LRN68 - May Day
April Was A Blur
Library Research Notes is a product of hippiegrrl media, where we believe that Black Lives Matter, Climate Change is real, Treaties should be honored, Bodily autonomy is essential, Love is love, No human is illegal, Science=Truth, Unions work, Gun Reform is imperative, and the time for Trans Liberation is now! We value your readership. If you enjoy the Library Research Notes newsletter, please share it with a friend.
I’m not sure how or why April flew by so quickly, along with the first 100 days of the worst Presidency in American history. I feel confident in saying that, even with Herbert Hoover, Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, and Andrew Johnson in the mix. Hopefully we don’t end up in a Little Orphan Annie scenario this time. Speaking of the depression - The Great Gatsby turned 100 this year.
Surely, though, we can turn this ship around, right?
One thing I’ve been doing to help myself feel more in control of my little part of the world is to get back into language learning. I reset my Duolingo app and jumped back into Italian lessons. You would think it would be easy, since I took 4 years of it in college, but it has been slow to come back to me.
Maybe my 50-year old brain needs more time to reacquaint, but I’m going to push through and move toward fluency. After that - French. We need to become multi-lingual so we can move through the world without interpreters. You never know when you might have to bolt.
Before we move on, I feel like we can use a break…
…and we’re back
If You Have To Bolt
This week, I re-listened to an episode of the How To Survive the End of the World podcast, where sisters, artist/activist Autumn Brown, and author of such great works as Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism, adrienne maree brown, discuss go-bags. This is one of the most timely episodes and if you haven’t thought about getting a go-bag together, you should DEFINITELY listen and learn.
In the past I would have believed that survivalists were just loners living in the woods, but now we ALL have to learn how to survive. Building off of Octavia Butler’s iconic character, Lauren Oya Olamina’s struggle to survive in Parable of the Sower, the sisters discuss what to pack, how to be mindful of the future, and the practice of OODA looping.
This 24 minute long (so short!) episode is packed with tips and tricks to engage and teach all of us. And if you have yet to read Octavia Butler’s parables series, now is the time!
If You Want To Stay
Staying and fighting has always been the option we have chose. Things are getting rough here, but I still want to try and be the force against Fascism that we need here in the United States. To stay and be active, we also have to be informed and what better way to do that but with books?! I mean - this is a LIBRARY research notes newsletter after all. So - here are my recommendations for the most important books to read to survive, and perhaps thrive (!), during this time:
On Tyranny - 20 Lessons from the Twentieth Century (Graphic Novel Edition) by Timothy Snyder - If you read nothing else, read this. I downloaded the audio version through Libby and listened twice and then purchased a copy of the graphic novel. It is the definitive read for this time and you will not be disappointed. Keep a copy on hand for reference.
Discipline & Punish - The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault - Interested in surveillance and the origins of the prison industrial complex? Foucault is the resource for you.
White Evangelical Racism - The Politics of Morality in America by Anthea Butler - If you are looking for more information about how we got here, this is the book for you. Butler explains the origins of Evangelicalism in America and how it got intertwined (or entangled) with Right Wing Politics. An important read!
I also wrote a review of this book when it first came out.
Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen - Since we have basically arrived, we should probably brush up on ways to make it through. Gessen is an important voice on Totalitarianism and how it has made a comeback in Russia and it’s spread across the world. With knowledge, we can recover democracy together.
Good News From the Stacks
If you made it this far, you deserve some good news!
Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from dismantling library services agency
Chattanooga Public Library offers "MindSpark Memory Kits" to support people with dementia
Marion Public Library celebrates five years of Dolly Parton Imagination Library
Florence woman launches ‘My Alabama Library’ for library lovers across the state
A ban on book bans: Oregon bill would protect access to library materials
“Book Résumés help teachers, librarians, parents, and community members defend books from censorship. They detail each title’s significance and educational value and are easy to share with administrators, book review committees, elected officials, and board members.” (source: ala.org)
Thank you for reading
If you feel so inclined, please share. And if you want to interact even more, please leave a comment!