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Helpful Library Resources

These are all sites, pathfinders, research guides, and more that I made during my LIS coursework...plus a few sources that I reference or find interesting for my professional library work and personal research!

Pathfinders and Research Guides

Teaching Mythology Through Modern Literature and Beyond

A pathfinder for teaching various world mythologies to middle school age students using modern YA literature and videos catered to a young audience

Maus by Art Spiegelman

An exploration of the seminal graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman, focusing on how this moving Holocaust survivor’s tale has stood the test of time and has become an icon in both autobiographies and graphic novels

The Troubles: Conflict in Northern Ireland

A pathfinder for digital resources about The Troubles, the era of political conflict and violence in Northern Ireland; sources include videos, audiobooks, podcasts, music, databases, and more

So, I Read This Book...

A guide on movies and television to watch next based on what YA book you just read (aimed at teen and YA readers)

Explorations of Librarianship Disciplines

Classics Librarianship

Professional resources helpful to librarians and library professionals considering a career or just doing research in Classical Studies

Linguistics Librarianship

Professional resources helpful to librarians and library professionals considering a career or just doing research in linguistics

Other Useful Resources

Worldcat.org

A worldwide catalog useful for seeing what is available in other library catalogs

Banned & Challenged Classics

A list from the American Library Association detailing the most commonly banned or challenged literature

The Big Five US Trade Book Publishers

A neat graphic categorizing book publishers under the 5 main trade book publishers: Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette

#library #librarian #research guide #pathfinder #mythology #classics #book publication #banned books #ya literature #northern ireland #the troubles #maus #linguistics

slugandthorn

This is Michigan centric but know this is going to be a country wide ordeal. Now is a good time to show some support for your local library and make an effort to organize, and not just for libraries.

Links for ease of access:

American Library Association

EveryLibrary

American Association for State and Local History

American Alliance of Museums

#institute of museum and library services #libraries #museums #librarian

lizzylolz

Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to defund libraries!

SHOW UP FOR OUR LIBRARIES! 📚 CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSPEOPLE!

thebookewyrme

Here’s a couple actual links to concrete things you can do to help, as determined by the American Library Association, who already stopped this maniac from doing this once. There are many smart & experienced people fighting for libraries & museums, but they need your help too.

This link allows you to send your personal library story directly to Congress: https://oneclickpolitics.global.ssl.fastly.net/messages/edit?promo_id=23577

And this is a straightforward petition you can sign in about a minute: https://action.everylibrary.org/eoimls2025

And if you want an easy way to contact your Congresscritters directly, text 50409 or search for ResistBot on Telegram to email, call or fax you Congresscritters. Libraries support democracy & are the last free reliably available 3rd Space in America. This is absolutely an emergency as serious as any of the other major institutional destructions so far this year.

In a new executive order, President Trump has targeted the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the federal agency charged with

Please share a story about how libraries have a positive impact in YOUR community. This might be a story about you or your family, or about

#institute of museum and library services

kurzler

a quick psa to anyone recently getting into greek mythology and is a victim of tumblr and/or tiktok misconceptions:

-there is no shame in being introduced to mytholgy from something like percy jackson, epic the musical or anything like that, but keep in mind that actual myths are going to be VERY different from modern retellings

-the myth of medusa you probably know (her being a victim of poseidon and being cursed by athena) isn't 100% accurate to GREEK mythology (look up ovid)

-there is no version of persephone's abduction in which persephone willingly stays with hades, that's a tumblr invention (look up homeric hymn to demeter)

-as much as i would like it, no, cerberus' name does not mean "spot" (probably a misunderstanding from this wikipedia article)

-zeus isn't the only god who does terrible things to women, your fav male god probably has done the same

-on that note, your fav greek hero has probably done some heinous shit as well

-gods are more complicated than simply being "god of [insert thing]", many titles overlap between gods and some may even change depending on where they were worshipped

-also, apollo and artemis being the gods of the sun and the moon isn't 100% accurate, their main aspects as deities originally were music and the hunt

-titans and gods aren't two wholly different concepts, titan is just the word used to decribe the generation of gods before the olympians

-hector isn't the villain some people make him out to be

-hephaestus WAS married to aphrodite. they divorced. yes, divorce was a thing in ancient greece. hephaestus' wife is aglaia

-ancient greek society didn't have the same concepts of sexuality that we have now, it's incorrect to describe virgin goddesses like artemis and athena as lesbians, BUT it's also not wholly accurate to describe them as aromantic/asexual, it's more complex than that

-you can never fully understand certain myths if you don't understand the societal context in which they were told

-myths have lots and lots of retellings, there isn't one singular "canon", but we can try to distinguish between older and newer versions and bewteen greek and roman versions

-most of what you know about sparta is probably incorrect

-reading/waching retellings is not a substitute to reading the original myths, read the iliad! read the odyssey! i know they may seem intimidating, but they're much more entertaining than you may think

greek mythology is so complex and interesting, don't go into it with preconcieved notions! try to be open to learn!

