarue.com/2018/02/are-libraries-neutral.html" target="_blank">at the Midwinter meeting</a>, and I'm not convinced now.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2016/04/library-meeting-room-conflicts/" target="_blank">A Black Lives Matter group wanting to meet in peace in a library</a> is not the same as a white supremacist group, given that this country is a white supremacist state. Power matters, intention much less so. "They fundamentally do not understand that the presence of white folks is inherently more dangerous to People of Color than the inverse due to the structures of oppression and discrimination built into our profession and society," <a href="http://seadoubleyew.com/rethinking-intellectual-freedom/" target="_blank">per Wade</a>.<br />
<br />
Having white people in charge leads to organizations that take the concerns of people of color less seriously, because it, however defined, doesn't happen to white people. Dismissing critiques of ALA policies on social media is ignoring peoples' lived experiences (and LaRue should know, because he has been <a href="http://www.jlarue.com/2018/04/yes-there-was-holocaust.html" target="_blank">the target of trolls</a>). Social media, a powerful organizing tool, is where people of color are more likely to be. They're not the ones writing and implementing these policies. There's a reason not as much criticism is taking place on ALA Connect.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>What Do We Do? <a href="https://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2013/06/exit-voice-and-loyalty-in-academic.html" target="_blank">Exit, Voice, Loyalty</a></b><br />
<br />
I don't know what's to be done with ALA. It's a truism that it's the American <i>Library </i>Association and not the American <i>Library Staff </i>Association. They are, by some accounts, a very effective lobbying organization. And yet they can't seem to get out of their own way lately.<br />
<br />
If these four occurrences, plus more, I'm sure, make the ALA irredeemable in your eyes, I understand. I really do. And maybe so does ALA, having dipped below 60,000 members, and facing with declining conference attendance. These are not unrelated, just as these four incidents did not occur in a vacuum.<br />
<br />
You're tired? I get that. Fight elsewhere if that's what you think is right. That's Exit.<br />
<br />
I've seen both Council-members and ALA staff complain about social media push-back to ALA policies, resolutions, and press releases, especially since the most recent annual conference. Consider this Voice, and also consider using the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ibveSDgm9t8M9uC1rn50XjvYqXRQ4yh_zbvOtSwTJYQ/edit" target="_blank">ALA Position on Hate Groups in Libraries google doc</a> as a way to express your opinions.<br />
<br />
You could vote. Only twenty percent of ALA members bother to do this even though it's done online over the course of a few weeks, which is to say it's absurdly easy. Voting won't solve the disconnect between Council and ALA staff, but having conscientious people like Emily Drabinski, April Hathcock, and Jessica Schomberg represent you is a good thing. Given that we are information professionals, I find the low turnout in ALA elections to be especially dispiriting, and I encourage ALA members to vote for people of color in particular. People who look like me are far more likely to think as the OIF does, because we do not bear the brunt of "free speech" or library "neutrality." Consider voting for people who will not treat such policies as an intellectual exercise, but as tangible and corporeal, with real, material consequences for both library staff and patrons.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="giphy-embed" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://giphy.com/embed/OpsfQone2H2Ok" width="480"></iframe><br />
<a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/jasmyn-OpsfQone2H2Ok">via GIPHY</a><br />
<br />
Anyway, given that an employer pays my dues, Voice is where you can find me for the foreseeable future.<br />
<br />
But however the organization responds, the damage is done. OIF's revisions have no doubt already been Internet Archive'd, pdf'd, and Wayback Machine'd. We'll see those words in a courtroom, used against us.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
The Library Bill of Rights Interpretation as it is written with a special call out for hate groups will INCREASE the likelihood of lawsuits not decrease it.</div>
— April (No one illegal, no one banned) (@AprilHathcock) <a href="https://twitter.com/AprilHathcock/status/1017065009090912256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
As for loyalty, well... it hasn't gotten us much so far since November, 2016.<br />
<br />
<br />BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-31999196266369661202018-06-13T09:34:00.001-04:002018-06-13T09:34:06.922-04:00"And how does this affect me?" International diplomacy and my job<br />
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNFn545vNNNaH31scTahe-mukNsoer954Lg2niQcQj5CG5ITUKid6g4OP61y5crJWW6J7tnMWxiPGYXVF514EF6UVyI5L3kJSJ6VDb57Yu49aFN8DlZOP-tC0SCip2T3RtyeoIZyu6U-zd/s1600/Capture31.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="121" data-original-width="701" height="68" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNFn545vNNNaH31scTahe-mukNsoer954Lg2niQcQj5CG5ITUKid6g4OP61y5crJWW6J7tnMWxiPGYXVF514EF6UVyI5L3kJSJ6VDb57Yu49aFN8DlZOP-tC0SCip2T3RtyeoIZyu6U-zd/s400/Capture31.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russia-to-expel-us-diplomats-close-st-petersburg-consulate/2018/03/29/1d1b6fc4-3376-11e8-b6bd-0084a1666987_story.html?utm_term=.3c312efe7497" target="_blank">Source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
When <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russia-to-expel-us-diplomats-close-st-petersburg-consulate/2018/03/29/1d1b6fc4-3376-11e8-b6bd-0084a1666987_story.html?utm_term=.3c312efe7497" target="_blank">diplomats get expelled</a>, they're all going to come to my place of work, and almost all of them will visit the library. Here's what we do.<br />
<ol>
<li>Some of these diplomats are going to be offered a buyout, given the offer to retire. They'll take retirement seminars, and make use of the library's Career Transition Center print and online collections.</li>
<li>Some will be retrained. Russian speakers may luck out, finding openings in other countries that use a Cyrillic alphabet. Others might not be so lucky; maybe they'll have to learn Pashto, or Danish, or Portuguese... and take the appropriate courses concerning the sociopolitical and cultural aspects of new destinations. </li>
</ol>
Regardless, all of these people will be looking for housing, some will be looking to place children in local schools, and all will be adjusting to life in a new place on short notice. It's incredibly stressful.<br />
<br />
Anyway, we'll be here with the resources they need, and we'll be here short-staffed, thanks to a hiring freeze.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-46309045319311656122018-01-02T09:13:00.000-05:002018-01-02T09:35:56.577-05:00Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2017 EditionOverall I thought 2017 wasn't as strong a year as 2016, as last year's top 5 is still in my regular music rotation, but hey, we got Radiohead's remastered OK Computer with magnificent studio version of b-sides, OKNOTOK, and that Black Thought freestyle. I'll take it. Here's my clear number one.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iBBYaeqy9lQ" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
1) The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding: Adam Granduciel's masterpiece, a flawless album that updates 80s rock tropes with textured, processed guitars and everything-in-its-right-place layered studio perfection. Yeah, it'll remind you of Bruce Hornsby and Dire Straits, but it'll also remind you of Kraftwerk's Computer Love.<br />
<br />
Two through four are also easy choices.<br />
<br />
2) Slowdive - s/t: Songs of love aboard an interstellar space station. The vocal interplay between Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead is reminiscent of Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubble and Ira Kaplan's coos, and the rhythm section keeps Slowdive a poppier affair than their first go around. Unsurprising that the band would use Beach House's producer to make a spacey, slow burning album.<br />
<br />
3) Bjork - Utopia: Bjork has been threatening to make an album surrounded by small woodland creatures pretty much her whole career, and so here we are. Birds chip and strings swell, but there's more beats on this album than you'd expect. Along with Bjork's increasingly direct lyrics, the result is a surprisingly tight and focused album.<br />
<br />
4) MC Eiht - Which Way Iz West: An absolute banger for old heads like myself, with all the 90s west coast touchstones guesting in top form. There's something to be said for a hip-hop album with a few chefs in the kitchen; it leads to a more cohesive and coherent listen. Overseen by Executive Producer DJ Premier, Producer Brenk Sinatra's drums hit, the scratches and cuts are well-placed, and ain't a damn thing changed for a whole bunch of dudes who were gruff and gravely-voiced twenty years ago. And yes, Lady of Rage bats leadoff on a track, with a Rakim-esque internal rhyme scheme.<br />
<br />
Next, rounding out the top fifteenish.<br />
<br />
5) Los Campesinos - Sick Scenes: This is about where these albums usually end up on end-of-year lists, so why stop now?<br />
6) Cloud Nothings - Life Without Sound: Up to the Surface and Enter Entirely were two of the better rock songs of the year, and the rest of the album is pretty good, too.<br />
7) Ryan Adams - Prisoner: Mining similar territory as The War on Drugs, Adams updates his Heartbreaker album for 80s synth-rock.<br />
8) IDLES - Brutalism: A sneering, searing piece of post-punk that's alternately witty and too clever by half, propelled by near-industrial drumming.<br />
9) Jay Som - Everybody Works: Literally bedroom pop since that's where it was recorded and full of indie hooks. Like Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville and more recently Waxahatchee? Odds are good you'll like this, too.<br />
10) Fleet Foxes - Crack Up: Predictably gorgeous.<br />
11) The Horrors - V: The Horrors update the dance-punk of the aughts with zero-gravity guitar sounds from shoegaze revivalists, vocals that hearken back to Julian Cope, and more than a little Depeche Mode. Notes bend, shimmer, and fade into synths.<br />
12) Algiers - The Underside of Power: If Hank Shocklee's Bomb Squad met TV on the Radio circa 2004 it might sound something like this.<br />
13) The National - Sleep Well Beast: An update to their sound that is particularly American in its lack of subtlety. Matt Berninger's red wine-soaked croon is backed by what passes for blasts of noise and sonic departures for the rest of the band, and we're all the better for it.<br />
14) Rihannon Giddens - Freedom Highway: The only album I've put on one of these lists from a MacAurther Genius Grant winner.<br />
15a) Kronos Quartet - Folk Songs: The Quartet backs Rihannon Giddens, Natalie Merchant, and more on nine folk songs. Their restrained and subtle interpretations anchor, but don't upstage, the singers.<br />
15b) Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet - Ladilikan: Same, but with singers from Mali.<br />
<br />
Singles: Alvvays - Dreams Tonite; Grizzly Bear - Mourning Sound; Mogwai - Party in the Dark; Ryan Adams - Do You Still Love Me?; Cloud Nothings - Enter Entirely and Up to the Surface; Perfume Genius - Slip Away; Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit - If We Were Vampires.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-EVhFTw4igw" width="500"></iframe>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>Beer</b><br />
<br />
The number of breweries in the US has doubled since 2013, tripled since 2011, and <a href="https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2017/12/26/2017-the-year-of-promiscuity-flop-sweat-and-new-england-ipa" target="_blank">quadrupled since 2007</a>, as such I can't keep up with the growth. This is especially true in the exurbs - there's breweries in Columbia, Maryland and Sterling, Virginia I've never heard of!<br />
<br />
Outside of the lines for the Craft Brewers Conference events, one of my favorite things about 2017 was DC's new post-whalez environment. Multiple bars made 3 Floyds Zombie Dust a happy hour special, and it was around for about a month. Hill Farmstead's Edward could be had for $4 at the late Red Apron Burger Bar (RIP to that happy hour, though you can find something just like it at EatBar). And nearly two weeks after its release, you can still walk into both bars and stores and buy a bottle of Founders' Canadian Breakfast Stout (which remains a gloppy mess that needs at least a year in the bottle, but that's another story). I think it's a sign of a maturing market.<br />
<br />
Anxo released the first DC-made cider and opened a 2nd location; The Sovereign cemented its status as the best beer bar in DC; DC Brau added a snazzy new brewhouse; Port City's lager series was a success and will continue into 2018 with a dopplebock batting leadoff; Bluejacket is doing some very good things with lagers and their cask game;... I could go on, but let's get the the beers, locals first, in something like alphabetical order.<br />
<br />
3 Stars, Technicolor Dreamlife (IPA): A fuckton of Mosaic and the malt is smart enough to get out of the way. Here's hoping they bring it back, along with their session IPA, D is for Diamonds.<br />
3 Stars, Trouble in Paradise (Fruit/Sour): It took them a while to get a first batch out, and then even more of a while to dial it in and get this right. Your 2018 beer of the summer is a slightly tarter take on the Florida Weiss that's garnered some press.<br />
<br />
Bluejacket, For the Company (Helles): Their cask game is top notch and now they've got a lager to go with it. Moon Cabbage, Open Window, and The New Colossus are excellent IPAs, as well.<br />
<br />
Burly Oak, Berry Cherry J.D.R.E.A.M. (Fruit/Sour): Peak 2017 in beer isn't a hazy IPA, it's a fruit-addled kettle sour with lactose that tastes juuuuuuuuuust enough like a beer to count here.<br />
<br />
DC Brau, Barrel-aged Citizen (Belgian Golden Ale): The Citizen, aged in rye whiskey barrels that also held Langon Wood's maple syrup. The banana esters from the yeast and Old World hops play very well with the sweetness of the syrup, the rye spice, and the wood.<br />
<br />
Manor Hill, Barrel-aged Grisette: Low ABV, full flavor, plus a sauvignon blanc barrel and whatever berries happen to be in-season on their farm. Here's hoping they've got more of it in 2018.<br />
