Librarians and Community

Day late, but better now than never!  I've been thinking a lot about libraries, librarians, and community this week.  

As someone with an MLIS working outside the library and information community at the moment, I'm feeling a little adrift.  I'm also enough of an introvert that this doesn't bother me much, but it has given me some things to think about on the topic.

I was all excited about Dr. Carla Hayden accepting the role of Librarian of Congress last week, and I'm no less excited about that this week.  In 2003, as I was entering library school, she told Ms. Magazine who named her one of their Women of the Year:

We serve the underserved. When libraries fight against the PATRIOT Act, or against [mandatory Internet filters], we’re fighting for the public. Most of the people who use public libraries don’t have the opportunity to buy books at a bookstore or on Amazon.com. What the library does is protect the rights of all people to fully and freely access information and to pursue knowledge, without fear of repercussion.

Can I repeat that last sentence again?  Because that's one of the things that keeps me coming back to information access as a profession and a calling - "What the library does is protect the rights of all people to fully and freely access information and to pursue knowledge, without fear of repercussion."

When I start to despair about what I'm doing, that's what I come back to.  Am I helping people get access to information they need to make decisions?  Yes?  Good.  Am I helping people get access to content that enriches their lives by their definition (outside a very few ethical issues)?  Yes?  Good.  One of the reasons I pursued this profession was because of the focus on progressive social justice, social awareness, social good aspect of literacy & access to information.  Not everyone goes into this profession for that reason, but there's a significant percentage of people who do care very much about these issues.

I've been thinking about my professional community and this week culminated this morning in the first MLIS advisory board meeting of the year.  I'm on the advisory board as an independent at the moment, carrying on from the last place I worked.  I find it really satisfying to contribute back to my school, and my profession... and develop my own professional thoughts with exposure to other really smart and experienced information professionals.  I love sitting at the table and hear what these, honestly, mostly women, are talking about.  

This week we were treated to a meeting with the Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, whose goal in the iSchool community is to bring wisdom from the field into the school.  She wanted to know from us what, besides her own thoughts on the matter, we wanted her to bring to students.  After that we discussed ideas for some changes to some one credit classes - there were so many ideas!  I was not alone in wishing that all of the ideas we had for one credit classes were open to already graduated professionals to take.  

Always curious. Life long learning. Five retired women who had worked for their adult lives providing information to people they have such insight, and so much to contribute.  It's hard, sometimes, not to get a little intimidated by them!  Not that anyone else is a slouch.  But they did not shy away from bringing up social justice, serving disadvantaged populations, adult literacy, and #blacklivesmatter while balancing these with practical knowledge from the field about how to target these programs for different locations - from urban inner city to suburban and rural libraries, from special libraries to enterprise content organizations.  I often walk away wishing I contributed more, but I am always walking away glad I went.  

Which is a lot of stuff about librarians and community, and not so much about myth (though the title should have been a giveaway)... And yet it sort of is - this is the essence of the library through out history.  Storage of and access to knowledge and information. Which leads me to how I decided on the names of Phix's Curiosity (that was the original name I had for what this endeavor has turned into) and Mythic Librarian.

It has long been theorized that there is a great library in an underground chamber between the paws of the Sphinx in Egypt.  Per Wikipedia, "The Hall of Records is a (mythical) ancient library rumoured to be deposited at the time of King Imhotep at Giza in Egypt. One suggestion has been that it is under one of the paws of the Great Sphinx of Giza, which is in the Giza pyramid complex."  Most of the popular media about this right now falls largely into conspiracy theory territory, but the fact that there are stories of it from Herodotus who described it as a giant labyrinth with paintings and hieroglyphs on the walls, and other philosophers.  In 2008, archaeologists discovered a network of tunnels beneath the Sphinx. For more on that, here is the associated site: Labyrinth of Egypt. 

Phix? Was that a typo?  No, that's the pronunciation of sphinx in the Greek dialect used near the location where Oedipus revealed the answer to the Greek sphinx's riddle to pass into the city.  

There are, of course, other mythic libraries - the great Alexandrian library that perished in flames.  The last known member of this library was Theon, the father of the renowned classic scholar, philosopher, mathematician (and woman), Hypatia. It's probably not right to call her a librarian, but she embodies the curiosity of mind and pursuit of information that runs through the heart of a librarian. :)  Here's an overview of Hypatia from the Smithsonian, if more is of interest to you.  