#greek mythology

hamletthedane

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

hamletthedane

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

hamletthedane

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Full beginner mechanics technical training, if you want to go more in depth

Playlist on how car engine physics work if you want to go ultra in depth

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

#learning #free resources

philsmeatylegss

To everyone in red states where book bans are likely to take place soon, here’s some lists for you <3

As a history student going into library science, people way under hype how crazy book banning is

Multiple lists of books already banned in schools/libraries or ones that likely will be:

Banned Books Week 2024: 100 of the Most Challenged Books

Banned Books: Top 100

Banned Book List

Colorado Banned Book List

The Complete List of Banned & Challenged Books by State

Banned Books from the University of Pennsylvia Online Books Page

Top 10 Most Challenged Books in 2023

PEN America Index Of School Book Bans – 2023-2024

Challenged and Banned Books

Places to order books other than Amazon:

Internet Archive (free)

Libby (free with library card)

Thrift Books

Book Outlet

BookBub

Abe Books

Half Price Books

Barnes & Noble

Better World Books

PangoBooks

Book Finder

Goodwillbooks

Alibris

Places to support that fight against book banning:

American Library Association

Unite Against Banned Books

National Coalition Against Censorship

PEN America

There’s a reason politicians fight so hard to limit knowledge and it should scare you.

Some recs below based on reviews I’ve seen

#banned books

cam1lla

Toni Morrison? Alice Walker? Zora Neale Hurston? Ralph Ellison? James Baldwin? Lorraine Hansbury? Maya Angelou? Octavia Butler? Langston Hughes? Bell Hooks? Many many many many others? Go fuck yourself you lazy, anti-intellectual asshole

stardustandtwilight

here's a list by Book Riot of 100 classics by non-white authors

#literature

thewanderingarchaeologist

Public Access Museum Collections

Just because I think y’all should know, the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities literally has their entire collection available for an online viewing for free, both on their website where you can search for stuff, and on google street view. You can literally digitally walk through the museum and look at everything and they even have extra meta info on their objects in there.

Please have a look through, it’s really fun!

thatlittleegyptologist

The BM also has this!

You can switch floors using the little key on the right hand side:

You can get lost and end up in Greek pots

lost-in-the-land-of-stories

As it turns out! So do the MET

And the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, on their own website!

chaotic-historian

The Danish National Museum has an absolute SHIT website, BUT! They did allow the Google man in a few years ago, too, so you can walk their halls anno cirka 2010 on Google Maps!

Tbh you might as well, a bit has changed but hardly for the better…

puriri

The archaeological museum of Delphi does too! As in the Oracle of!

And they also include full 3D scans of some of the artifacts! No dodgeballs though. And if I interpreted some of the posters right they’re planning on adding a full 3D scan of the archaeological site too!

It’s all in an App called “Digital Delphi” which by default is in Greek but if you click the bottom option in the menu you’ll get settings to switch it to English.

#museums

whencyclopedia

WE decided to jump on the current Barbie trend for some fun!

#greek mythology #barbie

junesoul

Has anybody explored Persepolis through the Getty experience??? Because oh my god

Such a well done project, with very nice details!!!

high-key want to use the last one as my new desktop background

#egyptology #getty museum #ancient history

saccharinescorpion

so this is an extremely cool resource

the JSTOR article by Catherine Halley

a list of series at Reveal Digital

fivers-dream

holy shit this is AMAZING. This is so, so, so, SO important.

I’ve been stressing out about this for ages, still do, because here’s the problem with gay lit: That copyright term that’s already so ridiculous for 90+ years after publication or death of the author? That’s three times as bad when trying to discuss a generation that was absolutely decimated by AIDS. Families didn’t keep up these copyrights! People didn’t pass down copies to their friends or their kids! There was even a tiktok going around a while back talking about how someone’s queer possessions often got destroyed after they died so their family wouldn’t find them.

So this is exactly the kind of initiative that is SUPER SUPER important and that I wanna see more of. Because the few paperbacks we have are :) falling the hell apart :) and the magazines were made of even cheaper material than THAT.

#library #books #online library #archives #lgbtq

miss-holloways

AYO??? 👀👀

miss-holloways

The Tin Can Bros are performing Spies Are Forever in concert at NYC!

When:

October 25, 2022 at 7PM & 9:30 PM and October 26, 2022 at 7PM & 9:30 PM

Where:

Feinstein’s/54 Below 254 W 54th St. Cellar New York City

Featuring:

Britney Coleman, Esther Fallick, AJ Holmes, Pomme Koch, Lauren Lopez, Curt Mega, Tessa Netting, Joey Richter, Brian Rosenthal, and Mary Kate Wiles

#tin can brothers #spies are forever

thatlittleegyptologist

It’s not hard to understand. If a person has a biology degree but works as a music producer, they’re not a biologist, they just have a biology degree.

