In case you want to “improve” your punctuation…
You can now mock the poor fools who slept through 8th grade punctuation day by contributing to the “Blog†of “Unnecessary†Quotation Marks.
Quotation marks for emphasis? Fie!
While you are out, visit the Passive Aggressive Notes blog and enjoy the work of some self-appointed Social Contract enforcers.
Just a suggestion.
Also? Can you “please” do the dishes?
Thanks.
-Librarian Avenger
I Brake for Library Sciences
It’s the Holiday Season, which means new stuff in the Librarian Avengers Store.
I’m pimpin’ some new oval stickers this year. They look just like those European country abbreviation stickers that folks have on their Toyotas. Only these are cooler, because they signal that you are secretly a member of the United Nation of Librarianship!
Yep, there’s lots of new products, posters, shirts, and stuff sitting around the store, just waiting for you to order. So if you are a librarian, know a librarian, or love a librarian, consider giving them a thoughtful Librarian Avengers product this year. Or hell, just give them the money. They probably need it.
Nerdcore Rap Battles in which I have participated…
In my new role as a user experience goon at Second Life, I’m often called upon to participate in rap battles with other employees.
Because we’re all busy, rap battles tend to be text-only and asynchronous, conducted over IRC, twitter, or instant messenger.
Past themes have included: My prowess as a Developer, My (imaginary) Car, Linden Lab Office Culture, and Various Programming Languages.
Below are a few examples of my amazing rap power, mostly gleaned from IM logs. Enjoy responsibly, and please remember check yourself before you wreck yourself.
Killing jira issues like Rambo kills commies / Tasks and subtasks crying for their mommies /As&Os got me going mental / Yoz wants to rap but he’s too CONTINENTAL
Chillin wit’ Jonhenry / Talking ’bout JIRA / Drank me some coffee / Wish it was a beerah
open up email to try and cat-heard / 60 threads later / time is going backward / I just get in when wham! it’s lunch / wtf have I done besides data-crunch?
think you bad / ’cause you so much taller? / you may be blue / but I’m white collar / rollin’ in my office working on a search / you think you’re rapping but its SO MUCH WORSE
Kickin’ it smoove in my GTO / ops wants to have a meeting / but I’ve got ta go!
Librarians love balls.
From a conversation with my friend Jenny on the implications of library censorship…
Hello NYTimes readers. Radical Librarians welcome you!
I got a call about 20 minutes ago from a friend telling me that my website, this website, the website I HAVEN’T UPDATED IN WEEKS was mentioned in the NY Times. So, um. Hi. I’m updating! This is me. Updating. Just for you. La de da.
If you are interested in becoming a librarian, you might want to take this quiz.
If you know some librarians that you want to get gifts, I sell some cool t-shirts and mugs here.
Here are some of my favorite posts.
Here’s a quick summary of this website:
I’m Erica Olsen. I am a librarian (religion) and interface designer (profession). I just moved to San Francisco two weeks ago. I work doing User Experience at Second Life. I’ve been blogging since 1998, but in those days of yore we just called it “having a web page.”
If you wanna write to me and say hi, I’m ericaolsen (AT) gmail (DOT) com.
SxSw Analog Tagging
More analog tagging from South by Southwest Interactive…
photo by noneck
I’m trying to start a trend. Conference badges need more than just geographic metadata.
Together we can raise the level of schmoozy conference discourse!
Grab some stickers and tag yourself! It’s your duty as a librarian!
Research obsession: Medical Students for Choice
I’m going to show my political underpants briefly (har har. briefly.) and write about Medical Students for Choice.
Lately I’ve tried to keep my politics off of this website out of respect for the wonderful diversity of people who have taken librarianship as an identity.*
However, I promised to keep you updated on the research topics I pursue in my off hours.
One of the topics I follow obsessively is the state of reproductive law in the US. I attended the March for Women’s Lives in 2004, and I came away with a new awareness of the scope and diversity of topics affecting women’s health, including poverty, contraceptive access, sex education, sexual violence, racism, and medical research, to name a few. The topic of women’s health goes well beyond the ethics and philosophy of the abortion debate.
One of the groups I most enjoyed seeing were the Medical Students for Choice, young mostly female medical students dedicated to raising awareness of the need to train abortion providers among the medical community.
Imagine a sea of women.
Imagine the mall in Washington DC on a warm sunny day. Imagine the grass and the voices. Everywhere you look there are signs, women, booths, friends, groups, people walking, people sitting, young women, old women, men of all ages and stripes, people of every color, signs from every US state and territory.
Imagine a group of women wearing white lab coats with stethoscopes around their necks, walking in small groups, smiling, talking, and holding signs saying “Medical Students for Choice.”
Some wore badges saying “Future abortion provider.” Some carried signs showing the number of women and young girls who die or are injured from unsafe abortions.
It was like watching a herd of beautiful gazelles as they walked through the chaos of the largest protest in US history. These women snapped with intelligence, kindness, and competence.
Seeing them made me stronger.
I don’t write this to inspire the same old arguments among friends. We can all agree that women’s physical safety is important, regardless of our deeper beliefs.
I love you guys. I’ll get back to writing trivia soon, I promise!
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*Yes, I think librarianship is an identity as well as a profession. More on this later.