<br />
Any Ocelot IPA, and their collaboration IPA with increasingly recognized Triple Crossing out of Richmond.<br />
<br />
One Eight Distilling, Rock Creek Bourbon: No, it's not a beer, but it is the first grain-to-glass bourbon made in DC since Prohibition, and it's already very good at two years old. 95 proof, high rye.<br />
<br />
Any Port City lager in their rotating series, but especially that smoked Marzen. One of the more surprising things about beer in 2017 to me is that Colossal 6, a Russian Imperial Stout, didn't medal at the Great American Beer Festival.<br />
<br />
Right Proper, et al, Soused (IPA): The hoppiest beer they've made got on the kveiss fermentation trend a few months before it blew up, and you can still get a hint of smokey juniper between all those stone fruit and citrus hops and esters.<br />
Right Proper, Baron Elijah (Bier de Garde): Baron Corvo in a very wet Elijah Craig bourbon barrel is as close to a Manhattan as a beer is going to get. Cherry up front, whiskey in the back, and an oaky, dry finish.<br />
<br />
Elsewhere, new to market, new packaging, and new to me: any Offshoot IPA, and that Pils, too; Upland's sours and Champagne Velvet; Crux's Gimme Mo IPA; Ommegang's Pale Sour; Left Hand's Saison Aux Baies Ameres; Suarez Family's porter and pils; Schlafly's reintroduction of their <a href="https://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2013/03/scotch-whiskey-barrel-aging-and-beer.html" target="_blank">Scotch-barrel aged Scotch ale</a>; Lodgson's Peche 'n Brett; being able to get Urban Chestnut's Schnicklefritz hefeweizen with some regularity; Otter Creek's IPA game remains strong with Daily Dose; Atlas putting Dance of Days in cans; Allagash's Brett IPA; Burial and Interboro's collaboration IPA with Run the Jewels, Stay G-O-L-D; Grimm's Magnetic Tape IPA; Bell's Uberon and Whiskey Barrel Cherry Stout.<br />
<br />
Imports: Cadejo Brewing's witbier; Ayinger's new-to-the-US pilsner; Rodenbach in cans; Weihenstephaner Kristalweizenbock.<br />
<br />
Here's hoping 2018 treats us better than 2017 did. Cheers.<br />
<br />BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-45564574609427566512017-10-02T09:58:00.000-04:002017-10-03T09:17:29.578-04:00On Anger in LIS: Notes From a Feminized, White ProfessionPeople are unaccustomed to anger in library, archive, and other information professions. The reactions to righteous anger in three recent events show how emotions are policed in the library and information science professions. I posit the responses take the shape they do in no small part because libraries and archives are white, feminized spaces.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
it is important that librarians assess the basic meaning of feminization and give precise attention to their early history, for the dominance of women is surely the prevailing factor in library education, the image of librarianship, and the professionalization of the field. - Garrison, D. (1972). The Tender Technicians: The Feminization of Public Librarianship, 1876-1905. J<i>ournal of Social History</i>, 6(2), 143.</blockquote>
If recent history is any guide, little has changed. In terms of demographics, both the <a href="http://www.ala.org/tools/research/initiatives/membershipsurveys" target="_blank">American Library Association</a> and <a href="https://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/WArS-SAA-Salary-Survey-Report.pdf" target="_blank">Society of American Archivists</a> [pdf, see table 3, on page 7] report membership that is over eighty percent female-identified and over eighty-five percent white. There is enough fodder for how librarians are viewed that a well-reviewed edited collection of essays exists (Pagowsky and Rigby).<br />
<br />
McMaster University special collections houses the papers of <a href="http://www.mcmaster.ca/russdocs/russell.htm" target="_blank">Bertrand Russell</a>. Too often the work of archivists goes unacknowledged, so much so that there is a meme about how materials are <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/06/nota-bene-if-you-discover-something-in-an-archive-its-not-a-discovery/258538/" target="_blank">"discovered" in archives</a>, as if no work went into making those materials discoverable. This lack of credit, acknowledgement, and citation itself is in part a reaction to an industry where women are (over)represented, per a special issue of <a href="http://americanarchivist.org/toc/aarc/36/2?code=same-site" target="_blank"><i>The American Archivist</i> from 1973</a>.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<a href="http://americanarchivist.org/toc/aarc/36/2" target="_blank">The letter is here. It's online because of our work. We're glad you think it's suitably viral. Not acknowledging its source is unacceptable. </a><a href="https://t.co/NlOyjPVsBC">https://t.co/NlOyjPVsBC</a></div>
— McMaster Rare Books (@MacResColls) <a href="https://twitter.com/MacResColls/status/913812031794548736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
The response to this argument on social media was nothing if not illuminating. If an airline, restaurant, tech firm, or other "customer service" industry responded as McMaster Special Collections did I suspect we'd all be cheering them on; there'd be a gif-laden Buzzfeed- or Rawstory-style article about it: "Guess who got dragged!" Instead, there was circumspection, condescension, and more than a bit of discussion about tone and tenor.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbC1UYawNWrjOuG0kwtVCmy27u5NAZtdgwg4Zbf_-XKUPYq0rv3xRv-r7dFzgid0KcqreD0ugeqBXDQAH8O6p8b97tk3g84R44Yq5VfjiThk4zJqZhk2IGmHYVuqOA7fGb_xIoIQ6pxWWp/s1600/sweetie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="755" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbC1UYawNWrjOuG0kwtVCmy27u5NAZtdgwg4Zbf_-XKUPYq0rv3xRv-r7dFzgid0KcqreD0ugeqBXDQAH8O6p8b97tk3g84R44Yq5VfjiThk4zJqZhk2IGmHYVuqOA7fGb_xIoIQ6pxWWp/s400/sweetie.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The above image is a reminder that women are perfectly capable of participating in patriarchal modes of thought, and if the man takes offense, it is because he knows he has been feminized, viewed as insulting (Carmichael).<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
[<b>UPDATE</b>: I mischaracterized the person who wrote the tweet screencapped above as a "former higher-up at Folger. This is not the case. I have deleted that caption and offer my apologies. In addition, their reply to this post is worth examining.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOcxIKnWv0bz1uRRsyQmPn4UIuE2wIajWOOFZTscupHNjk7YpJrsmIDE1SFDqxv-PyIzTtHBilD-di92YpmCVP3nrMb90Lr4Oepi1-m3I5-AjGTgKwAbGIU9eenqfEXOEm0DpIrLxMLfY8/s1600/Capture260.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="155" data-original-width="592" height="83" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOcxIKnWv0bz1uRRsyQmPn4UIuE2wIajWOOFZTscupHNjk7YpJrsmIDE1SFDqxv-PyIzTtHBilD-di92YpmCVP3nrMb90Lr4Oepi1-m3I5-AjGTgKwAbGIU9eenqfEXOEm0DpIrLxMLfY8/s320/Capture260.PNG" width="320" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMllhLzedKPPvfn91YBf_eIIuJ-DN8m6dhgPOUKwVwB5t4kUPVVBK1wkBQliD3b7o4v1BXYMXIyknRn7VPKI55EHXYU15kw87GYM30g3nIJaUvnlXkBXtpNFiLm9CFHU4lwhUCbBE1D-j-/s1600/Capture261.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="133" data-original-width="597" height="71" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMllhLzedKPPvfn91YBf_eIIuJ-DN8m6dhgPOUKwVwB5t4kUPVVBK1wkBQliD3b7o4v1BXYMXIyknRn7VPKI55EHXYU15kw87GYM30g3nIJaUvnlXkBXtpNFiLm9CFHU4lwhUCbBE1D-j-/s320/Capture261.PNG" width="320" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheWzMoJbIhxqujHA32qXvYOQCVFv20C2jYS1xmg-Isw2aA1ISLktT9FWb16XmJiJxOkqBJ_sV5iqhixE42vCDyGnpxgGMH7VyhbA1il582M7y56Q-wNug_7k_5axrJruF4kXCnRm0PonfL/s1600/Capture262.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="133" data-original-width="601" height="70" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheWzMoJbIhxqujHA32qXvYOQCVFv20C2jYS1xmg-Isw2aA1ISLktT9FWb16XmJiJxOkqBJ_sV5iqhixE42vCDyGnpxgGMH7VyhbA1il582M7y56Q-wNug_7k_5axrJruF4kXCnRm0PonfL/s320/Capture262.PNG" width="320" /></a><br /><br />As you were.]</blockquote>
<br />
A second example comes from school libraries. Melania Trump, First Lady of the United States, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/09/28/school-librarian-rejects-books-donated-by-melania-trump-in-tough-letter-to-first-lady/?utm_term=.aa92691b03cd" target="_blank">donated books to a library in Massachusetts</a>. The librarian who received the books was deemed insufficiently grateful for the donation, writing <a href="http://www.hbook.com/2017/09/blogs/family-reading/dear-mrs-trump/" target="_blank">an open letter to the First Lady</a>. [A side note here: the books given are by Dr. Seuss, which--barely concealed hyperbole alert--close to every single library in an English-speaking country owns. I work in a federal facility and we own a copy of <i>The Cat in the Hat</i>. Really.] Again, I invite you to view the reactions to declining this book donation.<br />
<br />
The third example is in some ways not like the others. It comes from a librarian's personal website, and the reaction does not involve information professionals. White supremacy "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Black_Woman" target="_blank">permits</a>" black women to be angry and yet at the same time views them as ungrateful, as if centuries of slavery, Jim Crow, and structural racism and sexism never happened (Perry). This cultural act of cognitive dissonance lends itself to the kind of harassment and abusive behavior seen below in two willful misreadings.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis95YEMiUtLODqWtdzeM14CbT7MTw4XgCsbulzgIVfHyaxrMR_YIQksZzZUAiiDboOlgoYppqTlVUt-_50RuuL9vXf0d9ZKOKn88zmjrud92EFYANzhygEnMCynjoJ8oA24osNXhxSNb2e/s1600/Capture253.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="940" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis95YEMiUtLODqWtdzeM14CbT7MTw4XgCsbulzgIVfHyaxrMR_YIQksZzZUAiiDboOlgoYppqTlVUt-_50RuuL9vXf0d9ZKOKn88zmjrud92EFYANzhygEnMCynjoJ8oA24osNXhxSNb2e/s320/Capture253.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-c1TqHvrfRGOpyreAs218YS5U-XaxVCR6xx-H0xGZnhbwvQ3wcO75wzjXhU4F-gBBu6y3W6ml6hi-WsP2dSgixpgjdufDwcyRSxgKKjs3v7pcrzzJpqyHI3e8EYsSArkPPaK4BalDBZLt/s1600/Capture254.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="669" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-c1TqHvrfRGOpyreAs218YS5U-XaxVCR6xx-H0xGZnhbwvQ3wcO75wzjXhU4F-gBBu6y3W6ml6hi-WsP2dSgixpgjdufDwcyRSxgKKjs3v7pcrzzJpqyHI3e8EYsSArkPPaK4BalDBZLt/s320/Capture254.PNG" width="257" /></a></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
America: where we care more about black women *sounding* angry than we do about what is making them "angry"</div>
— 🍁Mortal Bus Boy🦇 (@PhysicistLisa) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhysicistLisa/status/914243603853127680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 30, 2017</a></blockquote>
<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Anger is largely seen as the province of men, unladylike, thus alien to libraries and archives. Anger is to be repressed, one must not be overly emotional. Showing too much is unpuritan, not in keeping with White Anglo-Saxon Protestantism. Thus anger is by extension unwhite, alien to libraries and archives.<br />
<br />
Librarians and archivists are not "allowed" to be angry. We can debate whether this anger is justifiable or not--it's a matter of opinion--but to do that is to miss the point. Similarly, we can debate whether anger "works," that is, does it achieve a desired outcome, and--spoiler alert--the efficacy of anger in terms of influence is often due to gender perceptions (Salerno and Peter-Hagene).<br />
<br />
As a result, many information professionals are effectively <a href="https://gavialib.com/?s=silencing" target="_blank">silenced</a> (Loon), unable to articulate concerns and advocate for themselves. With options limited <a href="https://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2017/07/academic-libraries-and-false-promises_27.html" target="_blank">the false promise of resilience</a> becomes one coping mechanism (Galvan, et al.).<br />
<br />
Whether it is decades of archival erasure, an ill-thought out photo op of a donation, or centuries of racial and gendered oppression: Let us, as information professionals, be angry. Many of us are going to continue to tone police, but let's at least acknowledge that we have a lot to be angry about.<br />
<br />
<br />
References:<br />
<br />
The American Archivist, 36(2).<br />
<br />
Carmichael, J. V., Jr. (1992). The Male Librarian and the Feminine Image: A Survey of Stereotype, Status, and Gender Perceptions. <i>Library and Information Science Research,</i> 14(4) 411-46.<br />
<br />
Galvan, A., Tewell, E., & Berg, J. (2017) Academic Libraries and the False Promises of Resiliency, <i>Beerbrarian</i>. https://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2017/07/academic-libraries-and-false-promises_27.html.<br />
<br />
Garrison, D. (1972). The Tender Technicians: The Feminization of Public Librarianship, 1876-1905. J<i>ournal of Social History</i>, 6(2) 131-159.<br />
<br />
Harris-Perry, M. (2011). <i>Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America,</i> New Haven: Yale University Press.<br />
<br />
The Library Loon (2017) Silencing tag landing page, <i>Gavia Libraria</i>, https://gavialib.com/?s=silencing.<br />
<br />
Pagowsky, N. & Rigby, M. (2014). <i>The Librarian Stereotype: Deconstructing Perceptions and Presentations of Information Work</i>, Chicago: ACRL Press.<br />
<br />
Salerno, J. M., & Peter-Hagene, L. C. (2015). One Angry Woman: Anger Expression Increases Influence for Men, but Decreases Influence for Women, During Group Deliberation. <i>Law And Human Behavior</i>, doi:10.1037/lhb0000147.<br />
