some stuff. and some things.
Libraries aren’t in the real world, after all. They’re places apart, sanctuaries of pure thought.

Paul Auster (via picadorbookroom)

I wonder if Paul Auster has been to one recently, though.

Libraries have actually become, in the US at least, de facto homeless shelters and centers for the mentally ill, as well as a resource for those needing childcare as well as the unemployed seeking work. There’s now signs on some of them in New York barring people from bringing ‘large packages’ which basically means ‘homeless people cannot bring their life’s belongings in here’—but they allowed it for almost a decade as homelessness in New York reached epic proportions. There’s actually very few places in American life so of this world, more than a library. Most public libraries are where you can see what is really going on for most Americans in a way you won’t ever see on the news or in a television show, or even in most fiction or nonfiction. And it is to the credit of most librarians that they continue to operate, despite budget cuts, the outlandish depravity of austerians and privitization mongrels. So, let’s not treat libraries like delicate flowers or temples withdrawn from the concerns of the world. They’ve shown themselves to be much tougher than that. Let’s instead make them what they should be, a better thing than what they’ve had to become—and look to what has been laid at their feet as a map to what our country really needs from its government services.

(via alexanderchee)

Every year white people add 100 years to how long ago slavery was. I’ve heard educated white people say, ‘slavery was 400 years ago.’ No it very wasn’t. It was 140 years ago…that’s two 70-year-old ladies living and dying back to back. That’s how recently you could buy a guy.

Louis C.K. (via 30thcenturyboy)

Sylvester Magee, the (probable) last American born into slavery died in 1971.

The last living child of former American slaves, Mississippi Winn, died in 2010.

Slavery in the territory that is now the United States lasted more than 330 years. We will be 330 years removed from slavery in the year 2195.

(via fishingboatproceeds)

myotopia:

jakewyattriot:

Test Number Three.

 Necropolis will launch at the end of August as an ongoing weekly webcomic.  Stay tuned!

-Jake Wyatt

For lack of a better response, “duuuuuuuuuude!” Character design, colors, composition, and charisma?

Yeah, looking forward to this. Thanks in advance, Future Jake.

slydig:

why be rude when you can be nude 

csizkek:

velvetlovepocket:

“If You Know Someone Who Doesn’t Believe Sexism Exists, Show Them This
Link here: [x]

outdoormagic:

Outdoormagic:

Want to be here.

outdoormagic:

Outdoormagic:

Want to be here.

travelingcolors:

Sol Duc Falls | Washington (by Tim Lampe)


Sol Duc has popped up on my dash twice this week. I want to gooooooo thereeeeee

travelingcolors:

Sol Duc Falls | Washington (by Tim Lampe)

Sol Duc has popped up on my dash twice this week. I want to gooooooo thereeeeee

p.s. To any non-librarian readers: Libraries complete destroy your check-out records on purpose so that the government can’t ask us for it. Just FYI.

Reasonable Expectation of Privacy, the NSA, and the value of metadata | Pegasus Librarian

This last line isn’t directed at librarians, but it is a key fact. But the idea that metadata isn’t private, and as such libraries should get better metadata from publishers is interesting (and should be given a try).

(via chrischelberg)

Let me tell you a story:

About six months after 50 Shades of Grey came out, I was manning the circ desk at work (a smallish public library). The book was at the top of its hype, and the wait lists were a mile long. A regular came in. He was absolutely fuming. He marched up to the desk, slammed the book down in front of me and said, “I would like return this book. Then, I’d like to have it removed from my wife’s record, immediately!”

I took the book, discharged it, and thought it prudent to explain to him that once we discharge a book it is automatically removed from all patron records. Obviously, he wasn’t aware, and I think that this is something all of our patrons should be aware of. I was very clear, but the concept was clearly beyond anything he was willing grasp in his current state. Suddenly, one of my co-workers snatched the book from me, ran it under the barcode scanner of a neighboring computer, clicked the mouse a few times at random (our circulation program wasn’t even running on that computer, this was just for show) and informed the gentleman that she’d removed the book from his wife’s record. The gentleman stormed out immediately.

Can I tell you how angry I was? That was a teachable moment, and my coworker blatantly decided to perpetuate—and even encourage—ignorance. Granted, it was a tricky interaction. She was obviously only trying to diffuse the situation. However, I repeat,I think that this is something all of our patrons should be aware of. Was it worth the quick fix to let this patron believe that we normally keep records? I don’t think so. 

Patrons should be taught that library ethics demand user privacy. We should emphasize this constantly, not only in our professional circles, but also to the public. There should be signs in the library, and posts on social media. It should be prominent in the welcome literature that comes with every new library card. We should sing it from the mountaintops.

