Rachel Walden

Medical librarian. Pro-choice ranting feminist. Trying out a move to tumblr.

[rachelrwalden]

On the Senate healthcare bill, for librarians at ALA 2017

(This started as a tweet thread, wanted it all in one place for linking)

Are you a librarian attending ALA? I urge you to use your airport and mtg downtime to call your Senators abt healthcare #alaac17

Public, academic, school, medical librarians - YOUR PEOPLE are going to lose access to care if the Senate passes this bill

The Senate bill will hurt the most vulnerable people in YOUR USER COMMUNITIES if passed - and everyone who isn’t already rich

So I’m gonna make an offer. If you’re a librarian & need tips or encouragement to call I will personally coach you. DM me. #ALAAC2017 (@rachel_w on twitter, or find me on Facebook - that’s gonna get me faster than a dm on this tumblr)

I will look up your Senators’ name and number w no judgment. I will give you scripts to follow. I will tell you what it’s like to call.

Please just do it, oppose the Senate healthcare bill. However I can help get you over that hump I will do it.

It only takes a minute. You can call both in less than 5 minutes. It’s critically important.

One last thing: if you’re in a red state and think it won’t make a diff please call anyway. They need to know they don’t have support.

I mean I feel you I have Corker & Alexander. I’m still calling, and will work to unseat them for this cruel bill. Show me some solidarity.

[rachelrwalden]

The Library Director on the Desk

I do a one hour shift every Wednesday morning on my library’s centralized service desk. I do this because:

I want to keep an eye on what’s going on and how things are working.

I want to be able to identify issues or potential improvements.

I want to keep up my skills.

I want to continuously show my team that I am willing to step in and help. We're a small library and I want to foster an "everybody chips in" approach where nobody is too "good" to do any needed work.

If I find that I can't make one hour per week to directly help the team by working the desk, I'm probably doing something wrong in my overall workload approach.

Yesterday I saw an unintended benefit of this approach: a faculty member dropping by and talking to me about a variety of issues, from the online catalog and remote access to how we are going to combat the broader social issue of people's unwillingness to critically evaluate information, especially when the information agrees with what they already believe. We agree that we can teach the skills of critical appraisal, but people have to have that initial skepticism, curiosity, and willingness to question in order for those skills to be used effectively. We didn't solve the problem in our brief conversation, but I really enjoyed it as a benefit of making myself directly accessible with no appointment for one hour per week in this simple way.

[aintnothinlike-a-georgiagirl]

I love this. Sorry not sorry.

[rachelrwalden]

Never be sorry for liking Beyonce or the Dixie Chicks. 

[rachelrwalden]

Things I Keep in My Desk/Office Now That I’m a Library Director

(but never did before)

Tissues, giant bottle of Aleve, dental floss, packs of thank you notes, and enough spare tampons and pads to go around.

[bklynlibrary]

Having fun isn’t hard … WHEN YOU ARE AN ACTUAL LIBRARY CARD.

[rachelrwalden]

Anxiety is waking up with your mind playing “We are outgunned! Outmanned! Outnumbered! Outplanned!” and spending the day trying to turn it into “Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now!” 

[i-am-america-deactivated2016121]

7 Black Women Science Fiction Writers Everyone Should Know

Names to know.

[rachelrwalden]

On the MLA conference code of conduct

The Code of Conduct was the result of a grassroots effort led by the Relevant Issues Section. At the section’s 2014 business meeting, Chair-Elect Rachel Walden introduced the idea to members. Later that summer, Rachel and I led a #medlibs Twitter chat on conference codes of conduct. Current Association President Michelle Kraft and President-Elect Teresa Knott attended that chat, and the Board enacted a Code of Conduct in time for MLA ’15.

FYI - we now have a conference code of conduce for Medical Library Association conferences. Yay! Glad to have been a part of this. 

PS-As I mentioned of Facebook, Kate (who was involved in the process, did the post linked above, and is a fellow RI officer) is an absolute gem - dedicated, organized, kind. Can’t say enough. 

[rachelrwalden]

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee - Episode 2 - Scalia Dies, Republicans Debate - tbs

Justice Antonin Scalia passes. Here's how you destabilize an election that's already pretty much a car tumbling down the side of a cliff.

Samantha Bee’s new show is pretty great so far. 

“Let’s just have a Supreme Court vacancy for a year because some chinless dildo wants a Justice who’ll use his gavel to plug up your abortion hole.” 

