Living with Our Ghosts: A Conversation with Maisy Card
Maisy Card discusses her debut novel, THESE GHOSTS ARE FAMILY.
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Posts Tagged: librarians
Writing and Making: A Conversation with Kristen Arnett
Kristen Arnett discusses her new novel, MOSTLY DEAD THINGS.
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Sound & Vision: Celia C. Pérez
Allyson McCabe talks with Celia C. Pérez about her debut middle-grade novel, The First Rule of Punk, her inspirations for writing the book, and her own childhood.
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The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Janice N. Harrington
Janice N. Harrington on her new collection Primitive and critiquing the use of “primitive” to describe African American folk art.
...moreOur New Librarian-in-Chief’s Favorite Children’s Book
Last week, Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress, making her the first woman and the first African-American in the position. Hayden talked with Jeffrey Brown of PBS Newshour about the challenges of her new position, and her favorite children’s book, Bright April by Marguerite de Angeli, a story about a […]
...morePura Belpré: New York’s First Puerto Rican Librarian
Pura Belpré began her long, luminous career as a librarian, storyteller, author, activist, and puppeteer when she moved to New York in 1921. Not only was Belpré NYC’s first Puerto Rican librarian, Neda Ulaby reports for NPR, she was the first to perform story times in English and Spanish (with puppets), opening up a world […]
...moreThe Rumpus Interview With Alejandro Zambra
Alejandro Zambra discusses his latest book, Multiple Choice, inspired by the Chilean exam administered to students seeking college admission
...moreMap Quest
At the Atlantic, Adrienne Green spoke with research librarian Theresa Quill about how the profession is changing and the traits that bring librarians of different generations together: I don’t know that I agree that a person is born to be a librarian, but most librarians that I know seem to really love what they do. It’s […]
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Out of Order
In summertime, a small group of white, middle-aged, well-educated men were obsessed with my ass.
...moreThe Long Lost Writing Life
My only real want along the way was to illuminate something about the human condition in a voice and from a point of view that could belong only to me. And if a bid for posterity beats in the heart of every writer, mine is alive with the possibility that long after I’m gone, someone […]
...moreThe Psychic Sasquatch
Most libraries have limited physical shelf space, so if they want to purchase new books for their collections, often they have to remove some old ones. Two librarians, Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, know this can be a tough pill for book lovers to swallow, so they’ve been working to bring attention to the issue through […]
...moreMLS vs. NYC
Former librarian Michelle Anne Schingler is tired of people questioning her credentials. At Book Riot, she argues that an MLS isn’t required for the most important parts of a librarian’s job: Library theory isn’t at the fore when you’re helping someone navigate the computer for an online application, or when you’re putting together a display […]
...moreHappy Banned Books Week!
The point is not to rank inflammatory books like game highlights. It’s to remind readers that information hasn’t always been free, and that we have librarians to thank for its freedom. Huffington Post’s Maddie Crum explores why we celebrate Banned Books Week in America, and takes a look at freedom of information and the librarians […]
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A Novel Performance: Thirty Days in Seattle’s Central Library
Are writers really introverts, or do we hide our craft out of insecurity?