<br />BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-31614605970443613522017-07-27T09:57:00.001-04:002017-07-27T16:43:40.420-04:00Academic Libraries and the False Promises of Resiliency<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>This is a joint post from Angela Galvan, Eamon Tewell, and myself, and contains the slides and text of our presentation at the Libraries and Archives in the Anthropocene Colloquium. Audio and slides from an earlier version of this presentation at the Association of College and Research Libraries Conference in Baltimore, Maryland is <a href="https://player.vimeo.com/video/209899451" target="_blank">also available</a>. </i></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-feeb6f93-80b4-f183-4265-f0523b8aa5bc" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Eamon</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="129" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/zHZMi_RoZbGUvNTEq_q7OetdIJzcaY7CUk14kiXRkVikxekgjJQEM9NCOh3iUf18fMc3MbdHjrpnewDHD-nqBXu-sbwDGYkzlXb3R4XD_FiwMItM4bQ_A8Jv7nb5QXvQkX5OGRWt" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resilience is everywhere nowadays, from preparing for environmental catastrophes to being a more effective business leader. Regardless of context, resilience is often assumed to be fundamentally good and beyond reproach, something we should all strive for. And we’d like to change that.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="277" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/hUh8Pw3Tgh8pHxq2-o018qxPn2RDWZCBUiYD9Xq-8m0COAD9OFrSvCrCKIcEI3LJ8gYLsOzsSNMQ00cIP6V5TUeEEEcwonghT0NOY16LUjjroyX-DcMhCz91VeTziHq7P9yzQTKP" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resilience is a metaphor used to describe withstanding or adjusting to stressors of various kinds, whether we’re talking about individuals, environments, or structures. It’s considered the ability to bounce back from a severe setback; to successfully adapt to a disturbance or disaster of some type. In the 70s and 80s resilience was adapted by researchers in ecology. The term was developed by C.S. Holling in 1973 to describe ecosystems that continue to function more or less the same despite adversity. Decades later, resilience has become part of the dominant discourse in disaster management, architecture, and urban planning.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="201" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0z8oZAvuRlp48Hc-q3yzAEZFas8jvwT66My5ZNFp1WSNlHyG9VyUbVjIaxRaR9GDZx_eLXQtdDbr26CbMRNiAZ1GJcNmhR98pxKZo-dO9oOm2HFumb4E0dAC_xki-BVbXBaJ6h_h" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The popularity of resilience has skyrocketed along with the increased pace and severity of catastrophes and disasters. Resilience is increasingly used in discussions as diverse as international finance, the psychology of trauma, public health, urban design, and even libraries. We see how resilience is conflated across wildly different areas with this quote. From its beginning in ecology, it’s gradually been reconceived as a property which people naturally possess and simply need to cultivate, and that’s a problem.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="165" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/1_momgJbcd_Zjm4429fMNdVcEK_hCjN6VbymwBM9VFc_y4D-7LAK92hMC0fwt6zLuNJQRYUHNM2TvbJ8jlkqlFPexFgQSo9WUDfFinYzcFj7KgutTY8SLxZeBquoCd-7qr1Cxvbp" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s important to ask what work resilience does socially. What are we being resilient from? Who does resilience benefit?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="151" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ud4_NIw4kavdvE3DRHwdWavG_2G79SrP4dd7cjbuxFzhjc6ghA5WGI4CNhTqtT2UQeGfuTMKaGEtLdI7kbh8kNkZfJzcrSJOyb9sz0uzaUtAFDHXlkQp9tIbbb2z8GrIDW3yfj3-" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At its core, resilience individualizes. It serves to reproduce an ideology wherein people are entirely responsible for themselves. Resilience tells us that if we aren’t able to find 10% in our budgets to cut and still provide the same service, or if we aren’t able to take up the work that an unfilled position leaves, it is our problem and our shortcoming. Resilience outsources the work of addressing and coping with systemic inequality to individuals. If you feel the negative effects of sexism, resilience says, it’s your fault because you haven’t learned how to bounce back well enough.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="271" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/7bXpgir0cXFlZqrUJXjaNpJc6Mrd95wsF-zIN-U93n-b1m-J-7Z6IFaGTCu1LPqpzwK7rdwVx3BGqABF5m1EJ33ei9al6YIDUJz472AbIJsP64yL11pZQrs6LR_oJvNtGjb_pDw2" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is a poster from Tracie Washington, an attorney and activist in New Orleans, that she put up after Hurricane Katrina struck and the residents were receiving praise for their resilience. Resilience has the effect of naturalizing that which is not natural or given--complex social systems, environmental racism, and so forth. It encourages us to accept these relations at face value and take them for granted. Resilience doesn’t ask “how can we change this system to make it better?” It asks, “how can you cope in order to maintain the system?”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="115" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/q3kBM0LVaaAs05Da-4z6MndvMu8_DNnech9JP6ep-Cl0ENCT4EtbDwzqtrWIK9Xwq4HKZqEfumSgmH-0rry8YCJSoWRER0l285_nGHHS6F8AtLSuPgvKeJVf-eT1yBwhlewd8NQ7" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those most vulnerable to the shocks of modern capitalism are the ones charged with becoming more resilient against them. This demand for resilience is especially troubling considering the widespread precarity in the library and archives workforce and the adjunctification we see in higher education. Resilience amplifies already existing privilege by relying on the myth of meritocracy, but in reality it takes resources to be resilient. The result is that racial and gendered discrimination is hidden by a facade of objectivity and personal perseverance.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="361" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/NkOHAzqSrwOVtWRHjIQ-LIXdeK8MofrvpNGRXIyAjTxBujE_O_YKn91U1qgHAldaTwy7D2nSGLFNQbD-pxJ0NV6LIqNheAVdnRoNwg467JARyjSbjQ5bfTxvZbnOCWZE4yDdIHrM" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are aspects to resilience that are important to encourage. Sometimes simply persisting in the face of adversity is the most significant act of resistance there is. The problem is that resilience is used to prop up dominant ideologies. We should remember that people are already extremely resourceful. We don’t need this narrative of resilience along with it. Because risk and vulnerability are outcomes of political and economic power being exercised, confronting risk and calling out resilience means confronting power. The most effective way to confront power is collectively, whether that’s in a union or through another mechanism. If we truly want to respond to shocks and crises in our workplaces and libraries, that requires collective action and can’t be done effectively on the individual level. It means organizing to build our own power.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Angela</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="241" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Xv-ZrADmsYo5QxZPEfzVv7AeRBQK1-Ykp878UWyygqB2gETC-U1QaS3oCCavXznnu7PRaRws9qpKl4zusqstfZNMzUkmwjYVUsdrLpelOxgGOnITh0uAxbJeov1vW470asPJ3Dh6" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If your mother is 17 when you’re born and you spend a month in an NICU, you get called resilient all the time. It’s always meant as a complement, and it never feels like one. In particular in recent days, as we’re seeing a great unwinding, and unmaking of the institutions which allow someone like me to end up speaking somewhere I’m not supposed to be, like NYU [our LAAC host].</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a student, university marketing was always quite eager to use my image to convey the power of resilience, effectively turning that trauma into a kind of performative currency people in power are fond of, it being useful that I’m white for such purposes. Energy is spent upholding these stories, which capitalism effortlessly creates through inequalities and consumes for pleasure, rather than resisting the reasons I and others had to be resilient in the first place.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="148" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/CLLETiH0AFJlRknsvGvzfG3aWT_dXOeqazLPq6B3p9wpBl-tZhDWIZUVF_3AN-3Tipy-WOD0P30Sp9ZcifowlZZdBd4NcPE-iH4mzQ-Bbj7uhgetCdm-HY9EwprF8WHYxzaVfJzP" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resilience offers opportunities for survival but only if it comes from institutions and not to exploit workers, which is how resilience is currently modeled in higher education in particular. Resilience in libraries is point blank exploitative.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> "Do more with less and be proud of it"</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The end result is burning out staff and inadvertently creating a class of mercenary practitioners with the ability to leave toxic administrations but in doing so take institutional memory and workflows with them, ultimately hurting productivity. Just like archives shouldn't collect everything, it's not appropriate for libraries to do everything and I think yesterday's questions about what services do we migrate forward because of tradition vs not is a useful one. Librarians don't say no, we're a profession of martyrs.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="169" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_58eNqxMdZPkRc8lhLhHYdeUXbcFil1LFyERLrgRsuEcoz-zBP2b9NMYVN-fWW1IXYU_En388mOyoCAaGhMu5NVIGWlGaKAnTEMuFVoOUnE2XkxUfgEKWKjD7u4ixDdpeF9JmpSq" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We hear continuously how much the public values libraries, except when it comes to calls for funding. FEMA, post-Katrina considers libraries essential to the recovery of a community and yet we are always under threat, must always compete for resources. Libraries matter until we have to pay for them, which is to say they don’t matter. We buy what we value at all levels of funding and power.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="427" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/HEHxX2HGtGbZKaOA7MmAm91Zg3WBKdMDlNIhFNagZK8WLMBRajUqTDf8ffasIbTfMVGpkvCpmWYCF-F-FzMV-sjLcID__XY8uGpFLQY3hyfdif6Ou-J8-Sh_dZp1WrB3chO8TxdP" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="325" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With apologies to this librarian - most likely she didn’t ask to be portrayed as a savior but rather as someone familiar to her community. Libraries produce images like these all the time, with and without the consent of workers. I wish School Library Journal had picked a different photo from this shoot, as I think it does a real disservice to everyone in the image.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="119" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/9Ko5vxioa2V0b8cd4-OANsuNcsp3IpsVCySIKOfL87CWGFP0uxVL17mPtUrLmQZ7x1YZ9JZNfVBa1RBN-RBTQYvS6F1XdRKAJJpZLUJIKsaCxrtBzdKdCVjcdE5bOfipZFajlh4l" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="427" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/XHrjDcjWh4xWx6ChS-CLXkVaLe0TYM02tFYWlOqMRJPEtbR5qConqgF1Vjhm3wOVO_o5KSbMERaJomRVOmrPc1ZT4yyK0_tduc1YsEJFh6qARYIH688GBx2t9qbrjBoGHroVVemp" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="325" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eventually, we take on the shape of our oppressors in the dialogue. We don’t assume libraries have value because we’re constantly having to say so, or otherwise discuss our relevance. You don’t hear people discuss how the Provost has value, or the university president. This has dramatic implications for how the library behaves. It shouldn’t be “save libraries” it should be “libraries save”.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="119" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/4UqhLcAoracro-CUBhgN9VImeXM9BUF6ol00MAHlvU_5yML85xFixiEuvxD1EufI_500AAB25jYl5vr0L37HAMrsQsygzFwcyNkPtzld5Ue9X7YS-jNJVHq8SZw6LuBQS5qcKo6o" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://lib.unb.ca/news/2016/03/6657.html" style="text-decoration: none;">This is a great post</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. That they had to say it at all means this campus doesn’t value it’s library enough to understand what they’re searching. This is the endgame of resilience, where things are more important than people.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="152" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/CEmxoOPN8zxe3Cc3SUBE6hUFMlV3jgS7_b2myGJ6feNthYu6pHrNX8km31MjlJwh9l2sKMzlbSiNE7OwZPU1INp0DgWJzr06G53mij_ef-g8c_6embDh2mUu-ZRbfGrmG5c-wFZX" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s how that looks</span><a href="http://www.library.wisc.edu/news/2016/11/02/rethinking-libraries-through-consolidation" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> taken to the extreme</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="113" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/QJS-uT_S9K63D-eVp9hwhxgJWg75wxoGMkr_IxUaBRq0_5bWrnJOfi5ihuBvyAqjjKRJoemOS7kL2jTQ0l8-VjDi0M71LdB-jMdCu512qkMtyq9innnTovjboze5NWGR9FKO_gj9" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Jake</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="221" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/W29nXQ4sYHhpBG7NAYviFZOR3pGTiCbER36xcCdlLVQZH2ccjYdD2bY5Is-_tQBnOldcrq4C64wPO4wZZTZDOFcfuKdbT88G4HoxlOX3uKDlA_Guz4Gyw1yuqVFkbH_bGcv9mCG5" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On</span><a href="http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/future/trends/resilience" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “Resilience requires community involvement – encouraging individuals to make decisions that help prepare for and prevent the impact of disasters, providing resources and information to help them make informed decisions, and offerings programs and services that allow individuals to respond to issues as they arise. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Libraries and information professionals may be ideal partners or providers in helping individuals adopt resilient practices in their communities.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resilience may also align with library values of equity and access. Truly resilient communities would embrace distributed renewable energy, support diversified local agriculture, and foster social equity and inclusion - all ensuring that communities can adapt to disruptions and avoid situations where the greatest impacts are felt by the most vulnerable members of the community. "</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This conception of resilience, in the face of staffing and budget cuts, yet again asks libraries to "do more with less." It also places libraries in a competition with other institutions for capital that comes with the rise of resilience. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="427" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/iPRae7JxDx_AkCzrwDATnsyqq3nUIWETWm61A3c3L4BAg2DjMfSPRDgT_63d6OuRGVZ5fOGxziEMcDZfrfHznITEPj5M7gqrE-RXDGPGrCfmYAaFWjQuTbOnUbRAl6CBiRRN0zUF" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="349" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/FRG7WRHkGYCoDHXoBvO2be1EczwM2Cnxb-u-Y0E6mk4xbK0xQlBlXPLwp_rdKgIbXogMJtBRKGB0ZG0TWbOtGgpcRGBNQgYs564tdPzICWt5-0VXCyV2gBBhOswg48aBA2hod-iG" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ll give you bingo, have some buzzwords, again from the Center for the Future of Libraries. Thanks, ALA!