#insomnibrarian

[insomnibrarian]

A stack of some of my favorite books by Black authors.

"Tell My Horse" by Zora Neale Hurston

"Native Son" by Richard Wright

"Jambalaya" by Luisah Teish

"Parable of the Sower" by Octavia E. Butler

"Revolutionary Suicide" by Huey P. Newton

"Zami: A New Spelling of My Name" by Audre Lorde

"Black Feminist Thought" by Patricia Hill Collins

[insomnibrarian]

An Update

Hello! I have not posted on this blog in over a year. Life has been busy and beautiful, but overall stressful.

A huge life event happened: I became a library branch manager last year. I will wholeheartedly admit that this is the most stressful library job I have ever taken on, but also very rewarding in the way I have been able to help a community who expressed previously feeling under-served. I never had interest in management but several people from my library system recommended me for the position ...and a lot of pressure was involved.

A small life event: It turns out my chronic insomnia is a comorbidity of narcolepsy! I'm falling asleep and being awake at inappropriate times because my brain's circuits are misfiring. It also explains why I've been self-medicating with caffeine since adolescence...

Another life event: I got to meet Mychal Threets! The Illinois Library Association Annual Conference was in my city last year and I got to hear him speak and take a photo with him.

I'm trying to remain resilient through all of the hurdles life has been throwing at me (and it's been a lot), and fight through burnout. But as I view this image of Mychal Threets, I remember that he quit his library job due to burnout. We have to protect our mental health!

I say all that to say: I don't know what exactly the future holds for me. I will definitely still be working in libraries, but I may not be a manager for much longer. I will extrapolate more on that at a later time.

Anyways, I'll be posting here more frequently~

[insomnibrarian]

Introduction

Hello, I'm the Insomnibrarian.

I am a librarian in Illinois, my career in the field spanning over a decade, and I hold a master's degree in library and information science.

I am a bookworm, activist, artist and writer. I love tea, immersing myself in nature, frequenting coffee shops, and collecting swords.

A lover of plants, gardening, and self-sufficiency, I teach foraging classes and have an extensive library of plant books that keeps on growing.

I run a book club called the Sugar & Spice Book Club centered around ~spicy~ books, but I'm often reading horror, Black lit, sci-fi and fantasy novels.

My profile picture is of Lirael from Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series, my favorite fictional librarian (full picture below, by Leo and Diane Dillon).