The Afro Futurist Librarian

quirky enigma seeks librarianship

[afrofuturistlibrarian2904]

gone for a couple months and now my top followers this month are all porn blogs. 

[queen-b-m518]

[think-progress]

‘Enough Is Enough’: Prisoners Across The Country Band Together To End Slavery For Good

"Prisoners make traffic signs. They make license plates. They make sheet metal. They work in shoe shops. Prisoners do all kinds of things and they’re not being paid for it."

Siddique Hasan, a self-described revolutionary from Savannah, Georgia, has been waiting for a moment like this one, when prisoners across the country band together and say “enough is enough.”

[evamck]

sometimes i get very sad and anxious because i’m still very unsure who i am or what my purpose is

[jessehimself]

D'Angelo ft. Princess: Sometimes It Snows in April

D'Angelo pays a moving tribute to Prince by covering his classic “Sometimes It Snows in April” with help from Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum’s cover band, Princess

[thatgothlibrarian]

prince eventually dying was just something i had never even considered

[gomcgill]

Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past so the universe can write a new one.

Marianne Williamson (via mysimplereminders)

[beigetype]

[jdizzleeee]

[willisyork]

#willisyork

[afrofuturistlibrarian2904]

Read the new blog post here (x)

[academicssay]

[honey-stained-deactivated201604]

Men will say confidence is the sexiest thing about a woman..until that woman stands up for herself, until that woman has her own opinions, until that woman doesn’t need your compliments to make herself feel beautiful

[deigratiaregina]

Because they think that confidence = heels lmao

[superheroesincolor]

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #5 (2016)  

Story: Amy Reeder, Brandon Montclare, art: Natacha Bustos

Get tje comics here

[ Follow SuperheroesInColor on facebook / instagram / twitter / tumblr ]

[afrofuturistlibrarian2904]

Ask a Librarian!

1. Do you have a go-to book recommendation?

2. Favorite reference question?

3. Least favorite reference question?

4. Ever been to an ALA conference?

5. Strangest patron encounter?

6. Favorite library?

7. Dream job?

8. Did you go to library school?

9. Most valuable advice you received about librarianship?

10. Least valuable advice you received about librarianship?

11. How often do you use Google to answer a question?

12. How does it make you feel when you use Google to answer a question?

13. Strangest book title you've had to look up?

14. Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress classification?

15. Favorite call number range?

16. Favorite fictional librarian?

17. Favorite real-life librarian?

18. Favorite banned book?

19. Thoughts on the sexy librarian stereotype?

20. Thoughts on the matronly librarian stereotype?

21. Thoughts on the females-only librarian stereotype?

22. First library job you ever had?

23. Thoughts on Forbes magazine's recent assessment that an MLS was one of the "worst" graduate degrees to have?

24. What made you want to be a librarian?

25. What's your favorite part of the job?

26. What's your least favorite part of the job?

27. Does your library use Union Catalogs?

28. Does your library still have a physical card catalog?

29. Thoughts on ebooks?

30. Ever seen Party Girl?

31. Do you like cataloging?

32. Ever been published?

33. Public, academic, or special libraries?

34. Thoughts on internet filtering?

35. Do you currently have any library fines?

36. Age you got your first library card?

37. Self-checkout or circulation desk?

38. Thoughts on RFID?

39. Ever been to Library of Congress?

40. Any areas of librarianship you're particularly interested in?

[robhillsr]

Embrace the evolution.

[afrofuturistlibrarian2904]

 One of the associate deans (another black woman) sent me an article in Fast Company about how women of color still make up a tiny tiny percent of leadership in organizations. 

I liked it because it mentioned how stereotypes for women of color effect their navigation of the workplace in a different way. Like for white women, they may not assert themselves or any assertion seems like they are being “bossy” or whatever. But latina women are seen as “fiery”, black women as “angry black women” and asian women as “docile”. Either way once you realize this, it affects how you feel about and police yourself at work.

I feel this. On the one end, for black women, there is room to be aggressive and have it be accepted in a way that may be different for other groups of women. But on the other hand, I’m an introverted person and while most of the time I think it’s a genuine suggestion, I’m often told to be more assertive at work. I resent that there is only one kind of leadership that gets support. I’m very aware of my personality and leadership style. This isn’t a glorification of being an introvert or quiet person. It’s more so to say when people can’t really give me a real explanation of what they mean when they say I’m not being as assertive as I could be, it’s not constructive and often privileged. First of all, people react vastly different to me (a petite, young looking for my age, soft spoken black woman-- even before I say anything to them whether I’m dressed in jeans or a suit) than to white men or women I work with. Second, I’m not your sassy black friend and I don’t need  to be aggressive to be a leader. That said, anyone who is should also get respect for being overtly assertive-- people have different ways of getting things done. I just think either way stereotypes or a limited understanding of what leadership means is harmful. I hate having my kindness, mindfulness, patience, strategy and diplomacy mistaken for weakness. And then my convictions mistaken for stubbornness. People really need to consider their perceptions as projections rather than reality.

This is also really timely because there has been a lot of discussion about privilege and race in the scholarly communication listserv. Which, if you’re a library person, you may have heard. I really have to agree with some people who feel there is not a lot of support there for new librarians, for people of color or for women. Really anyone who isn’t white and been working fir 25 years or dominates the conversation. I think I’m often made to feel like I’m not rising to some aggressive standard. Now I am thinking that there are more things that need improvement in the profession and I’m not internalizing it as much. I think in turn, that will make me more confident in the way that is true to myself and not emulating other people.