</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anyway, an overview. The relationship between collection development and counter-narratives.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="215" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/AGYdH1_3tQgJPuRuFT3DUdM_lzfQMqVB5wY6cvTRkYCRb1g3O05tbLJpOiGjoSw-ID9W_1QaK_U_9R69kkna4Iwpr9nruZMB29tKHtm5Cn4eiW0gg2YNxodbnVHK2cu0i5Y-59P6" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m going to open with what I see in terms of Resilience at the State Department, how a focus on this was sort of mandated, and why it makes sense, given that we’ve got a bunch of stressed out adults being sent off to far away places to explain incoherent and at times counter-productive policies, sometimes with family in tow.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also, the current administration is “encouraging” some people to retire.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’ve got a Center devoted to it, the concept is l</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">iterally baked in to our mission.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="192" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/dmRM79ZB77ZJzRaMTNZ8NhocfKeP-koLYp5b1LSz59MI1xm_o7MWMp64KhctJbmLyHgkN7j7hc7NBaMMIyezWvuPBarbHFRI92AuzN3EBWyTcDsydIeaJfE5P1R3tJUN9ugbDEwt" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is an actual course description. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I added that “Um…” Because, well, you know. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">That is some good angst.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="195" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/VdOm2088VHMLvmPPx2Iu_pl4jmGgeeW8XCeHgAzf1Pc7FercrXwerrf8p_i74Jg8G6VEdVC8xeyyArHNsZmDGDO_yo19raw_pdboYfM5WkMaHwZ9ERIh8M_98cIh9JTnkrBvlziq" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All of this is on the open internet, don’t worry, these aren’t state secrets. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">That quote is from State Department regulations, and those are courses that we offer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So you see, when you develop collections to support courses, here’s what we’re up against.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="264" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kBviraQVvHd64N423p6UxUNfVfjOlcqrHFekBdIG8H-HCI9SN8koCDuVSaetjPAaiGia6yhaWrq92C0vlMCqmYqKnU5tiBAKckT-KeZGJ-7p_74HyijYSHj9SY40fzJmXtay81-j" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="173" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/NccsBFRZuK86qBdCHty4vNe2crKwJquZG8pG_knWPKBgh600apZ5Bf-nrbkcCzZd0ZnU_SlPt5QAAvw4qC4nR3r2VtoImhu54MrpFZc3X_SH3MAc4Jq-4Yxo552ESeF3M5RuZdtn" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Given that mandate, I'm trying to give some time to the opposition. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Buy these four books, have your catalogers make sure “grit” and “resilience” show up in the metadata so they can be found. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hit those 650 fields!</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People at State do not like the Angela Duckworth book on grit, which may be the most popular in the field. There was some push-back to that in the media, so I wonder if that played a role in them not liking it.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tough in some ways got the ball rolling on “grit,” but he says that we don’t know how to teach “grit” and “resilience,” it’s a much more nuanced argument than he gets credit for.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="211" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/HDZwe62bfKv9lOvXVwdrJaca7d8w7Lh8e0oqsMSOyibinaHQ3UkDyIevp8YJit0OxA_OGVeCEbW0SWeP0ibHDl41pUI4roS0uF4rBsIn_FXpsE6-M7X4RYpvmuCQhWiCGNOuSQ71" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Collection development is a way to introduce counter-narratives, for example: </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resilience as capitalism, used to extract labor.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resilience is the practice of making evident a lot of noisy damage so that you can then spectacularly overcome it in a way that produces surplus value for both you (in the form of, say, human or social capital) and for society as a whole. You can think of it like shock-doctrine capitalism for the individual psyche, especially the individual psyches of people from oppressed groups. Resilience is a specific type of therapeutic overcoming. It has three steps: (1) perform damage so that others can see, feel, and understand it; (2) recycle or overcome that damage, so that you come out ahead of where you were even before the damage hit; (3) pay that surplus value–that value added by recycling–to some hegemonic institution, like white supremacist patriarchy, or capital, or the State, something like that. This isn’t just coping–it’s a very, very specific form of coping designed to get individuals to perform the superficial trappings of recovery from deep, systemic issues, all the while reinforcing and intensifying the very systemic issues it claims to solve. Resilience is how patriarchy hides behind superficial feminist liberation, how white supremacy hides behind superficial multiculturalism. - Robin James</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">James uses “melancholy” as a counter to resilience. “Melancholy can look identical to resilience in its first two steps (damage, coping), but the main difference is in the third step: melancholic strategies do NOT support or amplify hegemonic institutions.” Applies it to Rihanna.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The “system” wants to see you recover, wants those Horatio Alger stories. You don’t have to give it to them. It’s ok to mourn, to be vulnerable.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="giphy-embed" frameborder="0" height="407" src="https://giphy.com/embed/5hLiSc7v1UC52" width="480"></iframe><br />
<a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/from-song-her-5hLiSc7v1UC52">via GIPHY</a><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the least, counter-narratives are hard. It’s on us, people in positions of power, white people, to do something about it. Maybe it’s not easy for everyone in this room, but it’s certainly less hard for a lot of us. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="204" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/N702IhTxY8_4632_lmbXvn8oZAPHO-BHC-PUAb6ZQ5ED0WsdxzGwKSaCLeQbwj3-Tt2bV6OFsZIBbzpiWqMNwqQ5gXIa60Hza3Yu43AKC3fs0QP6pikG5SZqff_HaHDiJj9h_NTu" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Think like a Marxist, ask who benefits from narratives of resilience.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="197" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/KukoLubtu7xMt8ftdGfB3uvQCaaWqSUPRevzpe8y45M7_o08_V9Ksf3T1PG4zyF58FSYT-GjUsdvQl0xLA5GepOcY4iJHuh4y1OPtXMZCZqFvA086w5oeWPMTYUXAGDrr1NCPf84" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resilience and grit as individual, agent-based “solutions” to structural issues. Focus on the structure, ask “why” and “what could/should be.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Why rise from the ashes without asking why you had to burn?” - Pahrul Seghal in the NYT Magazine</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What would you ask people to put up with? What are we showing resilience and grit in the face of? Name the adversity.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The analogies to disasters, in a library context, can be a bit hyperbolic, no?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guess what, persistence is not necessarily a good thing. Can be wasteful.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“In aggregate our results suggest that interventions designed to enhance grit may only have weak effects on performance and success.” - Crede, et al at Iowa State in a meta analysis.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Per Ris: “Grit it is an eminently useful concept, but not because it can help the prospects of disadvantaged students. Instead, it helps middle and upper-class adults explain and counteract the shortcomings of their own children, and it also helps them put off the sacrifices that could break down the American caste system.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, it’s nice to have these character traits or what have you, but it’s nicer to have….</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="211" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p5rA_X44cEXZt4VhJat80DIlGOtia6Nx9_ENMT3V4c403b46yLABZxAVxHzills6T6pawrnK7IOvMLTWl1q7p0v1fegzneuwG9IXyupnd7wPT34yh8Av8P98D0DyMyBcCyHenxHd" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="427" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part of my job here is to make sure that other supervisors and managers do right by their employees. Don’t ask people to be resilient. Ever. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I say this knowing how fraught middle-management is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="giphy-embed" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://giphy.com/embed/yTEmvTMDe6pKE" width="480"></iframe><br />
<a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/yTEmvTMDe6pKE">via GIPHY</a><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">There was an ACRL MD conference on failure, held in this city. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt;">Fail 4 lib as part of code 4 lib.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Image Credits:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Center for the Future of Libraries. Trends. [Image]. Retrieved from</span><a href="http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/future/trends" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/future/trends</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Gemme, Salome. Tweet. Retrieved from</span><a href="https://twitter.com/SalomeGemme/status/834932872763084804" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> https://twitter.com/SalomeGemme/status/834932872763084804</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Information Science Antelope tumblr. Get put on library materials committee. [Image]. Retrieved from</span><a href="http://informationscienceantelope.tumblr.com/post/27913007026/get-put-on-library-material-selection" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://informationscienceantelope.tumblr.com/post/27913007026/get-put-on-library-material-selection</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Keywords for the Age of Austerity. New Orleans after Katrina, ca. 2005. [Photograph]. Retrieved from</span><a href="https://theageofausterity.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/resilient.jpg" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> theageofausterity.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/resilient.jpg</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Learn2post. Overcoming the First Hurdle. [Gif]. Retrieved from</span><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/yTEmvTMDe6pKE" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://giphy.com/gifs/yTEmvTMDe6pKE</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, original at</span><a href="http://imgur.com/gallery/ltdKbc7" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://imgur.com/gallery/ltdKbc7</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Milanese, Erin. Tweet. Retrieved from</span><a href="https://twitter.com/tad_overdue/status/820334958615130112" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> https://twitter.com/tad_overdue/status/820334958615130112</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Play Juggling. G-FORCE 70 MM 180 GR. [Photograph]. Retrieved from</span><a href="https://www.playjuggling.com/b16-70c-all.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> https://www.playjuggling.com/b16-70c-all.html</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Persistence. [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/dlbezaire/6037859191.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Resilience (tree). [Photograph]. Retrieved from</span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonmatzinger/25778173312" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonmatzinger/25778173312</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Rihanna. Side eye. [Gif]. Retrieved from</span><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/from-song-her-5hLiSc7v1UC52" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://giphy.com/gifs/from-song-her-5hLiSc7v1UC52</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Rolf, Kirsty. Tweet. Retrieved from</span><a href="https://twitter.com/avoiding_bears/status/860260422716403714" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> https://twitter.com/avoiding_bears/status/860260422716403714</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> State Department. [Image]. Retrieved from</span><a href="https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/tc/c73907.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/tc/c73907.htm</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and</span><a href="https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/tc/fslstraining/c48191.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/tc/fslstraining/c48191.htm</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Willis, Jonathan Robert. Iroquois Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library. [Photograph] Retrieved from School Library Journal, 10/2016.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Yeffett, Gilead. Broken Spring. [Photograph]. Retrieved from</span><a href="https://gileadyeffett.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/broken-spring.jpg" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> gileadyeffett.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/broken-spring.jpg</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-54231029742192301672017-03-20T09:31:00.003-04:002017-03-20T09:34:10.984-04:00The BeerBrarian's Guide to... ACRL in Baltimore!Having been a visitor to Baltimore for the past thirty years and living all of forty miles away, a guide to the city from someone who knows a thing or two about a thing or two might be useful for librarians attending the Association of College and Research Libraries <a href="http://conference.acrl.org/" target="_blank">conference</a>.<br />
<br />
A brief word about the guide:<br />
I've vetted anything posted below. These are places I frequent, or at least have been in.