[rachelrwalden]

Butch Jones: 'There is no culture problem'

The football coach spoke to the media for the first time since the filing of a federal lawsuit against UT.

“Speaking to reporters for the first time since six female plaintiffs filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Tennessee alleging a culture of violence against women, football coach Butch Jones on Saturday denied that such a problem exists within his football program.’There is no culture problem,’ Jones said during the Vols' basketball game against LSU.”

Here’s the thing: America, and the world, has a rape culture problem. As long as your football team exists the U.S., you are breathing the air of rape culture all day long. Knowing you live in that environment, you can’t take a bunch of young men, tell them that winning is the *only* thing that matters, let them slide on other things, throw pretty girls at them framed as incentives, and expect *not* to develop a sexual assault problem. You have to actively take steps to combat that culture, not deny its existence. 

But also:

-As soon as winning at football becomes a major driver, schools typically start having sexual assault problems (see also: Vanderbilt). Football has been pretty much the only important thing at UT Knoxville since forever. That’s why I didn’t go there for undergrad despite a full ride offer - at 17 years old, a million years ago, I could see that the culture at UTK centered around football, and that misogyny and bullshit walked with it hand in hand. 

-If your football team has a “hostess” program, you have a culture problem.

-If your football team has been implicated in numerous sexual assaults, you have a culture problem.

-If your team’s approach to a woman’s complaint of sexual assault is to claim she had a “vulgar mouth” and blame her for the assault, you have a culture problem. 

“In denying the existence of the culture that the lawsuit alleges, Jones cited the team's graduation rates and community service record.”

Guess what. Sexual predators graduate. Rapists do community service. Because they’re everywhere, from every group and class. Because we live in and perpetuate rape culture. It’s not like you can tell who’s a rapist by whether they have a job or an education. Rapists are usually our friends, our partners, our dates, our bosses - they’re people who live successfully in society, and can continue to do so because of...you guessed it, rape culture. 

For Butch Jones to suggest as much simply supports the idea that he either literally has no idea what he’s talking about, or he simply doesn’t care as long as they’re not getting in trouble for it. 

[rachelrwalden]

Dear Librarians

Librarians, lets not be too quick to pat Elsevier on the back for their charity work when it's a minuscule amount of their massive annual profit and they're making it increasingly cost-prohibitive for libraries to afford the information resources they need for education, research, and clinical care. Particularly when the charity is, somewhat cynically, creating customers and a larger market for their product. 

[rachelrwalden]

Tennessee Equality Project

Tennessee Equality Project is a public policy organization that seeks to advance and protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families in Tennessee.

Link has events going on over the next few weeks in towns across the state to oppose the many anti-gay marriage resolutions in the counties and the discriminatory and expensive “natural marriage defense act” proposed in the state legislature. 

Washington County folks, contact your county commissioner before the January 25th meeting to oppose their homophobic resolution. 

[rachelrwalden]

A look at some of the key events in the development of the Flint water crisis:

For more than a year, Flint officials insisted their public water supply was safe while the people of Flint were poisoned by lead and possibly other toxic chemicals and bacteria. 

Let’s be clear that the government officials in Flint were warned repeatedly and actively chose to continue providing a toxic public water supply. Many health effects will be irreversible. 

[simonteenca]

Its a Book Nerd thing.

[micdotcom]

Now it appears Michigan’s governor and other officials may be more guilty than previously thought.

[micdotcom]

UPDATE: Things are not getting any better in Flint, Michigan. In fact, the state of emergency has gotten so bad, Gov. Rick Snyder has called in extra help that hasn’t been used since 2012. 

[micdotcom]

UPDATE 1/15: Several months after Michigan’s political leaders finally decided to take the Flint water crisis seriously, state Attorney General Bill Schuette has addressed the disaster. We may actually see some justice.

[rachelrwalden]

2016 Amelia Bloomer Top Ten

The 2016 Amelia Bloomer Project committee selected the following titles, listed in alphabetical order by author’s last name (or title), as our Top Ten. Full citations and the complete 2016 Amelia B...

Haven’t read so can’t speak on the specific titles, but can pass along that their full list of 58 titles is supposed to go up soon. 

[rachelrwalden]

I’m gonna get a reputation with whoever handles ebook recommendations at my new public library.

[celestialfairyprincess-deactiva]

who the heck would recommend the work of a gross lesbophobic racist autogynephilic male??????????????????????????????

[rachelrwalden]

Someone who’s not a transphobic radfem.