Not exactly. But they taught me a lot of other neat things that probably propelled me in this direction!
I’m so excited that just a few months ago I casually mentioned that the Read/Write Library “should have a bike for outreach and pop-up libraries” and someone said, “GO FOR IT.”
And I did.
The Read/Write BiblioTreka will be trekkin’ to the Comfort Station‘s Thursday night shows each week, art openings, and street fests all summer long! Follow the bike on Twitter for more info!
Welcome to Spring in Chicago (finally!). It’s been a very long, cold winter here in the Windy City and I can say with certainty that I am ready to enjoy some sunshine and productivity that does not include holing up in my apartment and applying to things. I’m excited to get out on the Read/Write Library Bicycle mostly (more on that project later!).
I’m also really looking forward to the Big ALA Conference here in Chicago. It’s happening at the end of June. The conference itself should be fantastic, but I am hoping that people from the library community I left in Portland will attend and it will be an opportunity for me to show them around Chicago.
This is also my first library conference that I am presenting at! I have two presentations: One ignite session (that’s a five minute diddy) and one co-presentation for the ACRL Arts section meeting. The ignite session will focus on the volunteer work that many librarians are doing outside of their day jobs in order to engage with their community. This is something that I’ve realized is remarkably important to me as a professional and as a human being and I know that I am not alone in that sentiment. The other presentation is focused on providing outreach for hidden arts collections; I’m collaborating with my friend and co-intern from the Smithsonian on this presentation and could not be more excited to share our collective experience and thoughts!
All in all, I’d say all of that applying and proposal writing over the cold winter months has been positive given this particular outcome.
My GOODNESS, it has been a minute since I wrote a blog post. Well, that’s not entirely true–I’ve just been blogging in other places:
Over on the Smithsonian Institution Libraries blog I have a post and short video showcasing X-Ray Magazine and another post in which I interview book artist Robin Price about her work Slurring at Bottom: A Printer’s Book of Errors.
I also contributed a guest post to the Archives of American Art blog about my experience researching the John Held Jr. Papers on Mail Art during my time at SIL.
Obviously, one of the highlights of the summer was working at the Smithsonian, meeting inspiring and aspiring art librarians, getting to know DC–I truly loved that city while I was there and I would be ecstatic to return to work there someday in the not so distant future.
One of the few times that I have felt patriotic in my life was on the 4th of July in 2012: I was on a rooftop in DC with people I did not know very well and we shared a 360 degree view of fireworks over the city. I was proud of the fact that the Smithsonian and other educational institutions exist and that information professionals exist and, despite all of the reasons to get down about access and information literacy issues, we’re working on it! That’s something. And, combined with fireworks it is something that I am reminded is worth celebrating.
Going to Pride in NYC was another experience that I am thankful I had this summer. Watching the parade go by on the street where Stonewall and the fight for equality all started gave me a whole new perspective on the events that surround Pride. My community felt strong and was fully visible and I felt love and kindness and fierceness… It reminded me that I share a collective history with every GLBTQ person, a history that is often mis- and underrepresented, and the best thing I can do for my community is lend my library skills to try to remedy that.
Another highlight:
Crater Lake camping with friends to CELEBRATE OUR GRADUATION from Library School!
Upon my return from my last grad school class, I set to work on job-hunting. This is no easy task, folks. I applied to jobs all over the country, some dream jobs and some “Well, I’m remotely qualified for this; I might as well” jobs. I ended up getting a part-time job at the University of Chicago Mansueto Library! Which is a dreamy library. This job requires that I reason with robots, supervise wonderfully bright student workers, get distracted by cloud formations overhead, and work with a lot of new technology. I am also working on a side project (not in job description) because I’m taking an online design class: We need a way for patrons to physically browse the video game collection we hold in our library! Thinking about this access issue and how to solve it has been really motivating and I think I fell in love with academic libraries a little bit more through this process.
Finally, NaNoWriMo is happening right now and so I am participating for the first time ever! National Novel Writing Month is something that I’ve always wanted to do, but could never find the time or the right story to tell. I’m up to 8,000 words right now (only 42,000 more to go…….).