<br />
The area around the convention center isn't exactly exciting, nor is it known for good food. Expect a lot of touristy spots and chains, and sometimes touristy spots that are chains. Some of those chains are pretty good (Cava, Nando's), and some are not (Phillip's).<br />
Your best spots for good, cheap food are Lexington Market, a few blocks north of the convention center, or a short ride east on either light rail or the <a href="http://www.charmcitycirculator.com/" target="_blank">Charm City Circulator</a>, which is free, toward Fells Point (Maiwand, Miss Shirley's).<br />
<br />
For beer, I recommend pretty much anything from The Brewer's Art or Union Craft Brewing. Oliver Ales does an excellent job with the British styles, and both they and Heavy Seas are the rare American breweries that understand proper cask ale.<br />
<br />
For coffee, The Bun Shop is your best bet if you want the good stuff near the convention center. Otherwise, it's Starbucks and Dunks and such.<br />
<br />
If you are missing Portland, the Hampden neighborhood is your best bet.<br />
<br />
<iframe height="405" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1gjruE3RgZvfLZ2oIz0IIVYm5PY0" width="540"></iframe><br />
<br />
The Arts Section of ACRL has a map of art in the city that's <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1HnXIJ106N4zvrI4P-QK2xnZJ66Y&ll=39.29559914715582%2C-76.60405909999997&z=13" target="_blank">worth a look</a>, and the conference website itself has <a href="http://conference.acrl.org/baltimore/" target="_blank">a useful page</a> on the city. Better yet, two locals wrote an article in February's College and Research Libraries News with <a href="http://crln.acrl.org/content/78/2/89.full" target="_blank">a good overview</a>.<br />
<br />
Shameless plugs:<br />
<br />
On Wednesday I'll be at the <a href="https://critlib2017.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Critlib Unconference</a>.<br />
On Thursday at 9:40am in room 308 <a href="https://twitter.com/dropvase" target="_blank">Angela Galvan</a>, <a href="https://eamontewell.com/" target="_blank">Eamon Tewell</a>, and I are presenting on the concepts of <a href="http://s4.goeshow.com/acrl/national/2017/profile.cfm?profile_name=session&master_key=6832DC4D-CD62-DA3A-ABF5-6B4FC6D780B8&page_key=3C3FD3FC-E933-5DD6-D447-22C41BEFF7C6&xtemplate&userLGNKEY=0" target="_blank">grit and resilience in libraries</a>. You should be there. Here's the summary:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Librarians representing diverse backgrounds in North American higher education will introduce resilience, its origins, and its implications as a strategy and concept within academic libraries. We will problematize resilience, demonstrating the intentional and unintentional relationships between it and structural issues in academic libraries, including librarian burnout, disaster capitalism, adjunctification, and feminized labor space. Attendees will learn how resilience took root in librarianship and discuss what can be done to resist this concept.</blockquote>
Anyway, say hi.<br />
<br />
<br />
* I tend to do these for Computers in Libraries, but since that conference has moved back to the hinterland that is Crystal City from just north of Dupont Circle, here you go.<br />
<br />BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-39650387873569535482017-01-03T09:17:00.000-05:002017-01-10T12:29:13.630-05:00Beer and Music, Music and Beer: 2016 editionThis year was a trash fire. It took Bowie, then Prince, and maybe our representative democracy, too. Look at this <a href="http://weheartmusic.typepad.com/blog/musicians-who-died-in-2016.html" target="_blank">body count</a>. Here's the soundtrack to the shit year it was.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vO2Su3erRIA" width="400"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
1) A Tribe Called Quest - We Got it From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service: That this exists is impressive. That it's good is a minor miracle. Tip's lush production, always an underrated aspect of his game, is on point and he knows it, letting the beat in "Moebius" stretch out for DJs to use. As he's gotten older he's learned how to use his voice more, singing hooks and rapping double-time in addition to playing the abstract we know and love. Phife, rest in power, doesn't haunt this album like a specter; he's in it and of it, putting that Trinidadian patois to good use more so than in the past. Jarobi got more or less left off Tribe's top two, but he's back here, dropping gems. That vaunted Tribe chemistry extends to guest stars, as Tip and Andre 3000 trade off verses on "Kids" and folks who are basically members of the group like Consequence and Busta Rhymes know what to do. This isn't The Low End Theory or Midnite Marauders, but it might be their third-best, and since those other two are in the G.O.A.T. conversation, here we are.<br />
<br />
2) Drive-By Truckers - American Band: Even before Trump became president-elect, artists were making protest music in 2016. There's nothing subtle about this record, but Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley's lyrics and riffs are spot on and I think it's DBT's best since Isbell left.<br />
<br />
3) Shearwater - Jet Plane and Oxbow: This, forgive the reference, bird's eye view of America is lyrically powerful and understated, with Jonathan Meiburg embracing more electronic elements, integrating them into theatrical, operatic music that borrows from early 80s Bowie, prog, and Replacements-era American punk.<br />
<br />
4) David Bowie - Blackstar: His parting gift to us is a searing, slow burn mediation on the end, full of his wry, sardonic wit. His best since either "Scary Monsters" or the Berlin trilogy, you choose. Regardless, what a way to go out.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xCVgsI5h9p0" width="400"></iframe>
<br />
The best of the rest, in alphabetical order:<br />
<br />
Anderson .Paak - Malibu: He also dropped a mixtape with Knxwledge called "Nxworries." Get both.<br />
Beach Slang - A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings: Never has an album title been more correct.<br />
Charles Bradley - Once 2016 started claiming bodies I was worried Bradley wouldn't make it out of this year. Peep his cover of Black Sabbath's "Changes" and stay for some of the best soul music around.<br />
Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition: Yes, he did name a record after a Joy Division song, what of it? Anyway, starting with "Lost" Brown begins to tear into some utterly bizarre beats and the results are spectacular.<br />
Car Seat Headrest - Teen of Denial: That deliberately ramshackle punk-tinged indie rock we all know and love.<br />
Daughter - Not to Disappear: From shoegazey coos to indie wails, with electronics integrated, yet somehow sounding consistently whole.<br />
Jesu/Sun Kil Moon - Jesu/Sun Kil Moon: Yeah, it's Mark Kozelek basically talking over crunchy riffs from Justin Broadrick. Your new lazy, hazy weekend morning soundtrack.<br />
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree: Halfway through the making of this album's Cave's son died, completely changing the meaning of it. Try to listen without crying.<br />
Savages - Adore Life: Less thrash subtext, more straight-up post-punk, still very good.<br />
Swans - The Glowing Man: Eerier, and doomier, than in the past.<br />
Vektor - Terminal Redux: A thrash-metal space-opera concept album with some left-field additions, like a choir. And somehow it works.<br />
Yuck - Stranger Things: They dropped a lead singer and now I like them more even though they're still filtering 90s indie rock. Go figure.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bU5F-DvGLkA" width="400"></iframe><br />
<br />
Cheers: To the pure joy of Chance the Rapper. To "Identikit" appearing on an album. To R&B getting real weird thanks to Blood Orange, Frank Ocean, Bon Iver, ANOHNI, and yes, even Beyonce. To Iggy Pop and Bob Mould, long may they make records.<br />
Jeers: To Radiohead putting "Daydreaming" as track 2, ensuring their album was a joyless slog. To Vinyl, because holy hell was that an awful TV show about music.<br />
<br />
Singles<br />
<br />
Radiohead - Burn the Witch; 21 Pilots - Heathens; DJ Shadow f. Run the Jewels - Nobody Speak; Chance the Rapper - No Problems; Beyonce - Daddy Lessons.<br />
<br />
<b>Beers </b><br />
<br />
A word on orange juice/milkshake IPAs. Some of the worst beers I had this year were in this category. For example, I had multiple beers from <a href="https://dontdrinkbeer.com/2016/11/30/chairgate-2016-a-new-low-for-beer-consumers-hilarious-new-peak-for-beer-releases/" target="_blank">Tired Hands</a> that were clearly not finished fermenting. I won't be ordering any IPAs from that brewery any time soon, and it's incumbent on local bars to implement some quality control standards rather than chasing trends. I recognize that this style can be done well - see below, and locally we have Aslin - but it's also possible to make juice bombs that are less opaque and consequently pleasing to the eye.<br />
<br />
But on to the good news. The cozy bar at Right Proper Brookland, 3 Stars cool Urban Farmhouse, that kick-ass train board at Atlas,... <a href="http://goodbeerhunting.com/blog/2016/10/2/i-want-you-to-want-me-examining-the-own-premise-revolution" target="_blank">drinking on-premise</a> is where it's at in 2016. To wit, while I still enjoy Churchkey, and The Sovereign was the best new beer bar of the year, the prices keep creeping up above a dollar an ounce on an awful lot of beer at bars. Meanwhile, brewery-slash-restaurant Bluejacket has excellent renditions of both an ESB and a dark mild, on cask, on a consistent basis, for $6 per pint. District Chophouse continues to be overlooked; you can get a real good nut brown or oatmeal stout for $3.50 during happy hour.<br />
<br />
To go along with The Sov, Anxo gave DC something to brag about in terms of both space and cider selection; there are plenty of cities that don't have what we do.<br />
<br />
Ocelot made a name for themselves with hops, but Mike McCarthy honed his chops at Capital City, and it showed this year with an excellent pilsner and bitter to go along with all those IPAs.<br />
<br />
DC Brau turned 5 and threw a cool party with bands and one of the more inventive 6-packs out there. Their collaboration with Port City on a dark lager, Zehn von Zehn, was my favorite.<br />
<br />
3 Stars got their sour program up and running and pretty much immediately started making good beer. There's a reason Ricky Rose sixtels kicked so quickly.<br />
<br />
Pekko Beer is bringing some real good stuff, much of it at H Street's Craft Beer Cellar, clearly the best new bottle shop in the area.<br />
<br />
On the grey market front, Melvin Brewing out of Wyoming brought some excellent IPAs to the area for about a month around SAVOR.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
As always, what follows is either new to the market or a new brewery release in 2015, in alphabetical order.<br />
<br />
The locals:<br />
<br />
3 Stars and Other Half, Ricky Rose - American wild ale: The first offering from 3 Stars sour program is a winner, bursting with tart berries and finishing bone dry. There's a reason sixtels of this barely lasted an hour.<br />
Atlas, Dance of Days - Hoppy wheat: The best beer they've made, IMO, and I really like their double black IPA, NSFW.<br />
DC Brau, Belgian Space Reaper - Double IPA: I was skeptical that Mosaic hops would play well with this yeast, but the esters and the fruit are a winning combination.<br />
DC Brau and Port City, Zen Vohn Zen - Dunkle: The best of the Brau collaborations, with a brewery that knows its way around a lager. Maybe with Brau's expansion we could get some more of this?<br />
Devils Backbone, Smoked Porter: 5.5% and not too smokey, with just enough sweetness.<br />
Jailbreak, Dusk 'Til Dawn - Imperial Stout: It doesn't hurt that I drank this <a href="http://jailbreakbrewing.com/event/puppy-bowl-and-superbowl-50/" target="_blank">surrounded by puppies</a>, but I had a Dark Lord shortly thereafter and this is the better beer.<br />
Manor Hill, Grisette: My favorite new canned beer.<br />
Ocelot, Sunnyside Dweller - Pilsner: That this brewery took a medal for something other than an IPA is impressive.<br />
Pen Druid, Earth - Saison: I need to drink more beer from Virginia. I bet this space has room for The Answer, Triple Crossing, and a host more.<br />
Port City, Double Wit - Amaro barrel-aged witbier: The brainchild of ex-DCBeer-er Chris Van Orden, it's twice the Optimal Wit with oaky tannins and spice.<br />
Port City and Schlafly, VaStly Mild: I drank two pints of this on cask in about 30 minutes.<br />
Right Proper and Pizzeria Paradiso, Maslow - Farmhouse ale: As Pilsner-y as an ale is going to get, dry and crushable, too.<br />
Victory and Bluejacket, Brett Dixon - Pale lager: Slightly overhopped and dry and just about perfect.<br />
Anything hoppy from Ocelot.<br />
<br />
National and/or new to market:<br />
<br />
Allagash, Little T - Brett pale ale: We all knew Allagash would do a great job with this style. Morval!<br />
Anchor, Our Special Ale - Winter warmer, I guess: I've been drinking versions of this for about 20 years and this one might be the best yet. If you like malt, this is the winter beer for you.<br />
Foundation, Epiphany - IPA: It's a Heady Topper clone! And you might not have to wait in line for it! (But you do have to go to Maine.)<br />
Deschutes and Hair of the Dog, Collage 2 - Strong Ale: Since this technique is all the rage, check out this well-integrated blend of barrel-aged versions of The Abyss, The Stoic, Fred, and Doggie Claws. Massively malty, with notes of prunes, raisins, cherries, jammy Cabernet, and great barrel character.<br />
Great Raft, Come What Mayhaw - American wild ale: One of the first beers out of their foeders makes excellent use of Hawthorne berries.<br />
Lodgson, Seizoen Bretta - Saison: Even brettier than Boulevard's Saison Brett. Welcome to DC, fellas.<br />
Lost Abbey and Wicked Weed, Ad Idem - American wild ale: One of the better sours at SAVOR. Fruity, tart, but balanced.<br />
Melvin, 2x4 - Double IPA: For a few weeks around SAVOR this beer was everywhere in DC and it was glorious.<br />
Modern Times, Fortunate Islands - Hoppy wheat: So many of this brewery's recipes originated here - thanks, <a href="http://www.themadfermentationist.com/" target="_blank">Mad Fermentationist</a>! - that it's only fair that we get the finished product.<br />
Sierra Nevada and Mahr's Brau, Oktoberfest: This collaboration isn't as good as last year's with Riegel, but it's still pretty darn good.<br />
Stillwater and Other Half, Rockstar Farmer - Belgian IPA: Or maybe it's a farmhouse IPA. Regardless, that Stillwater yeast and Other Half hopping do good work.<br />
Trillium, Double Dry Hopped Fort Point - IPA: I am still not a fan of the orange juice-milkshake Northeast IPA, but this has some bitterness to go with the hop juice and it's damn tasty.<br />
Wicked Weed, Garcon de Ferme - American wild ale: Nice to have them in market, too. Blending a saison into a golden sour ale and adding peaches makes for a beer that's dry, but not overly tart. Now we wait for the inevitable sale to a macro.<br />
Anything hoppy from Singlecut.<br />
<br />
Cheers!BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-22772383782103292962016-12-15T08:58:00.000-05:002016-12-15T09:27:01.594-05:00Librarians in the Age of Trump, Media Bias Edition This infographic has been making the rounds in my social media bubble(s). Friends, librarians, and friends who are librarians have all shared it.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc-HrAE81IgWYUuX0noPBaC04QRDG_DPLPKwZWN15_FIWPP3HSx4yUqYeUVqaLz2xo6Hx6a7AWytUCZvFrf-uvMyr4UM3uJknejwxkhuQosO34cusyjEJo_7t1g0pG2dhPCPbnofC27omv/s1600/news+infographic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc-HrAE81IgWYUuX0noPBaC04QRDG_DPLPKwZWN15_FIWPP3HSx4yUqYeUVqaLz2xo6Hx6a7AWytUCZvFrf-uvMyr4UM3uJknejwxkhuQosO34cusyjEJo_7t1g0pG2dhPCPbnofC27omv/s400/news+infographic.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Via <a href="https://twitter.com/vlotero/status/809098741647077376" target="_blank">Vanessa Otero</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I am uncomfortable with this infographic for two reasons. The first concerns political culture in the United States. The second is more library and information science (LIS) -centric.<br />
