A Suburbanite in Rural Libraryland

Having spent most of my life in New England, always close to the hubbub of city life and the newest technologies, I find rural life to be a strange and different adventure.These are my thoughts on libraries and my chosen career. I also love gymnastics.

[the-future-now-deactivated20170]

These are amazing — and shockingly accurate. Did you know there’s a “Bechdel test” for female scientist biographies?

Follow @the-future-now​

[babyanimalpic]

[nutrifitblr]

makes me so happy

[collective-yikes-deactivated202]

thEYRE SO PROPORTIONAL TO ONE ANOTHER IM cRyInG

[allaboutdane]

this is too pure for my sinful eyes

[evanslily]

[sirenofhades]

LIFE’S TOO SHORT TO READ BOOKS THAT YOU DON’T LIKE BUT PEOPLE SAY YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO LIKE BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE LIKES THEM

[gymlibrarian]

One word: bestsellers.

[netlibrarian]

The impossibility of library statistics

I process reference desk statistics at the library I work part time. Every month, I work hard to make sure the data is valid, that there’s nothing wrong, no unintended duplications, etc. Most of the time I nail it, occasionally I screw things up (and then fix them).

But this month I realized something: it’s impossible to fully track what libraries and librarians do.

How do you quantify recommending someone what becomes their favorite book? How do quantify the gratitude of someone who can open up email attachment pictures of their grandchildren? The patron you helped land a job? The one you laughed with when technology screwed up and there was nothing you could do? The new skills gained by someone leaving a computer class?

You can’t quantify the exact benefit of libraries. Numbers don’t do the community service libraries offer justice.

[afrofuturistlibrarian2904]

I have been saying we need more qualitative assessment and to take those impacts into account. How can you measure a service-oriented profession by numbers? What we really do impacts people, so we should care more what they think and do. I’m also very pro User Experience and/or Assessment as it’s own position, department, etc. because those are jobs within themselves.

[robotpancreasattack]

Made some bookmarks at work today!

[thecommonlibrarian-blog]

This is a fantastic idea - I’m going to look into this for my library.

[gymlibrarian]

I am totally stealing this idea!

[historical-nonfiction]

How do people respond to sneezing?

Well, it depends where you are from. Here are a few responses from around the world:

“May God forgive you!” (Amharic)

“Rice and salt.” (Vietnamese, if the sneezer is a child)

“Hey! I took a bath!” (Filipino. The correct response is “Who didn’t take a bath?”)

“Have a long life.” (Sinhala in Sri Lanka)

“You have released nose-water.” (Ritharngu, an Australian aboriginal language. Their response is extremely literal.)

“Patience” (Pashto)

“It’s the Truth” (Marathi)

“God help you!” to first sneeze, “strengthen you” to second sneeze, “and support.” to third sneeze. Can be shortened to “Bless you.”  (Icelandic)

What do you say?

[gymlibrarian]

My daughter started insisting we say, "Bless me" every time we sneezed. She was 3. It stuck and is now a habit throughout the family.

[pastor-decanus]

We should all strive to be more like Mr. Rogers. This has been a public service announcement.

[librarianproblems]

WHEN I’M TAGGED IN ANOTHER PHOTO OF A CAKE DECORATED LIKE A LIBRARY

[thecommonlibrarian-blog]

I didn’t want to share this on Facebook, because about thirty people would have had their feelings hurt…

[xxxo-xxxo-blog]

[ultrafacts]

Sources & info: 1 2 Follow Ultrafacts for more facts

[thisblogissophiesblog]

Why it’s ok to be a Muscle Mary

Calling all girls who lift.

Have you ever been told by friends, strangers and loved ones not to get ‘too muscly’ when they find out that you lift weights? Or asked ‘are you going to end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger’? Or even ‘don’t turn into a man’?

Yep, me too. All of the above.

While it drives me mad, I’ve realised that a lot of these comments come from a place of misinformation so I’d like to set the record straight on what it means to be a girl who lifts.