(via missrumphiusproject)

lizzysam:

It’s funny, Stuff White People Like is often laughed at and loved by white people. It’s a book, and I believe a blog, generalizing silly and ridiculous things that white people, well… like. But the moment a POC makes generalizations about white people based on their own life experience or based off of history itself, someone will be there fighting to be heard how “We’re not all like that”.
I honestly don’t know why any POC should care. Like… at all. You can’t just look at a person and be able to tell whether or not they are an asshole. But POC are supposed to watch and alter their language so as to not offend people when they have probably mostly experienced things that support their claims (as if history wasn’t enough)?
I’m not all white. I am half Mexican, but def white passing the last 7 or so years of my life. You know what? In those 7 years I’ve never been followed in a store because someone thought I was a thief based off of my skin color. I’ve never been accused of being lazy, being a criminal, being an illegal border hopper, or not knowing english. I’ve never had someone look at me astonished and say “Wow! You speak really good for a _____ person!”. People didn’t just assume that my mother had 8 other children, or that my father was in jail. I’ve never lost out on housing or a job because of my skin color. I can walk through any neighborhood and feel safe. I am generally given the benefit of a doubt on any given situation, whether it is deserved or not. I have been loud and obnoxious in public and have never had to pretend not to hear slurs being mumbled in my direction, or how I am giving all white people a bad name. 
So, I don’t really care if POC make generalizations about white people. At most it might hurt my feelings. I would hope that when ever they are making them that I am not part of the problem, but I can guarantee that I have been in the past, and probably will be again in the future. And if whatever generalization they are making hit a little too close to home, then it is obviously time to self evaluate. And white people should be uncomfortable sometimes. We are an entitled people. We are a destructive people. We believe anything is up for grabs, and get offended when people take offence to our uneducated and thoughtless actions.
Are white people inherently horrible? Uh, no, I don’t believe so. Can we act horrible? Sadly, yes… All the damn time. But we shouldn’t let that get in the way of trying to learn and change things. We shouldn’t let that get in the way of trying to make things right. We have a lot to learn, and we have a lot of history to make up for. We need to spend more time listening. We need to learn boundaries and respect them. We need to learn how to appreciate things without appropriating them. We need to learn when our voices will help matters, and when they are not needed. 
Did we (the current generation) make things they way they are? Not at all. Society has been fucked up for so long that it almost seems normal to those of us who have the luxury of ignoring certain aspects of it. But we (the current generation) can be held at fault for not changing things, because that is the power we DO have.

In one recent study, more than 100 university psychologists were asked to rate the CVs of Dr. Karen Miller or Dr. Brian Miller, fictitious applicants for an academic tenure-track job. The CVs were identical, apart from the name. Yet strangely, the male Dr. Miller was perceived (by both male and female reviewers) to have better research, teaching, and service experience than the luckless female Dr. Miller. Overall, about three-quarters of the psychologists thought that Dr. Brian was hirable, while only just under half had the same confidence in Dr. Karen. The same researchers also sent out applications for the position of tenured professor, again identical but for the male and female name at the top. This time, the application was so strong that most of the raters thought that tenure was deserved, regardless of sex. However, the endorsement of Karen’s application was four times more likely to be accompanied by cautionary caveats scrawled in the margins of the questionnaire: such as, ‘I would need to see evidence that she had gotten these grants and publications on her own’ and ‘We would have to see her job talk.’

Cordelia Fine, Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference (via cockchomp)

THIS IS REALLY FUCKING IMPORTANT AND INCREDIBLE 

(via beloquacious)

Oh hey, just in case you think academia is a haven of progressivism and open-mindedness. Women also have a much harder time obtaining tenure if they are trying to raise a family, while men who have children are more likely to be awarded it.

When I was in graduate school, I attended a “Junior Women Scholars and the Profession’-type mini conference, at which one of the senior scholars told us that, if we wanted to have kids, it was better to do it while we were finishing our degrees. Because then you could prove you were able to handle a baby + research and it would be better to take a semester off as a grad student than a semester off as junior faculty. 

All of this is despite the fact that, in the US, hiring committees are not legally allowed to take into account your family status. They aren’t even allowed to ask if you’re married, if you have kids, or what your plans are for kids in the future. It usually comes up somewhat awkwardly during campus visits, where they have to disclose benefits and how the tenure process works.

Like most of the rest of the US, universities and colleges tend to lag woefully behind the rest of the world in offering women choices other than “rock” or “hard place,” and also do not accord men time off for paternity leave, thus ensuring that academic women have to shoulder the weight of those choices. So yay, institutionalized sexism!

(via theletteraesc)

When people tell me I’m doing too much at uni, they should really know shit like this.

(via najalater)

Under the combat exclusion policy, the 1994 Pentagon rule that restricted women from artillery, armor, infantry and other combat roles, women nonetheless served in combat, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, when they were “attached” to combat units. But the bureaucratic sidestep gave them no official credit for the combat experience that is required for advancing up the ranks of the military.

FINALLY: Elite Units in U.S. Military to Admit Women. 

Hopefully this translates into lower numbers of sexual assault in the military, more recognition and career opportunities for women, and stronger equality for all.

(via aauw)
I must remind you that starving a child is violence. Suppressing a culture is violence. Neglecting school children is violence. Punishing a mother and her family is violence. Discrimination against a working man is violence. Ghetto housing is violence. Ignoring medical need is violence. Contempt for poverty is violence.
Coretta Scott King (via samirathejerk)
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