<br />
First, the political economy, and as a result the political culture, of journalism in the United States is rife with false equivalence, which the above image reflects. Take the center gray circle, for example, helpfully labeled "Great sources of news." <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/lets-party-like-its-1933-inside-the-disturbing-alt-right-world-of-richard-spencer/2016/11/22/cf81dc74-aff7-11e6-840f-e3ebab6bcdd3_story.html" target="_blank"><i>The Washington Post</i></a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/11/17/502476139/were-not-going-away-alt-right-leader-on-voice-in-trump-administration" target="_blank"><i>National Public Radio</i></a> have, in the past month, featured soft-focus articles on Richard Spencer, a neo-Nazi white supremacist. Meanwhile, CNN, "Better than not reading news at all," routinely hosts debates that feature neo-Nazis and/or climate change deniers.<br />
<br />
This infographic neatly shows how abhorrent and wrong views make it into mainstream discourse, often under the guise of hearing from "both sides," as if denying climate change is a valid opinion, based in the scientific method. As if racist, bigoted hate speech deserves these platforms. The above image, in showing a level playing field between left and right, normalizes the normalizers.<br />
<br />
Yet there is something more insidious about it. The idea that Hillary Clinton is a liar comes from the late <i>New York Times</i> op-ed columnist William Safire, who labeled her a "congenital liar" in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/08/opinion/essay-blizzard-of-lies.html" target="_blank">a 1996 opinion article</a>.* That same paper employed Judith Miller, who for years wrote uncritically about the non-existent weapons of mass destruction the George W. Bush Administration asserted Iraq possessed as a pretext for war. And yet as presented here, it is a great source of news, well within the mainstream.** All three of the news sources discussed above, as well as the television networks within that gray bubble of great news sources, devoted countless hours to <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/4/13500018/clinton-email-scandal-bullshit" target="_blank">Clinton's email scandal</a> at the expense of <a href="http://tyndallreport.com/comment/20/5778/" target="_blank">actual policy issues</a>, and breathlessly shared a <a href="http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/12/the-public-evidence-behind-claims-russia-hacked-for-trump/" target="_blank">Russian disinformation campaign</a> designed to do lasting damage to our country. Meanwhile, <i>The Nation</i>, which on occasion will challenge the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent" target="_blank">corporate-owned</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_Media#Funding" target="_blank">venture capital-backed</a> media organizations that sit to the slight right of it, is shown as barely credible. Per Stephen Colbert, reality has a liberal bias, yet the level playing field shown here distorts as much as it illuminates. Predictably, the best critique of mainstream media, liberalism, and facts I've read comes from <i><a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/12/post-truth-fake-news-trump-clinton-election-russia/" target="_blank">Jacobin</a>, </i>taking square aim at the center and center-left of this infographic.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "antwerp" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;">In fact, liberals’ nostalgia for factual politics seems designed to mask their own fraught relationship with the truth. The supposedly honest technocrats and managers — who enacted neoliberal measures with the same ferocity as their right-wing counterparts — relied on a certain set of facts to displace the material truths they refused to acknowledge.</span></blockquote>
One pictures <i>Jacobin</i>, like <i>The Nation</i>, placed somewhere near that hyperpartisan liberal line, with little journalistic value. Make of that what you will.<br />
<br />
The United States, writ large, is not the only entity with a culture that would make this infographic so popular. Librarians, of which I am one, fancy themselves as defenders of <a href="https://senseandreference.wordpress.com/2016/12/07/post-truth-propaganda-and-bullshit-a-glossary/" target="_blank">facts, of truth</a>, and of access to information. And on our best days, we are. But the same tendencies that lead librarians to create LibGuides for all sorts of issues, and that lead us to "one-shot" hour-long information literacy sessions as solutions to problems is behind the sharing of this very flawed image. Were this infographic to be the start of a conversation <span style="font-family: "antwerp" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;">— </span>and judging by <a href="https://twitter.com/vlotero/status/809098741647077376" target="_blank">the replies to Otero</a> and discussion elsewhere, maybe we will get there <span style="font-family: "antwerp" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;">— </span>it would be one thing. However, it's far more likely that this image will be deployed as a bandage, covering a wound, allowing us to move on. Did something happen? Here's a LibGuide. Need to impart critical thinking skills in an hour? We can do that.*** Or, at least we say we can, rather than do what needs to be done, which is a far more thorough and deep embedding into our communities. Please do not uncritically share this image. There's much more work to be done. Thank you.<br />
<br />
<br />
* That Clinton would refuse to release transcripts of her speeches to Goldman Sachs and obfuscate about using a private email server did her no favors here.<br />
** I have subscriptions to both the Times and the Post, and routinely donate to <a href="http://wamu.org/" target="_blank">WAMU</a>, Washington, DC's local National Public Radio station.<br />
*** Librarians and library staff along should not bear the entirety of blame for the propagation of the one-shot, which is often all the time we are granted by teachers and administration.BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-1103451735279573882016-10-06T09:13:00.000-04:002016-10-06T09:13:58.951-04:00Googling Google: Search Engines as Market Actors in Library Instruction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioRyNWiGa-5XC6IN9_aodqD_Lw8kcANU98-lgE3zG_NJVRaBGAP7147f0Ie15ldj7CnAtL0cETsfN5EfCM4zmxUlvnITu98KST4FOMXpJij4dXKNEFF09IbdY1m9CSFPhGPok_xuitqcs8/s1600/Capture38.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioRyNWiGa-5XC6IN9_aodqD_Lw8kcANU98-lgE3zG_NJVRaBGAP7147f0Ie15ldj7CnAtL0cETsfN5EfCM4zmxUlvnITu98KST4FOMXpJij4dXKNEFF09IbdY1m9CSFPhGPok_xuitqcs8/s400/Capture38.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
I wrote a lesson plan for Nicole Pagowsky and Kelly McElroy's <i>Critical Pedagogy for Libraries Handbook, Volume 2</i>.<br />
<br />
The two-volume set is available for <a href="http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=11883" target="_blank">purchase at the ALA store</a>. If you don't mind waiting, both volumes will go open access at some point in 2017 (this is very cool!), and many chapters are already available via <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nx8J7330_wObopqJck56QjwQC8HZtopQVXhVcFaQmEQ/edit" target="_blank">institutional repositories and self-archiving</a>, among other means.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://jacobsberg.com/resources/vol2_chapter%2011.pdf" target="_blank">My chapter</a> (pdf) focuses on thinking critically about Google's search engine and how librarians can help foster a sense of critical inquiry around searching.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Google searches return sexist, racist, and homophobic results, which both create and reinforce dominant narratives of white supremacy and heteronormativity. That is bad; faculty, students, and librarians alike should know about it and attempt to mitigate the deleterious effects of search results. </blockquote>
Did that read like a tumblr post to you? Good, because I think libraries should be about social justice (they are not neutral, never have been, nor should they be), and I try to hit that x-axis of practicing what I preach, otherwise known as praxis.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
This is really really really bad. Google's algorithm is helping spread completely unfounded rumors. Net-negative for democracy. <a href="https://t.co/jCwnL8TgUu">pic.twitter.com/jCwnL8TgUu</a></div>
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) <a href="https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/783122983321792512">October 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
If you're interested in the topic, I encourage you to read <a href="https://safiyaunoble.com/publication/" target="_blank">the work of Dr. Safiya Nobl</a>e, who teaches at UCLA, and note that library discovery systems are <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2014/07/more-thoughts-on-discovery-plus-poster.html" target="_blank">not free of bias</a>. <a href="https://matthew.reidsrow.com/articles/173" target="_blank">Not by a longshot</a>.<br />
<br />
The lesson plan is <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode" target="_blank">CC - BY - SA</a>, which means you can use it, make it better, and then share it. Please do all these things. Feedback welcome, and thanks much to the editors above (<a href="http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=11883" target="_blank">buy the books</a>!), and to the hundreds of students and handful of librarians and library staff who helped me refine the lesson.<br />
<br />
<br />
Elsewhere on this site in me sneaking things through peer review, my ACRL 2015 paper: <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2015/03/faculty-perceptions-of-library-paneling.html?spref=tw" target="_blank">Faculty Perceptions of a Library: Paneling for Assessment</a>BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-45454792331135365082016-10-04T09:11:00.003-04:002016-10-04T09:20:53.891-04:00Hey, it's me. I just got off the train. <Extremely Remi Malek voice> Hey, it's been a while. Here's what's new.<br />
<br />
My good friend and colleague Jessica Olin had been asking me to contribute an interview post to her blog, <a href="http://letterstoayounglibrarian.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Letters to a Young Librarian</a>. I was concerned that it was too similar to a <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2014/11/this-is-how-i-work.html" target="_blank">"This is How I Work"</a> meme post (in the Dawkinsian sense, not the cats who can or cannot haz cheezburgers sense) that I wrote in late 2014, also because Jessica asked me to. I got settled, I think, at the new job, and tried to be self-aware enough to focus on what I do now as opposed to how I worked in 2014 at a previous job. So in that vein, here's <a href="http://letterstoayounglibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/09/interview-post-jacob-berg.html" target="_blank">a similar post</a>. Compare and contrast.<br />
<br />
Building on <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2014/11/this-is-how-i-work.html" target="_blank">those</a> <a href="http://letterstoayounglibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/09/interview-post-jacob-berg.html" target="_blank">posts</a>, I'm making a conscious effort to do a few things differently at this job, with varying degrees of success.<br />
<ul>
<li>Not eating at my desk: I know there are and will be days when I'll have to hunker down and get stuff done at my desk. Eating anywhere other than there is good. It gets me out of the library. It puts me in contact with other people I work with, and with people who either use or may use the library. </li>
<li>Leaving the library more often: even if it's just to crash an event and get free food, and for the reasons mentioned above. </li>
<li>Much more outreach: I'm just a boy, leaning into my discomfort, with talking to people about the library. </li>
<li>Going for more walks: easier when your workplace has paths and trails that look like this </li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaAo_kRCrhOiGs-mvTDwzO2OUHsQhijc0VIrT_jSRicRdK_evx8If5Wgsf-QVMfSH3iS0ULW_6IGVWAvCTuCHtDJ5Toya3OQfynx26KScHpdxo7NCBbXuhIJ_2tpkzoZeok0F1ysrzjhwl/s1600/garden2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaAo_kRCrhOiGs-mvTDwzO2OUHsQhijc0VIrT_jSRicRdK_evx8If5Wgsf-QVMfSH3iS0ULW_6IGVWAvCTuCHtDJ5Toya3OQfynx26KScHpdxo7NCBbXuhIJ_2tpkzoZeok0F1ysrzjhwl/s400/garden2.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sour oranges. I may pick a couple for masitas de puerco.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Cgk274BboaI01YJ6Y7ekjub_IH9FeDYSqoTf9SwfE5N6GJFLxKBFG6lYmLK2KHnvtS0qbXwLlhwzXnGCD4NcIaw3Hl3z3lW7Vba8st2b7KGkeGOC6ut_WyiwCOap76n3soaJiWl4ONz3/s1600/garden1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Cgk274BboaI01YJ6Y7ekjub_IH9FeDYSqoTf9SwfE5N6GJFLxKBFG6lYmLK2KHnvtS0qbXwLlhwzXnGCD4NcIaw3Hl3z3lW7Vba8st2b7KGkeGOC6ut_WyiwCOap76n3soaJiWl4ONz3/s400/garden1.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not sure if that's a Little Yellow or Sleepy Orange butterfly.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Earlier in the year, Dr. Sarah Clark and I discussed critical librarianship, or "critlib," on Steve Thomas' podcast, <a href="https://circulatingideas.com/2016/05/10/episode-92-jacob-berg/" target="_blank">Circulating Ideas</a>. I abhor the sound of my voice, but maybe you don't. <a href="http://betterlibraryleaders.com/2016/05/19/why-library-leaders-should-care-about-critical-librarianship/" target="_blank">She wrote about it, too.</a><br />
<br />
Topics included diversity versus inclusion, information literacy, and cataloging critically, among other things.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOBIsqUoyxjaq6CKL2S9uscBzGt-KwgugGTtpXT4UjDjiCO6TaVIp_CdHvF6X7N5qJz2jHoF1E2AI9SkxyHGZXOy3ERVckqt5DaiZxAfaYty6kqSsylCT49Nzda7PJsalMqH8rTg-Jrwjq/s1600/Capture37.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOBIsqUoyxjaq6CKL2S9uscBzGt-KwgugGTtpXT4UjDjiCO6TaVIp_CdHvF6X7N5qJz2jHoF1E2AI9SkxyHGZXOy3ERVckqt5DaiZxAfaYty6kqSsylCT49Nzda7PJsalMqH8rTg-Jrwjq/s400/Capture37.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://betterlibraryleaders.com/2016/05/19/why-library-leaders-should-care-about-critical-librarianship/" target="_blank">Source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Coming up, more blogging! Really. Because I have <a href="http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=11883" target="_blank">a book chapter</a> to plug. And maybe I'll expound upon those bullet points.BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-41260803583047728412016-03-07T09:05:00.001-05:002016-03-07T09:05:18.075-05:00Computers in Libraries 2016: The BeerBrarian MapSince I live in DC, I thought an insider's perspective might be useful for the upcoming<a href="http://computersinlibraries.infotoday.com/2016/" target="_blank"> Computers in Libraries 2016 conference</a>, which meets at the Hilton just north of Dupont Circle from Tuesday, March 8th, to Thursday, March 10th.<br />
<br />
I'm attending on Tuesday, focusing on sessions about recent developments in discovery platforms and integrated library systems (ILS). Come say hi.<br />
<br />
A brief word about the guide:<br />
With a few exceptions, anything posted below have been vetted by me. These are places I frequent, or at least have been in. Not mentioned is that west of the conference there are many embassies, which would be a nice walk during breaks, or after the sessions have ended for the day.