...moreThe University Press That Doesn’t Exist
As part of austerity measures, the University of Akron eliminated its university press. The director and two staff members were both let go as part of budget-trimming layoffs. The press focused on regionally significant publications that chronicled Ohio history, culture and poetry. As Inside Higher Ed reveals, once people noticed that the press had been […]
...moreLibrarians in Wartime
Over the holiday weekend, Linton Weeks wrote for NPR’s History Dept. on the critical role of librarians in World Wars I and II. Weeks spoke to Cara Bertram, an archivist for the American Library Association: The books that did make it into the hands of the troops, she says, boosted morale, provided connections to people […]
...moreLibrarians and the Patriot Act
Librarians have long been on the forefront of information management; in the digital age, they are more invested than ever in protecting the free flow of information to the public, and protecting it from the overreaches of government prying. In June, key provisions of the Patriot Act that justified the government’s massive data collection efforts […]
...moreWho Wants to Be a Writer
A recent poll by YouGuv, intended to determine the most desired professions for Britons, suggests a strong interest in expanding the ranks of authors and academics. Though common conception holds these groups to be prone to an embattled posture, forever defending an endangered tradition of bookishness, it seems that writers still hold a position of […]
...moreLove in the Library
What is it about the stacks that gets everyone so hot and bothered? Over at The Millions, Elisabeth Cohen explores the Mary/Magdalene dichotomy in the figure of the female librarian: The whole good-natured romp of it bespeaks a clear message: Bad girls are redeemed in the library. Casually promiscuous would-be actresses can be reissued as […]
...moreReading Recs: Man vs. Machine
At Co.EXIST, Jessica Leber pits the algorithms of digital giants Amazon and Goodreads against the ultimate recommendation engine: librarians. Leber details her experience with the Brooklyn Public Library’s BookMatch program, in which real librarians respond to patron’s requests for reading recommendations based on other books they’ve enjoyed. While online services get smarter by the minute, […]
...moreWeekly Geekery
Are video games the new social commentary? Are we ready to give them the weight of other media? The Internet is fomenting another revolution. Librarians: bespectacled superheroes for your rights. Growing a library. A book written pre-Internet, sheds light on the Internet. The ambivalence of privacy online.
...moreHouse of Library Catalog Cards
The New York Public Library owns an absolutely peculiar collection: a 6000+ cards catalog of hand-typed children books reviews, written by librarians over the years. Lynn Lobash, NYPL reader services overseer, explained to Quartz that, “There’s about a billion card catalogs in the library, but these are special in that they were used as a […]
...moreFlattened Librarian
In the story, a young girl, Nancy, mysteriously receives a single Christmas gift – the steamroller. She takes the gift out for a ride and flattens many things along the way, one of which was human, as I recall. I believe the human popped back up, unrealistically. The complaint was that it was too violent […]
...moreA Library’s Trash
Mark Luce, who teaches literature and history at the Barstow School in Kansas City, has a new column at Electric Literature, reviewing books that he and the school’s librarian have recently removed from the collection. His first “Discarded Pile” post is on German Secret Weapons: Blueprint for Mars by Brian J. Ford.
...moreThe Many Faces of Librarians
This past week was National Library Week! Still imagine all librarians as the curmudgeonly figures you encountered in elementary school? Think again. Slate has a photo project representing the diversity of librarians—showcasing their personalities, appearances, and many vast fields of study. It is a beautiful reminder to us to treat our libraries and librarians with the respect […]
...moreFamous Librarian Also Famous Jerk
Melvil Dewey: inventor of the Dewey decimal system, godfather of modern library science, and…sexist jerk? According to this Bitch blog post, Dewey helped open the field of librarianship to women by allowing them into his classes at Columbia’s library school, but he also relentlessly sexually harassed them. Plus: “Due to blatant racism, anti-Semitism, and sexual misconduct, […]
...moreItalian Librarian Steals and Deals Rare Books
Who says librarians can’t also be the leaders of organized crime rings? The very man charged with protecting these treasures, Marino Massimo De Caro, a politically connected former director of the library, is accused of being at the center of a network of middlemen, book dealers and possibly crooked conservators — all part of what […]
...moreThe Cutest Librarian
If you ask Kuzya, an assistant librarian at the State Hermitage Library in Novorossiysk, Russia, for a book recommendation, you might go home with A Tale of Two Kitties or The Brothers Kara-meow-zov. Because he is a cat. And he wears a bow-tie and has a cat passport, which is apparently a legitimate legal document in Russia. Click […]
...more“Sabotage” Video Recreated by Coolest Librarians Ever
You gotta fight! For your right! To check out books and return them by their due date! Some librarians who are cooler than everyone else in the world decided to remake the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” video but with tough-love librarians instead of bizarro-world Starsky and Hutch. You need to watch it right now because every […]
...moreThe Card Catalog Is Mightier than the Sword
Rumpus readers already know librarians are heroes, but it’s nice to see other people get it too. Here’s io9’s list of 20 heroic librarians who save the world in books, comics, TV, and film. From Rachel Weisz’s Evie Carnahan in the Mummy movies to Luna Moth in the comic books based on the ones in The Amazing […]
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