Keeping myself engaged in creative activities as well as libraries has been my saving grace through this whole transition period and I am thankful. For all of it.
I have taken a break from blogging, school work, and the tedious “adult” tasks of life for a minute. Surely, we all need to breathe now and then. My adventures have led me many places this month and while I try to keep my blog about my endeavors in librarianship I can’t help but feel that a large part of what has shaped my goals (professionally) is rooted in my experiences, travels, the good people I know and am inspired by. So, here we go.
Earlier this month my dear girlfriend visited and we were able to rent a car to drive ALL OVER Oregon with. The first place we visited (outside of Portland, of course) was the tiny ghost town of Friend, Oregon. I picked it solely for the name and read that there were a few buildings still standing. Basically, we drove to the middle of nowhere in central Oregon and we really only saw one other car pass by as we explored the area. I deducted that the only kinds of people who live out there are the ones who invent things like the World’s Largest Rubber Band Ball in order to bring people to them since it would be awfully lonely otherwise. Yet, something about it seemed romantic and lovely and who knows, maybe we will live there someday.
We found the old schoolhouse of Friend where we could go in and write on the chalkboard (as many who had passed through had done). The schoolhouse had two outhouses and inside the actual school building there were tables and benches and a PIANO. Jade, Dottie, and I had some lunch and then decided to drive around some more to see what else friend had to offer; turns out that was it.
The next day, we drove to Pacific City, Oregon to take a look at some GIANT sand dunes! They stood towering over us but we came ready to climb up, stopping to look around as we went (Ok, we were tired). I kicked myself for not bringing the sled with us but that means we would have had to climb it twice…so maybe that’s ok.
The view from the top was amazing, albeit the sand blowing directly in our face now and then. I forget (being from the midwest) how endless the ocean is, but this day reminded me. As we skipped and jumped and slid back down the dunes we decided we needed a beer so we visited the nearby brewery and then carried on with our adventure. Jade managed to spot a sign for a waterfall I had never heard of–Munson Creek Falls–so we went for a short hike to see it. We were the only ones there and I felt like I was in Fern Gully (yes, the movie) because everything was covered in lush green moss and, well, ferns.
I loved my adventures with Jade, but after she left I still felt like I needed more. Small adventures like biking to Cathedral Park and taking a day trip back to Seattle this coming weekend.
Finally, Librarian Prom was this past weekend! It was so much fun and it was great to see so many people in my community together. We danced, took photos, and drank sangria until someone shouted, “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here”. If there is one thing I will miss most of all about Portland it is the community of wonderful librarians and library students I have met. These are my people.
This summer I’ll be traveling from Portland to Chicago to Asheville to DC to NYC to wherever else and eventually back to Portland. I have to come back for my final capstone class and one last wilderness adventure before I go back and find my place among the midwesterners that I love so dearly. But I am realizing that I do love Portland; I have made wonderful friends and precious memories that I will pack up and carry with me everywhere I go from here.
This will be the image on my new business cards that are being designed and hand letterpressed by my lovely best friend, Shayna Norwood! Check out her amazing Chicago-based business, Steel Petal Press! I highly recommend her for business cards and wedding invites to anyone looking.. Some day when I have a big gay wedding… 
But for now, cute business cards, ahoy!
I had to come up with a fun image and I’ve been seeing a lot of “cat’s cradle” imagery over on Pinterest so I went with it.
It’s officially official. I am moving back to the Midwest and I have accepted a 5-6 week internship at the Smithsonian in D.C. for June and July. The internship involves working with the Artists’ Book collection, doing reference work, cataloging, helping with exhibitions, and the supervising librarian also mentioned we (her, the other intern, I) will be visiting other special collections while in D.C. This is seriously the perfect opportunity for me since it combines my MLS and my previous grad school experience in book arts and I am super excited that I’ll be working for such an amazing museum and library system! THE SMITHSONIAN. Sometimes I can’t believe my life.