<br />
<br />
The Washington Post's <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide" target="_blank">Going Out Guide</a> is a bit unwieldy and probably needs to be updated, but remains useful.
<br />
<br />
I write for DCBeer.com on the side. Here's their <a href="http://www.dcbeer.com/neighborhood/dupont-circle" target="_blank">guide to beer in the area</a>, which also needs some updates.
<br />
<br />
Though it's a bit of a hike for lunch, 14th St NW has blown up in terms of dining and bars; there's something for everyone at multiple price points that would be worth the walk for dinner.<br />
<br />
If you're familiar with Dupont Circle and think I missed anything, please let me know.
<br />
<br />
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=zwrgyxBJFsgk.kNOgqxlkkPKc" width="500" height="335"></iframe> BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-7625492975315717662016-01-04T09:10:00.000-05:002016-01-04T14:32:11.898-05:00Music and Beer, Beer and Music in 2015My <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-beerbrarian-moves-on.html" target="_blank">new job</a> makes it harder to listen to music (note: do not interpret this as a complaint, yet), so we're going to do things a bit differently this year. Rather than ranking, here are twenty albums I liked in 2015, and continue to like, in alphabetical order by artist. Not interested in music? <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2016/01/music-and-beer-beer-and-music-in-2015.html#Beer">Beer here.</a><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="305" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cGbAry942Iw" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
A few trends, if one can call it that:<br />
<br />
Two Australian artists, Courtney Barnett and Royal Headache.<br />
Heterodox black metal, or if you want to be snide about it, "hipster metal." The orthodoxy around genres sure was fun to argue about in the 90s. Now I reap the musical benefits of bands that sit slightly outside a scene.<br />
<br />
<b>Albums</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color: Not sure I’d ever find myself in the position of praising a soul revival group for their use of negative space and minimalism in arrangements, but here we are. <br />
<br />
Algiers - s/t: An incendiary, politically and otherwise, mix of post-punk, and no-wave. Picture James Baldwin fronting early TV on the Radio with Liquid Liquid and ESG producing and you're close.<br />
<br />
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Sit: Wry, ramshackle alt-country reminiscent of both Uncle Tupelo and Pavement. One of the smartest lyricists around. <br />
<br />
Cheatahs - Mythologies: These year-end lists usually contain a nu-gaze group, so here you go. (In all seriousness their first album sounded like a 90s tribute and they’ve done a good job breaking out of that mould here, incorporating post-punk rhythms, synths, and nifty production tricks.)<br />
<br />
Beach House - Depression Cherry: Some subtle tweaks to their formula (louder guitars, organ loops, and even EDM) result in their best album yet. Throw a second 2015 release, Thank Your Lucky Stars, too. <br />
<br />
Bjork - Vulnicura: Arca’s not my cup of tea, but the interplay between his beats and the strings are often challenging, and lyrically this is as real as Bjork’s gotten. It’s nice to have her back. Her best since Vespertine.<br />
<br />
Chvrches - Open Every Eye: At times harsher, more industrial, and angular than their first. Closer to Depeche Mode. As it should be. <br />
<br />
Dead to a Dying World - Litany: At their most beautiful they sound like a Godspeed You! Black Emperor 33 1/3rd LP being played at 45. <br />
<br />
Deafheaven - New Bermuda: A bit more black metal, especially in the drumming, this time out, and none the worse for wear. <br />
<br />
Holly Herndon - Platform: Out of chaos, order. <br />
<br />
Jeffrey Lewis and Los Bolts - Manhattan: A man with a voice that can be described as “a more nasal Weird Al” does a Jim Carroll Band/Jonathan Richman thing, which reminds me of all that New York has lost. <br />
<br />
Myrkur - M: I like the one that opens with haunting, ethereal vocals; Nordic folk instruments; and piano followed by abnormally well-produced, punishing black metal. <br />
<br />
Obsequiae - Aria of Vernal Tombs: Putting the “folk” in folk metal.<br />
<br />
Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper: An oddly funky psych-pop record, co-produced by a member of Spacemen 3, that still feels grounded, rooted, and homey.<br />
<br />
Pinkish Black - Bottom of the Morning: Dungeon synths, metal, krautrock, and that drumming. <br />
<br />
Royal Headache - High: The best album to sing along to this year.<br />
<br />
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell: Another quiet gem. His most personal album, and maybe his best.<br />
<br />
Tall Tales and the Silver Lining - Tightropes: Hook-heavy west coast 70s AM radio goodness. <br />
<br />
Viet Cong - s/t: “March of Progress” alone is worth the price of admission. <br />
<br />
Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp: Indie rock has taken a beating lately, but Waxahatchee’s last two albums have carried the torch.<br />
<br />
Cheers: The triumphant returns of Belle and Sebastian, Bjork, Cannibal Ox, Faith No More, Sleater-Kinney, and The Sonics. Whatever is going on with Ryan Adams and Taylor Swift. <br />
<br />
Jeers: I just can’t with a lot of hip hop these days. Sad. So it goes with getting older? The Swift-Adams thinkpieces.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="305" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GFNO-75Wl0k" width="500"></iframe>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Songs</b> (in no particular order)<br />
<br />
March of Progress - Viet Cong<br />
The Blacker the Berry - Kendrick Lamar<br />
Ondine - Lower Dens<br />
Blank Space - Taylor Swift<br />
Should Have Known Better - Sufjan Stevens<br />
Energy - Drake<br />
Need You - Royal Headache<br />
24 Frames - Jason Isbell<br />
Ex’s & Oh’s - Ellie King<br />
Something to Believe In - Tall Tales and the Silver Lining<br />
Signs to Lorelei - Cheatahs<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="305" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZtgPeNKpnyw" width="500"></iframe>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="Beer"></a>Beer</b> (Either new to the market or a new brewery release in 2015, in no particular order)<br />
<br />
The locals:<br />
<br />
Home - Ocelot (IPA): An admitted homage to Alpine's famed Nelson rye pale ale, see below, with slightly more cereal and grain in the body.<br />
Nanticoke Nectar - Real Ale Revival (IPA): This brewery is crushing it. Big things. One thing a beer professional can do is introduce people to new things and champion them. <a href="https://twitter.com/jacewg" target="_blank">Jace Gonnerman</a> did that with RAR and Fairwinds, see below.<br />
Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne - Right Proper (Berliner Weisse): Not too sour that I can't drink three of them. Floral, bone dry, and made within walking distance of my house.<br />
Raspberry Dissonance - 3 Stars (Berliner Weisse): Not sure I can drink three of them, but I can drink two.<br />
Black Twig - Albemarle Ciderworks: Their single-apple varietal ciders continue to impress.<br />
Siren’s Lure - Fairwinds (Saison): Always nice when a brewery opens and immediately medals at the Great American Beer Festival.<br />
Now in cans: Union Old Pro Gose, Port City Optimal Wit, 3 Stars Ghost White IPA.<br />
<br />
National: <br />
<br />
Oktoberfest - Sierra Nevada-Brauhaus Riegel: Basically liquid perfection.<br />
Left of the Dial - Notch (Session IPA)<br />
Down to Earth - 21st Amendment (Session IPA): These session IPAs are the two best examples of hop-bursting I've encountered so far, moving this style away from what I'd ordinarily call a "bitter" to a category of its own.<br />
Coffee Cinnamon Barrel-Aged Abominable - Fremont (Imperial Stout): This beer was so good that it literally silenced the room at a tasting.<br />
Deux Rouges - Yazoo (Sour/wild ale): My favorite sour from SAVOR, no small feat.<br />
Vinosynth White - Upland (Sour/wild ale): My second favorite, sorry Allagash.<br />
<br />
New in the market: <br />
<br />
Anything from Tired Hands: Greg Engert's persistence pays off yet again, as NRG bars and restaurants carry this Pennsylvania brewery. Look for more of <a href="http://dcbeer.tumblr.com/post/136267502942/previewing-the-sovereign-with-greg-engert-pt-1" target="_blank">this kind of arrangement</a> in 2016.<br />
Anything hoppy from Alpine: Not paying the six-pack prices, but it's nice to have these guys on tap.<br />
Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin (IPA): My official beer of the summer.<br />
Avery Liliko'i Kepolo (witbier): White Rascal was already my go-to Belgian in a can. Tropical fruit flavors and tartness take it up a notch.<br />
Firestone Walker Pivo Pils: Yet another stupid good beer from a stupid good brewery.<br />
Boulevard Ginger Lemon Radler: Danner knows what's up.<br />
<br />
Cheers!BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-71792852268150334902015-12-15T09:28:00.001-05:002015-12-15T09:28:44.070-05:00Why Critical Librarianship? Or, the #whyicritlib Post <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Hey <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/critlib?src=hash">#critlib</a>! I'm moderating the chat on 12/15 about <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/feelings?src=hash">#feelings</a>, and it involves homework. <a href="https://t.co/SxN43wmvei">https://t.co/SxN43wmvei</a> <a href="https://t.co/voZt12VOkI">pic.twitter.com/voZt12VOkI</a></div>
— Kevin Seeber (@kevinseeber) <a href="https://twitter.com/kevinseeber/status/672480171937501184">December 3, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Many moons ago, when I was pursuing a PhD in political science, a professor I looked up to told me something that's stuck with me. Marxists, he said, don't often have the right answers, but they ask the right questions.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7ZlN7F_dxbps_RCtk4yQU6e3xXJp5JsvjvSDTTKlzesSosfMUavZySOZPC6j0lb_XdSZNNRQ9SYEcrDWc9SWOsUy_Cp3IVOHiZVR72cBUAgAPuek3IIeLubIq_vJYqInB7zhR8hBnscc/s1600/712001_michel-foucault-tv-philosophy-critical-theory.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7ZlN7F_dxbps_RCtk4yQU6e3xXJp5JsvjvSDTTKlzesSosfMUavZySOZPC6j0lb_XdSZNNRQ9SYEcrDWc9SWOsUy_Cp3IVOHiZVR72cBUAgAPuek3IIeLubIq_vJYqInB7zhR8hBnscc/s320/712001_michel-foucault-tv-philosophy-critical-theory.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gif via ina.fr and gifwave.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So why am I a critical librarian?<br />
<ul>
<li>Because it's important to ask "who benefits?" and I wish more of us in the library and information sciences would follow in the footsteps of <a href="http://www.papercutzinelibrary.org/wordpress/2012/06/17/sanford-berman-father-of-radical-cataloging/" target="_blank">Sanford Berman</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._J._Josey#Publications" target="_blank">E.J. Josey</a>, <a href="https://www4.uwm.edu/sois/people/profiles/holson.cfm" target="_blank">Hope Olson</a>, <a href="http://litwinbooks.com/books.php" target="_blank">Rory Litwin</a>, and others in asking these kinds of questions.</li>
<li>Because critical librarianship is, in large part, what you make it. It's one of the few places where I feel like I have a significant degree of agency in librarianship. I hear the critiques of the #critlib chats being an echo chamber, and while on some level I think that opinion is a valid one (this blog post might be evidence of that), if someone wants to propose a chat on a topic they think is under- or unexplored, they can and should do so. <a href="https://storify.com/foureyedsoul/36th-critlib-twitter-chat-critiquing-critlib" target="_blank">Last June</a> I moderated a chat, attempting to <a href="http://critlib.org/critiquing-critlib/" target="_blank">critique whatever critlib is</a> (movement, mindset, group, place,...) from the inside, and I suspect that with his questions above, this critique is something that Kevin would like to explore as well.</li>
<li>Because I'm not neutral, and neither are libraries. There are intended and unintended policies and consequences that do real harm that I think we can mitigate. But only if we ask "who benefits, how, and why?"</li>
<li>Because one of the highlights of my year, or any year, really, was being in a room with <a href="http://jessicacritten.com/" target="_blank">Jessica Critten</a>, <a href="http://www.donnawitek.com/" target="_blank">Donna Witek</a>, <a href="http://kevinseeber.com/blog/locations-and-residents/" target="_blank">Kevin Seeber</a>, and <a href="http://kennyquiet.weebly.com/about.html" target="_blank">Kenny Garcia</a>, listening, talking, and learning. I've found fellow "critlibbers" to be friendly, kind, patient, smart, and caring, among other positive traits.</li>
<li>Because as a community, critical librarianship keeps me accountable to myself, my ideals, and challenges me to continue to listen and learn and refine, among other things. </li>