1) There’s a limit as to how much muscle women can grow due to the decreased levels of testosterone (around 15-20 times less) when compared to men. Testosterone induces muscle growth which is why men can grow more muscle – they have more testosterone. Without artificially increasing their levels of testosterone women simply cannot grow the same amount of muscle as men. Therefore, we will not ‘turn into men’ by lifting weights

2) To be ‘toned’ women have to have muscles. If you lose weight without having any muscle then yes, you’ll end up looking thin but chances are you will lose some of the shape or curves that you had before. For all of those people out there who like the women in their lives to have an ass for example, unless she’s been miraculously blessed with perfectly shaped glute muscles, chances are she’s going to have to work on that shape and lifting weights is the perfect way to do that

3) The female bodybuilders you see on stage with bulging muscles and no body fat are not a good representation of the majority of girls who lift. Any woman who is competing in any competition, whether it’s Figure, Bikini, Fitness or Bodybuilding, will be the first to tell you that she will only be in her stage condition for a day or two, no longer. This is because to look their best they will dehydrate themselves, cut their calories drastically right at the end and tan themselves beyond normal colour ranges. It’s not a sustainable body shape and is not what 99% of girls who lift will look like

4) Besides the aesthetic reasons there are plenty of health benefits to lifting weights for women including increased calorie burn during and after a workout, a higher metabolism, stronger bones from doing weight-bearing exercise and major stress relief. Trust me, squat a bar loaded with your body weight and you’ll feel on top of the world

5) Muscles make girls look like badasses. And that’s everyone’s aim in life as well as mine right?

What’s your normal response when someone gives you sh*t about being a girl who lifts?

[iworkatapubliclibrary]

Diary, Diarrhea

I overheard a mom talking to her young son in the children’s area.  Mom: “Oh look, they have Diary of a Worm.” 

Boy: “Why does the worm have diarrhea?”

Mom: “He doesn’t, it’s his diary.”

Boy: “Oh. What’s a diary?”

[ofnopesandwhyatts]

Reasons why Parks and Rec deserved an Emmy

- Set in small-town Indiana, still manages to have 40% of it’s ensemble cast be POC, and not one of them is a token either

- 40% of the cast are women. ¾ are POC. All of them are badasses. 

- Every single fucking episode is funny. Seriously. 

- Perd fucking Hapley. I can’t even explain, you just have to watch 

- Pawnee citizens holy hell 

- The flawless political commentary behind the Langman’s and the Male Men 

- The scene in Comeback Kid where Get On Your Feet is playing and they’re all struggling to walk on ice 

- Chris Traeger and his mental illness. They worked it in so that it was comedic, but if it glorified anything, it was asking for help and accepting it. 

- Okay just Chris in general 

- Gary Jerry Larry Terry Gary Gergich Gengurch Gergich 

- Donna, the character who is exactly who she needs to be throughout her life. She acknowledges the need to change her behavior occasionally, but it doesn’t dent her confidence one bit. 

- Ann Meredith Perkins, you beautiful sun-ray nurse. The best friend everyone needs. Quirky and grounded and intelligent. 

- THE FUCKING SAPERSTEINS 

- ESPECIALLY JEAN-RALPHIO 

- Everything Tom Haverford has ever said 

- Ben fucking Wyatt. I can’t even elaborate without crying and combusting. Much better nerd than any weasel from The Big Bang Theory. Feminist. Best Husband Ever. 