A common thread between these mythic libraries would have been the communities of knowledge preservation and access that would have sprung up around them. Libraries and communities.  Information and knowledge serving humanity.  I don't always feel right calling myself a librarian, and yet... I can't quite let it go either - these intertwining values, wending their way through the ages... One of the board members said today - this is what is in our genes, in our DNA.  When I think of what it would mean for me to be worthy of the name ancestor after my bones have turned to dust - it is these values that I would hope to leave as part of my legacy.

Big Week for Us (and U.S.) Librarians!

Big news first and then some thoughts on self care, tango, and a story.

Why is it a big week for librarians?  President Obama nominated, and his nomination was accepted, a new Librarian of Congress!  And she is FIERCE!  She is the first woman and first black Librarian of Congress.  She was the Baltimore City Librarian who made the decision to keep library doors open during the unrest a few years ago after Freddie Gray's death, when most other public services were closing their doors.

I knew that the libraries are community resources. I knew that they are anchors in so many communities. In a lot of communities in Baltimore, especially challenged ones, we are the only resource. If we close, we’re sending a signal that we’re afraid or that we aren’t going to be available when times are tough. We should be open especially when times are tough. (American Libraries Magazine, 2015/5/1)

That in and of itself is huge.  Her dedication to libraries and librarianship is outstanding.  I legit got weepy when she was sworn in.  She asked her mama to hold an Abraham Lincoln Bible, and has noted a number of times what an honor it is to hold this position.  From her swearing in ceremony -

To be the head of an institution that’s associated with knowledge and reading and scholarship when slaves were forbidden to learn how to read on punishment of losing limbs, that’s kind of something." (NYT, 2016/9/15). 

In the event you'd like to watch her swearing in ceremony, the Library of Congress streamed it live on youtube, and then posted this handy video!  The actual ceremony starts at about an hour in.  So excited to have someone from the library profession, and someone who advocates for libraries, and someone representing the 85% of women who work as librarians, and someone who represents the diversity of our country in this position.  I cannot wait to see what she does.

Other stuff I've been thinking about this week...


On Self Care
Earlier this week, I ran across Audre Lorde's quote that self care, "is not self-indulgence—it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."  When I started thinking about what I wanted to do before this existed, I thought I wanted to focus on self care.  Medusa's Garden - when you need every one and every thing tostop coming at you.  Right?  But the more I thought about it, the less well it sat with me, as I reflected on serious burnout (from which I'm still trying to recover and find my feet again), the more I realized that there is no product I could sell that would help women, in particular, to alleviate the effects of burnout.  We don't need another bath that smells nice. We don't need a pretty candle.  So instead, I thought I could combine the lovely things that do make me feel good (but without focusing so much on "self care") and the fact that I became a librarian to support my eternal curiosity.  

I'm currently also doing some stuff with HiveQuest, an online learning platform and combining Medusa's Garden with Phix's Curiosity Camp (another precursor idea), I came up with the Mythic Librarian.  I'm always a little apprehensive about claiming the title 'librarian' as I haven't worked in a library or doing traditional library work in a long time, but in my heart of hearts, I love the library and I am fiercely dedicated to the ideals that libraries stand for.  I hope I do my chosen profession right with this endeavor.  In any case, Phix's Curiosity & Medusa's Garden will be represented on my site as courses and curiosities. Which to bring this all back to the majestic Audre is... self-preservation & political warfare.  Making use of my ability to learn, and then share my learning, to find and share my curious finds.  In a way that lets my candle/s burn bright rather than the hot, painful flame of burnout.  Thank you for showing your support in this venture so far as I am early in this process! I am so appreciative!

My ending thought for the moment is the other quote in the article that brought Audre Lorde to mind again:

The harder, duller work of self-care is about the everyday, impossible effort of getting up and getting through your life in a world that would prefer you cowed and compliant. A world whose abusive logic wants you to see no structural problems, but only problems with yourself, or with those more marginalized and vulnerable than you are. Real love, the kind that soothes and lasts, is not a feeling, but a verb, an action. It’s about what you do for another person over the course of days and weeks and years, the work put in to care and cathexis. (Laurie Penny, The Baffler, 2016/7/8).

Or, as Kurt Vonnegut might say, "There's only one rule that I know of, babies - God damn it, you've got to be kind."

On Tango
I'm in the process of developing a HiveQuest course on Tango Life Lessons.  I started tango in August and as a systems and process and patterns thinker, I drew some really immediate life lessons from it.  It's a beautiful analogy in some ways.  These have been slowly building and as I document them, I thought they might be worth sharing with you. Here is the blog post from prior to my idea of creating something for HiveQuest on what sorts of thoughts I've been having Messages from the Universe: Tango - possibly a part 1. I've since had thoughts on leadership, followership, and some other things too... Definitely in early stages of development, so I'll keep you posted on when it is likely to be released.  