There are still many details to work out, but I’ll be leaving Portland at the end of May with my beloved animals and whatever will fit in a SMALL U-Haul truck. Please try not to die laughing at the mental image of me driving said vehicle…It will be quite the adventure. I’m ready to go back.
That’s right, I am coining the term “Minternship” for a “mini internship”– meaning a week long project-based intensive learning experience. I just got back from such a thing and from an amazing trip to Chicago. I got in on Friday and spent the weekend with friends, running around the city, and soaking up warmer-than-Portland weather. As Monday came, so did my allergies, but I didn’t let that slow me down.
As I mentioned many moons ago, I was working with the Artistamp collection at the JFABC. I spent the week digging around for information on artists, their stamps, their origins, uncovering pseudonyms (because as it turns out, the government doesn’t like when you make your own stamps), and beginning to understand the VAST network that is made up of artists who participate (or have participated) in this medium. It was really exciting research and I created the original metadata, rehoused the stamp collection, and will be writing a description of the collection for the digital library that will be completed after the staff is able to photograph all of the stamps. It turns out there are many odd intricacies when trying to write metadata for such an art form and I did my best to make it as inclusive as possible so that future researchers on the topic can find what they need.
The book above was one instrumental in my research and I had the pleasure of actually meeting with Michael Thompson (one of the authors and a Chicago based mail artist). He shared great stories about his involvement in the network, being arrested, being kicked out of China for creating a controversial stamp featuring the Dalai Lama, and filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal service–and WINNING! He’s organizing a show at the Erie Art Museum and I truly hope I get a chance to see it because it addresses this lawsuit, the subversive nature of stamps, censorship, and surveillance Michael has endured.
I hope to work with artistamps in the future and this just goes to show you that incredibly valuable (personal and professional) experiences can come from minternships.
In the Library with a Lead Pipe recently posted a great piece on the benefits of offering up librarian skillz to communities and organizations who need it. Please check it out, it is truly inspiring. The librarian I work with at the Q Center and I talk a little about our experience, too!
Ok, so there are moments in grad school when all you want to do is throw your computer out the window and go dance it out with my arms flailing above my head. At least, that happens to me. Lately I’ve been finding some really good calm among the chaos in my life through a number of outlets:
Volunteering at the Q Center library, working with their librarian to get the collection out into circulation. This has entailed some serious thought on how best to do this with low-tech solutions and on a TIGHT budget. I also started volunteering at the Cascade Aids Project, archiving their ACT-UP archives! I am loving the people I’m meeting through these projects and for the first time I really feel like I’ve gotten to my inner activist. Sure, I’ve marched in the streets a few times, made clever signs, even sported a rainbow or two…but this behind the scenes work feels so good. I’m not using my voice but I’m using a lot more.
I’ve also taken to working out (???) Those of you who know me well KNOW that this is just…crazy. As in, I “don’t work out” because I’m just an “art kid”. But it’s true, I’m going three times a week and I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt so good. It seems to help me focus the rest of the day, want to eat healthier, and I wake up excited to go with my friend. I signed up for a 3 month membership….
Finally, the last “distraction” involves a love interest. Who doesn’t live anywhere near me but who is so genuinely positive and understanding. It is just distracting enough that I’ll catch myself smiling on my bike rides, but when it is time to get my work done, her positivity that she inspires and the mutual autonomy we have allows me to do that.
It is a good thing these things are happening because I honestly have some very frustrating things going on in academia. And there is a lot up in the air right now (still). It would be easy to fret about if I weren’t focusing some of my attention elsewhere.
This talk really gets at the core of introversion and I love that she tells us to go into the woods. I might do that, soon. I’d LOVE to go into the woods and build a cabin treehouse where I could spend my days being as creative as I want. Lately, it’s been being an introvert that has allowed for all of my productivity! Professionally speaking though, being an introvert can be tough. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, “networking” is terrifying; job interviews are a bit scary. I wonder just how many librarians are introverts…and why we have to do SO MANY GROUP PROJECTS in my program…