- ANYTIME BEN OR LESLIE ARE DRUNK HOLY SHIT 

- Cones of Dunshire and Requiem for a Tuesday 

- FUCKING ICE TOWN 

- April Blart, Mall Cop 

- April’s character development *heart eyes* 

- Andy and April’s love 

- Mouse Rat and hits like The Pit, Catch Your Dream, and - 5000 CANDLES IN THE WIND 

- LIL SEBASTIAN 

- Bert Macklin, FBI 

- Johnny and Johnathan Karate 

- Andy Dwyer, secret genius 

- Ron Swanson, the manliest man to ever man, owner of the world’s best character development, hater of Canada and vegans, beautiful beautiful man 

- Duke fucking Silver 

- I dig your groovy tunes man

- Ben and Leslie’s healthy, realistic, and beautiful relationship 

- Benslie proposal 

- Benslie wedding 

- Ben’s triplets freakout 

- the BOX 

- Amy Poehler plays the most amazing woman to ever grace any screen. Leslie Knope, a socially inept but selfless woman who dedicates her life to public service, her family, and her friends. Deeply flawed main character that wasn’t made lovable by her unfortunate but relatable love of sugar and hatred of vegetables, but instead by her love for others and thoughtfulness and work ethic and optimism. Food habits aside, her character flaws were acknowledged by the writers, her loved ones, and her. No one is an enabler for Leslie Knope’s bad behavior. When she does something shitty, she gets called on it and apologizes. But at the end of the day, hard work and positivity make a difference, and she achieves her dreams. 

- Positivity. The people on this show like each other. They believe in and support each other. They apologize when they’re wrong. They forgive when they’ve been wronged. They go out of their way to make lives better. And it is still funny.

[unashamedradiance]

[gymlibrarian]

I love Mo Willems.

[thelibrawrian-deactivated201912]

I see a lot of posts on tumblr that imply borrowing a book from a library is less supportive of the author than buying it outright and I would like to offer a few unsolicited thoughts as to why that’s not true:

Every book in a public library has to earn its spot on the shelf. If no one checks it out, then it will be weeded from the collection to make way for a book that will circulate. So, if you check out a book, you’ve just given it a much a better chance at being there for someone else to discover!

A recently returned book is more likely to be propped up as a display in the tiny nooks around the library. Every shelver loves an empty display space because it means they can quickly get rid of several books. A book on display is more likely to catch someone’s eye and on and on!

You might not be able to tell this just by looking at the shelves, but when a book first comes out from an author, the library often buys several copies and based on how many people have reserved the title and how heavily it circulates, they might buy even more copies! Also, when purchasing a new title from an established author, many librarians will look at the circ stats of the author’s other books and will use that as a guide for how many copies to buy of the new book. In case you didn’t know, libraries buy a lot of books - we make up a huge portion of the book sales market.

Many people use the library as a way to discover new authors. It’s a risk-free investment and helps them experiment with a lot of different titles that they wouldn’t be able to if they had to buy all of them. And if they really love an author, they might become a life-long fan who will buy their books for years to come, all because of kismet at the library.

If you check out the book at the library, your librarian can make a better case for inviting the author to come to the library for an event for which they can get paid! This is especially true for lesser-known authors.

In conclusion, borrowing a book from the library is a wonderful thing to do. It helps make sure other people have access to that book in the future, creating an ever-wider audience for the author.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy books, I’m just saying, borrowing books from the library has just as many positive effects and you don’t ever have to feel bad that you’re somehow not supporting an author by borrowing their book instead of buying it. :)

[micdotcom]

When it comes to embarking on the journey of parenthood, lots of millennials are saying, “Thanks but, no, thanks.“ To find out why so many young people are eschewing tradition, we solicited dozens of responses from people of all identities. From financial to biological concerns, their reasons were myriad — and all equally valid.

(Thanks to everyone who submitted answers!)

[fivemanwaltz]

So many of these are basically “because I had such a horrible experience, and I couldn’t inflict that on a child”. Thats really, really heartbreaking. And very, very telling.

[gymlibrarian]

It's important to note that it isn't just Millennials who feel this way. There are number of Gen X who share the same sentiments. Do you think being the first latchkey generation was easy? Or the first generation really torn apart by divorce? Our parents got married because it was expected. They had kids because it was expected. We grew up with unhappy parents who were married too young and didn't take time to find themselves. Some of us followed our parents' paths. Others of us chose a different route. Don't forget that the generation that came immediately before you has some very similar outlooks. We aren't old enough to be your parent's it we are old enough to be your older siblings.