A Story 
And finally because I've been meaning to do this for days now - a story inspired by@MythologyBot - D1385.19 Clothing protects from evil spirit.

There once was a small girl.  She was out collecting pears in the orchard when a wisp of smoke appeared and said to her "little girl, little girl, what are you doing here all alone?"  The only reasonable response she could think of was the truth.  "My mama sent me to collect pears for breakfast later this week. Now be gone and let me attend to my task."  And the wisp of smoke disappeared in a twist of the wind.  The girl went back to collecting her pears.

After a while, a larger plume of smoke appeared and said to her, "Little girl, little girl, who's permission do you have to collect pears from this land?" The smoke spiraled and spun in the soft breeze, faintly mesmerizing her.  Still it had asked a question, and the only response she could think of was to answer with the truth. "My grandmother owns this land, as was given to her by her grandmother, since time immemorial. She has given me permission to gather the fruits here."  She watched the smoke shift and the changing blues and greys, then remembered, "Now be gone and let me attend to my task!"  She had almost forgotten what she had come to do.

She went back to gathering pears.  A little further into the orchard, she was startled to find a boy lazing about eating pears.  He said to her, "Little girl, little girl, what are you doing here?"  His eyes were grey, and blue flickered in them like the light catching the spirals and twists of the smoke. She replied, "I am here collecting pears. Who are you, and why are you here?"  He said, "Oh, nevermind that, come and look further into the orchard with me!" As he said this he gently reached his hand out to take her arm, and drew back suddenly as his hand sizzled as if water had been thrown on a fire.

She snapped to attention. He quickly hid his hand behind his back, but she saw it appeared to be steaming.  "No.  I don't know who you are, but be gone and let me attend to my task."  His face clouded over & he twisted up into a puff of smoke.

Running all the way home, she found her mama and related the story.  "Mama, mama, why did his hand steam when he touched my sleeve?"  "My dear one, my mama taught me, as her mama taught her, as I will teach you,  that to finish all fine woven clothes we would wear with an iron mordant not only protects the dye from fading from the cloth, but also protects us from fairies who would take us away with them."  

Snip, snap, snout, this tale's told out.

Messages From The Universe: Tango (possibly a part 1)

I don’t particularly believe things happen for a reason, but I do like to acknowledge and respect serendipitous messages and lessons from The Universe as they present themselves.  Tango seems to be presenting me with a number of relevant and timely considerations, and I thought it would be good for me to capture them for myself, and in the event that anyone else may benefit, do it here.  With those thoughts as an introduction, let us proceed.

First Newsletter Ever!

Hi all!  I'm doing something new and trying out the newsletter thing!  Let's see how this goes here, shall we?  From the archives. <3

So much dust here!

As I work through and figure things out, I anticipate there will be a learning curve.  Thanks for being here from the beginning!

What I've written this week 

Not a lot. It did occur to me that an awesome product would be Ex Bibliotheca Curiosa (from the magical library of) bookplates.  I have some ideas on how I want to approach that, but first things first, I have been in the process of getting all the appropriate business licensing in place that will allow me to sell things.  I have had very good intentions indeed to pull my Tango Life Lessons course together to share with one and all via HiveQuest, but again with setting up business licenses taking time to figure out and apply for.  I am very excited to see what comes of all of this though!  

What I've been curious about this week?  

The Standing Rock Sioux vs Dakota Pipeline protests looms heavy in my mind.  Ganesh's birthday - Ganesh Chaturthi.  Tara Phagmo Norter Drolma - the Saffron Tara, Distributor of Wealth.  Library advocacy and why libraries are important. And what exactly am I doing here anyway?  

The Standing Rock Sioux vs Dakota Pipeline protests are starting to disintegrate.  It looks as though the US is going to side with corporate interests instead of with the people's interests and welfare, again.  Private mercenaries have set dogs on the protesters/protectors, and tear gassed them.  They have razed sacred burial and prayer grounds.  And now the governor of North Dakota has called in the National Guard - no one can apparently get out, nor can much needed supplies get in.  If you're sitting there shaking your head thinking 'gosh, I wish there was something I could do,' here are ten things to help you take action.  Probably the most important thing you could do right now is to contact North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple - http://www.governor.nd.gov/contact-us about his calling in of the National Guard.  By the time this is published, it's likely more will have happened. 