<li>Because before I lurked in critlib chats, I was a critical political science student. A professor introduced me to the work of Michel Foucault, and that was as close to an "a ha!" moment as I'll have (I maybe even crossed a threshold, if you will). I got to spend a day with <a href="http://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/james-scott" target="_blank">James Scott</a>, one of my professional heroes. And then I got to apply critical theories from the social sciences and humanities to libraries, <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2012/06/libraries-and-postmodernity-review-of.html" target="_blank">in</a> <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/yes-libraries-are-oppressive-so-what-now.html" target="_blank">theory</a>, and <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-second-draft-framework-for.html" target="_blank">in</a> <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2015/04/reconceptualizing-fit-theory-practice.html" target="_blank">practice</a>, thanks to people like <a href="http://librarianburnout.com/" target="_blank">Maria Accardi</a>. </li>
<li>Because this is my life homey you decide yours.</li>
</ul>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pZh81AmtAn4" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
Why do I identify with these ideas?<br />
<ul>
<li>Because I've never not been critical. I grew up in New York City in the 1980s. My parents told me not to walk on Amsterdam Avenue (also called Murderdam or Cracksterdam), to take Broadway instead, and I began to ask questions. I saw how people who weren't white were treated. By police, by teachers, by peers, by the law. That was the start. It took me a while to find the theoretical frameworks to help me process what I saw, but I'm glad I did. </li>
</ul>
Why do I participate in these chats?<br />
<ul>
<li>It's more often the case that I lurk, listening, liking tweets, saving things for later. I feel like I have a voice, <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-beerbrarian-moves-on.html" target="_blank">however limited</a>, in this profession, and I want to hear what others have to say. The last thing librarianship needs is another cis het white dude taking up space. That being said, thanks for reading, and thanks to Kevin for asking. </li>
</ul>
BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-89873988245239224192015-12-07T09:06:00.000-05:002015-12-07T09:06:58.175-05:00The Academic Library Job Market is Broken Here are some blind items from my interactions with academic libraries over the past few months. They don't paint a pretty picture of the hiring processes therein.<br />
<ul>
<li>The university that schedules a phone interview, then, out of the blue, a second phone interview three weeks later with an entirely different search committee and no explanation.</li>
<ul>
<li>That same university, when asked during the second phone interview, has no timeline to bring anyone in for an on-campus interview, a clear sign that they have no idea who or what they're looking for in the position.</li>
</ul>
<li>The multiple instances in which the person you report to isn't part of the search committee.</li>
<li>On-campus interviews where the people you'd manage aren't part of the hiring process.</li>
<li>Places where you're told "the position is what you make it" even though there's a long, almost unicorn-like job description and a title that strongly suggests which area of academic librarianship the position falls into. Again, a clear sign that they have no idea what they're looking for in the position.</li>
<li>Places where more than a third of the students are non-white, but all the librarians are Nice White Ladies. </li>
<li>Place that check your references and then ghost. 0_o </li>
<li>Places that ask for a salary range and when supplied with one, with tons of wiggle room, might I add, feel the need to note that they're a non-profit. Passive aggressive much? </li>
<li>Places that have lost a significant percentage of their staff, but those that remain are clinging to their silos rather than trying to reorganize, reward versatility, and become more agile and open. </li>
<ul>
<li>The counter: Places that awkwardly combine two or more positions into one to compensate for budget cuts. See that unicorn-like job description, above. </li>
</ul>
<li>Places where it's clear you'll be punished for wanting to publish, to share knowledge, whether that's peer reviewed, presented, or blogged.</li>
<ul>
<li>"So, I see you publish," I was told, with a tone and body language that made it clear I shouldn't aspire to such things. </li>
<li>"I've read your blog and twitter," remarked one hiring official, who did not and would not expand on that when I asked them what they thought of my online presence. </li>
<li>"Why can't you stick to beer?" is something that I was told by someone in human resources at one institution. If I weren't a cis het white male, I'd send that into the <a href="http://lismicroaggressions.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">LIS Microaggressions</a> zine. </li>
</ul>
</ul>
Errata:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
All directors, with no exceptions, think that if I, as an ex-director, interview for a librarian position, then I'm out to steal their job. Meanwhile, other library staff at these organizations can't fathom why I'd give up a directorship, not understanding how fraught middle management in academic libraries can be, often feeling trapped between library staff and academic administration, which can sometimes be at cross-purposes. Why is it not okay to be a librarian, a part of a team? We don't all have to aspire to management, even those of us in management. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Class role of managers <a href="https://t.co/teyi5FEULF">pic.twitter.com/teyi5FEULF</a></div>
— Jessica (@schomj) <a href="https://twitter.com/schomj/status/664234229262192640">November 11, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
A sign you're in a good place: when someone eats a fruit cup with both breakfast and lunch and not once touches the honeydew. Honeydew is a garbage melon. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The performance of whiteness is an important barrier to diversity in library and information science. I was aware of this before job hunting, but nowhere is this more true than when you're on the market. "Small talk" is crucial to determining whether or not one "fits" in an organization. I mentioned farmers markets, Cub Scouts, homebrewing, and many other topics, some consciously, some not, to show employers that I'm "like" them. No doubt it helps that I look like them, too. If you're looking for a job in libraries, I encourage you to read Angela Galvan's "<a href="http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/soliciting-performance-hiding-bias-whiteness-and-librarianship/" target="_blank">Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias: Whiteness and Librarianship</a>," and April Hathcock's "<a href="http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/lis-diversity/" target="_blank">White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS</a>," both published in <i>In the Library With the Lead Pipe</i>. </blockquote>
Do you have horror stories you'd like to share? If you're able to, I'm here for that.<br />
<br />BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4771887482682364543.post-62516783365989818512015-12-01T09:35:00.000-05:002015-12-01T09:35:10.007-05:00The Beerbrarian Moves On<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
I am not my job I am not my job I am not my job I am not my job I am not my job I am not my job I am not my job I am not my job I am not my</div>
— F. W. Popov (@jacobsberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/jacobsberg/status/599995398330056704">May 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Over the course of eight years, I held three positions at my former place of work (MFPOW). For more than half that time, I served as Director of Library Services. I started as a paraprofessional, with "Specialist" in the title, got an MLIS on the job, and worked my way up. I'm grateful to them for the opportunities and growth, and I hope they're as proud of what we were able to accomplish as I am. No doubt they took a risk in making me a director. Working with other library and university staff, faculty, and academic administration, we were able to<br />
<ul>
<li>modernize the library, including <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2014/02/from-here-to-discovery.html" target="_blank">adding discovery services</a> and a link resolver.</li>
<li>promote the use of open educational resources (OERs) to the point where every introductory science course uses them, saving our students a lot of money.</li>
<li>hire, train, promote, and maintain <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2015/04/reconceptualizing-fit-theory-practice.html" target="_blank">a diverse library staff</a> </li>
<li>break down silos by cross-training all library staff on both public and technical services, with robust documentation.</li>
<li>create a culture of experimentation, where staff aren't <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2013/11/failure-organizational-culture-and.html" target="_blank">afraid to fail and learn from it</a>.</li>
</ul>
<div>
But all those things cost a lot. They cost political capital. They cost emotional labor. And after those eight years, I got the sense that there wasn't much more I could do except maintain. I got the sense I wasn't wanted anymore, but I tried to stick it out. I was lonely as a middle manager, operating between university administration and library staff, and balancing those two often-competing roles was tough. <a href="http://mashable.com/2014/12/17/bad-jobs-mental-health/" target="_blank">I wasn't happy</a>. I let it get to me. To their credit, the powers that be realized this. The timing wasn't perfect, but hey, it rarely is. I should have started my job hunt earlier, and I shouldn't have taken MFPOW for granted-- if you're thinking about going on the job market in "six months," start now! Though we occasionally disagreed on strategy and tactics, the mission of my former place of work remains a worthy one, and I wish them the best of luck. It's telling that the staff who remain, including the current university librarian, are people I hired and trained. It's a nice legacy to have. Onward. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I came to librarianship as a <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2011/02/not-another-mlis-post.html" target="_blank">failed </a><a href="http://letterstoayounglibrarian.blogspot.com/2015/10/letter-to-young-alt-ac-librarian-yes.html" target="_blank">academic</a>, having dropped out of a political science PhD program. This new job gives me a chance to put that other Masters to good use (I applied for pretty much every Political Science Librarian position on the east coast, but never got past phone or Skype interviews--more on this later), and is right in my wheelhouse in terms of what my dissertation was to be: an examination of the role, or lack thereof, the globalization of the English language plays in state language policies, if you're wondering. I'll also get to work with area studies materials and other resources from my poli sci days.</div>
<br />
In addition, I hope to bolster my skill-set. Some front-end web development, often involving integrated library systems (ILS) and learning/content management systems (the <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2013/11/on-failure-elizabethtown-embedded.html" target="_blank">LMS</a> is the scene of one of my better failure stories); more project management; more committee work; and maybe more instructional design. Also, a chance to turn a weakness, marketing and outreach, into a strength; and an opportunity to explore what critical librarianship looks like in a special library, as this position is in the academic wing of a federal library.<br />
<br />
That being said, it's not an academic library, at least not in the traditional sense. I want to find out what I like more: librarianship or higher education. I want to make sure I'm not in the former as a way to stick around the latter.<br />
<br />
I wasn't the job I left. I am not the job I just accepted. We are not our jobs. Not the ones we left. Not the ones we want to take. You are not your job.<br />
<br />
Let's see where the day takes us.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
I could go the rest of my life and never make a slide as good as this one. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/claps2016?src=hash">#claps2016</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/critlib?src=hash">#critlib</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sneakpeak?src=hash">#sneakpeak</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/spoilers?src=hash">#spoilers</a> <a href="https://t.co/Y7DmWlvAoj">pic.twitter.com/Y7DmWlvAoj</a></div>
— Kevin Seeber (@kevinseeber) <a href="https://twitter.com/kevinseeber/status/667832255629295616">November 20, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
BeerBrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10969632673190542761noreply@blogger.com0