If someone researches a subject but never got a degree in the subject or research in general, they are a hobbyist, not an academic.

Hey, thanks for coming here and providing this stone cold take!

See, if a person has a degree in a topic, despite not working in the field, they are, by definition, an -ist/academic of said field. A doctor, after all, doesn't stop being a doctor or lose that knowledge just because they teach biology for a few years. I became an Egyptologist when I was handed my degree the first time, and I'm an Egyptologist every time I answer an ask on this website. I also worked as an Egyptologist for a time. I take it that me no longer being paid just means they revoked my title? That's not how it works!

An academic, by dictionary definition, is someone who is related to education or scholarship or someone with an academic viewpoint/scholarly background. If someone devotes their time to scholarship of a certain field, then yes in one way it is a hobby, and in another way they're an academic. It is elitist to state that people who have great knowledges of subjects from their own careful research cannot be considered in any form 'academics' simply because they do not possess the bit of paper that says 'I studied this for 3 years at university'. University academics would not have half the knowledge they do have if it wasn't for non university academics. We work cooperatively, sharing the knowledge that we have. Is the hairdresser who showed university academics how she'd worked out the method for styling Greek and Roman hair not an academic? No, she didn't have a degree, but she worked on her hobby of a love of hairstyling through history and that became academic knowledge. She then shared this with university academics, who recognised the academic scholarship and took her research forward. She is, by definition, someone with academic knowledge of the history of hairstyling, and her contribution, due to lack of formal degree, should not be dismissed as merely 'hobbyist', because that is grossly elitist.

The fun thing about 'academia' is that it's flexible, despite what most people think. More people are academics than you might imagine. Doesn't mean you have to take all their word as gospel, and you have to be careful about what information they're giving you and the inherent biases therein. However, you have to do this same process with someone with a degree in a field too. We are not immune to being biased or presenting incorrect information by purview of X number of years at an academic institution, nor is anyone who is paid to be an academic exempt from this. It's about critical assessment of the information presented to you. Those who know what they're talking about present themselves in ways that aren't shouty and flashy. I know instantly when I'm talking to someone who's spent time doing research into a topic, whether formally or as a hobby, because of how they present themselves and their research. You can peer review a person and their knowledge by how they demonstrate it. Trust me on that. Other academics can tell the difference between a person who is 'I read a few books on this once' and one who is 'I have spent years of my life looking over different things and comparing them critically.'

Examine your own biases here; a) your comments aren't even what the original post was about, and b) your definition of what constitutes an academic is extremely narrow, so much so that it excludes a multitude of people, to whom academics would say 'they are one of us'.

rudjedet

I suddenly understand why so many people decry academics as “holed up in ivory towers”: I’ve now seen any number of posts/asks/etc. utilise such a narrow and elitist definition of what academia/academic constitutes that they ignore the existence of 90% of academics. If you don’t even know what (an) academic is, of course you wouldn’t be able to tell whether they’re stuck in an ivory tower or not.

ritterum

academia is a lifestyle, and it is the lifestyle of - as lottie said - spending years of one's life looking over different things and comparing them critically, of delving into written and/or physical research and applying analytical methods *while* ensuring minimum bias, and of accruing thousands of hours of mastery such that one's work can stand up to even the fiercest critic. Barring total retrograde amnesia, you cannot take away the result of those thousands of hours from someone. It is carved into the very foundation of their being like a canyon. And just as with real canyons, refusing to take that difference into account would be foolish and extremely inadvisable.

ritterum

I guess what I'm trying to say here is: once you go ac(ademia), you can never go back(ademia)

setzappersto-pew

I spent years getting 2 degrees, one in history and one in library science. To say that because I'm not working in either field at this time, I'm neither a historian nor a librarian, is an insult to my hard work.

In my case, I would very much prefer to be getting paid to work in my field instead of being a barista...but getting a degree in the middle of a pandemic and then trying to find a job in a library in the middle of said pandemic (during which libraries closed down) is proving to be difficult. Losing the library job I had because of budget cuts to compensate for COVID cut short any experience I was gaining, thereby sabotaging any chance I had at continuing in this field at this time...and forced me to continue being "just a barista" (which also means I'm a coffee expert, but that's another discussion).

Does all this mean I'm not a librarian?

#library #librarian #academia

systlin

If any of y’all didn’t know, there’s a free online library, aka

https://openlibrary.org/

and I found like, twelve ebooks I’ve been wanting to read on there, and blasted through like three of them during the course of a boring-ass shift.