As I start working on this project and making it real, it dawned on me that it is auspiciously Ganesh Chaturthi - the ten day birthday celebration of Ganesh! What kind of mythic librarian would I be, if I were not to catch the mythological themes surfacing in the patterns of life!?  I asked a beloved friend what I could do both to mark the beginning of this new project and celebrate Ganesh's birthday, and advice I received was - DANCE!  On my way home from a delightful tango class taught by another friend, I saw the biggest, fattest rat I've ever seen, surely good luck and offering accepted, given that Ganesh rides a mouse.


I have also been pondering the lessons of Tara Phagmo Norter Drolma - the Saffron Tara, Distributor of Wealth.  I am working on a different project where each of us are bringing the wisdom and stories of a different aspect of the Tibetan Tara.  As I contemplated which Tara, I was really resisting this one.  I finally realized, as is so often the case, that which I'm resisting is probably the thing I need the most.  In retrospect, it makes sense and I made several connections.  

The first is that it's not that I believe I don't deserve to have my needs for resources met.  I do.  What I have trouble with is the asking.  Like I shouldn't ask when so many others are in more desperate need.  However, I know that when I have what I need, I am better able to share my own gifts to provide resources to others.  Where we see blockages around the flow of resources in our world tends to be where people are hoarding and otherwise not putting to use their resources rather than sharing their resources. Money - profit - to shareholders who invest but do not do the work while the workers are increasingly finding their jobs automated, cost of living raises eaten away, bonuses taxed at higher rates, and being seen and treated as expensive resources rather than valuable contributors to enterprise. Really, is it any wonder that employee morale is often terrible?  I could pick at this for a long time, there's so much wrong with how we treat workers (including management).  But that's rant territory and not curiosity territory, and so a story for another time.  

Another connection I made was that despite myself, I do look for ways to provide benefits to others as a result of my having resources.  Whether it's the fundamental basics of providing hearth & home (and access to health care, etc) for my family, or whether I'm using my librarian skills that guide my personal mission of providing information to people (which takes many forms), etc, I'm very quick to look for ways that I'm sharing the benefit of my having resources with others. Sitting a bit with this and the asking - it's ok for me to ask for things just for myself too. Being cognizant of the well that never replenishes itself will run out of water, and having been burnt out from not taking time and resources to take care of myself, it's worth pausing and reflecting on this aspect as well.  I am thankful for these reflections at this time as I step into the new roles I have, setting up the Mythic Librarian, and other roles that may come my way in the future.

Library Advocacy seems to be something I come back to time and time again. No surprise, with a Masters in Library & Info Science that it would be something I feel strongly about.  Libraries aren't just about the books (as much as we love them). They're about the third place information collaboration spaces of our world.  They house not only the thoughts of those who have considered things before us, but they provide us the spaces, physical, mental, and emotional, to find, gather, serendipitously trip over, consider, research, dig deeper, and even collaborate with others in order not only to store and retrieve information, but to find ways to put it to use.  Information literacy need is at an all time high with the volume of information that is pushed at us every day.  And stories - stories!  Mythologies, fairy tales, literature (canon and pulp fiction alike) that help us to understand all the ways we can imagine to be sentient beings, all the patterns we could inhabit, plus some yet to be written.  Who could not love a library!? Seriously.

And then finally, what crazy thing am I doing here? Though I started this project before this article came out, I think it does a pretty good job of summing things up - I Was Afraid I Couldn't Be Myself by Melissa Jo Hill.  In particular this:

I’m not creating a brand, I’m creating a body of work. I can even let go of the idea of a successful website, because there’s no agenda here. No conversion needed. I’m not a product I’m selling.

I know - I am setting up to sell things here.  In the end, I hope the things I end up selling help people to find ways to explore their curiosity, and enjoy exploring my curiosities along with me, whether that's taking a course I've created as I explore ideas that catch my attention, or buying a tea that I am selling to enjoy as you dig into whatever your favorite reading of the moment is, or extremely limited edition yarns that I've handspun, or book plates for your home library or whatever other amazing thing I come up with -- it's all part of an evolving body of work.  My evolving body of work. And along the way there will be things I don't sell too -- I want to use this space to explore the patterns I see.  To maybe share stories I love. To explore some things that will require work and overcoming fear (video maybe?  podcasts maybe? other unknown things maybe?) but that I'll learn some great things about along the way!  So, as all mythic beings are, so too the Mythic Librarian is a work in progress.  

With fierce curiosity and love, I dedicate any merit arising from this offering to all who put information into action benefiting all sentient beings.  

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