#library #resources #online library

chaotic-archaeologist

Zoom in on every page of this legendary illuminated manuscript.

BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS

modmad

#book of kells #history #books #illuminated manuscript #ireland

mapsontheweb

Guide to Figuring out the Age of an Undated World Map.

pyrrhiccomedy

No but take the time to actually read it because I lost like 15 minutes.

dare-to-dm

I have a friend who is really good at this type of thing. He once found an old globe at a garage sale and he was able to pin the date of it’s making down to like a 6 month window, because it only would’ve been correct during a specific point in WWII.

I was mad impressed, because I have no mind for geography. I can barely remember my own state’s capitol.

tinystark616-backup

THIS IS GOLD 😂😂😂

littlethingwithfeathers

This is amazing. Take the time to actually read it.

peredurthefool-deactivated20200

Holy shit the super specific things towards the end

mapsrgreat

Oh wow!

chavisory

I didn’t know anything about the giant lake in California being created by accident?!

jelloapocalypse

ceiye

lastoneout

I love how it differentiates the maps of Narnia based on which book you’re looking at

2460onetruepairing

Honestly when I read the part of the map of Canada “missing a piece,” I couldn’t help but think of the canadian maps that leave out PEI altogether (it happens more often than you would think.)

lilith-knight

colorado in 2-14 months:

preserve-or-raze

(number of yemens)+(number of germanys)=?

#history #maps #cartography #geography

buttrockerbitches

i’m watching this documentary about halloween and there’s a part where they’re explaining that ghost stories got really popular around the civil war no one could really deal with how many people went off and died and

the narrator just said

“the first ghost stories were really about coming home”

fuck

buckleupbones

#but wow let me tell you about how the american civil war changed the whole culture of grief and death #because before that people died at home mostly #where their family saw them die and held their body and had proof they were really dead and it was a process #but during the war people left and never came home their bodies never came back there was no proof #people died in new horrific ways on the battlefield literally vaporized by cannonballs or lost in swamps and eaten by wild animals #and there were NO BODIES to send home #and people simply couldn’t grasp that their son or father or husband was really gone #there are stories about people spending months searching for their loved ones #convinced they couldn’t be dead if there were no body they were simply lost or hurt and they needed to be saved and brought home #embalming also really started during the civil war as a way for bodies to be brought home as intact as possible #wow i just wowowow the culture of death and grief and stuff during this time period is fascinating and sad #history (via souryellows)

glumshoe

#quietly reblogs own tags #also the civil war was when dog tags and national cemetaries became a thing #and during the war there was n real system in place to notify families of the deaths #like they’d find out maybe from letters from soldiers who were there when their loved one died nd stuff #but there was no real system #and battlefield ambulances were basically invented because so many people died on the battlefield when they could have been saved if they co #…could have been moved frm the battlefield to a hospital #like there was this one really inlfuential dude whose son died that way and he became dedicated to getting an ambulance system in place

thehighestpie-blog

I’m not doing this in the correct tag-style, but.

IIRC, the Civil War also played a huge part in forming the modern American conception of heaven as this nice, domestic place where you’re reunited with your loved ones. People (particularly mothers) responded to the trauma of brother-killing-brother by imagining an afterlife in which families would once again be happy together.

pilferingapples

(also not doing this in the correct tag-style, because I wanna KNOW— )What documentary is this? Or is there more than one? Any books on the subject? THIS IS FASCINATING.

elizastrange

cool (ghost) story, bro.

mswyrr-deactivated20181203

reblogging because, as a us history phd student, i want to say YAY for how much of this is totally on point. i also want to rec the book where a lot of this is covered very, very well, which is Drew Gilpin Faust’s “This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War.”

a lot of books on the Civil War are deadly dull because they’re about battles and shit, but as a transformative moment in mindset and ideology, it becomes *fascinating*

the other book I’d even more highly rec is David W. Blight’s “Race and Reunion,” which is about how the “(white) brother against (white) brother” image of the war was invented and how throwing African Americans to the merciless viciousness of post-Reconstruction racist whites was part of constructing this “oh everybody was white men and everybody was noble let’s celebrate them all” approach to Civil War remembrance

very good stuff

pilferingapples

Thank you! This looks like exactly the sort of reading I’m after! *adds to wish list*

mazarin221b

Also, look for David Blights recordings of his Yale lecture series on The Civil War. 21 hours of class lectures, and its FASCINATING. He barely touches on the battles other than to use them as timestamps as to what was going on. Most of it focuses on what the mindset of everyone was going into the war, and what happened on the way out. It’s an amazing series that will change your entire perception of the war - how it happened, and how it wasn’t going to be possible to avoid it, because of the inherent evil of slavery and how it was destroying damn near *everyone* except rich white people.

sonneillonv-deactivated20220218

Link

#history #u.s. civil war

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