Lowrider Librarian

 I was honored to be be selected to speak at San Jose State's Information School last month. San Jo is my hometown and it was super cool to be able to speak at SJSU! I hope you enjoy this. Comments encouraged! Special thanks to Dr. Michele Villagran and San Jose State!

  [Please share widely!] Please join us! Greetings Friends! We hope you and yours are safe and well. Hinchas Press and Librarians with Spines presents another stimulating session to help you through the pandemic! Please join us in an engaging conversation about ethnographies, scholarship, identity, books, culture and more! Librarians with Spines editors, Yago Cura and Max Macias, Librarians with Spines Designer/Art Director Autumn Anglin Interview Judy Lee and Melissa Cardenas-Dow about their amazing work.   Judy and Melissa wrote an amazing chapter in Librarians with Spines Vol. 2 called: LWS2 - Remembering Consciousness is Power: Working to Center Academic Library Outreach in the Service of Social Justice, Asian and Pacific Islander American Ethnic Visibility, and Coalition-Building December 7th, 2020 10am PST on Zoom! Please register for free here: https://www. librarianswithspines.com/post/ remembering-consciousness-is- power-an-ethnographic-session- with-judy-lee-and-meli...

  Link to buy T-shirt: https://www.zazzle.com/z/0f8m8jwx 28.95 #SoreLosersNeverWin text on back of shirt.

Scientists, Mathematicians, Computer types and other data driven colleagues, please join us for a special antiracist session about how we can center racial equity throughout data integration in our work at PCC.  Our guest speaker is Angela Bluhm! Event Date and Time: November 10th, 2020: 1pm PST Session description: Since 2019, AISP (Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy) at the University of Pennsylvania has led a diverse workgroup of civic data stakeholders to co-create strategies and identify best practices to center racial equity in data integration efforts. Angela Bluhm is an Analyst for the Educator Advancement Council in the Oregon Department of Education. Angela worked with the AISP while serving as Research, Data, and Communications Coordinator for the Oregon Longitudinal Data Collaborative in the Chief Education Office and later in the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC). Angela will discuss the work of the AISP, the Toolkit for Centering Racial...

 

Antiracist libraries acknowledge the fallacy of being neutral in the face of racism.   Libraries are racist or antiracist.   Just like individuals—libraries cannot just say they are ‘not racist.’   Being an antiracist library means that they are actively working to dismantle racism and white supremacy in their libraries and communities.   Being antiracist also means they are working to dismantle the oppression of marginalized people. Allowing bigots to perpetuate fear in the community is antithetical to the antiracist library.   The antiracist library is an enemy to bigotry.   The antiracist library is constantly reflecting on ‘neutral’ stances when it comes to ALL library policies.   Collection development, meeting room policies, website design, user satisfaction analysis, usage metrics and all other library policies need to be antiracist, or they are racist.   There is no in between. So, when the library community says, “Libraries are for all!...

 [ Please share widely!] Librarians with Spines and Hinchas Press recognizes that the BIPOC and other oppressed library workers might be feeling stressed about the election, quarantine, the economy or other aspects that are the result of the times we are experiencing.  We wish to offer support, empathy and strength to library workers and others who may feel the need for such support by providing a space for YOU!   If you are not a bigot,  you are hereby invited to our Election Day and Post Election Day support sessions. So, please join Librarians with Spines and Hinchas Press for a special Election Day Support session from 3-5 pm PST. You can just come and talk, lurk, cry, give support, laugh, sing, or anything else you might want to do that is supportive and positive. Session 1  Here are the meeting details: When Tue Nov 3, 2020 3pm – 5pm  Pacific Time - Los Angeles Joining info Join Zoom Meeting portlandcc.zoom.us/j/ 99553357818...   (ID: 9...

[Please share widely!]  Please join us for another outstanding Librarians with Spines author showcase! This time we are doing something completely different! Librarians with spines editors, Max Macias and Yago Cura, along with designer extraordinaire Autumn Anglin will be interviewed by the Auraria Technical Services Division reading group!   The reading group has been reading Librarians with Spines Vol. 1 and will be sure to have some great questions for Autumn, Max and Yago.   The event takes place on Thursday, October 29th 2020 at 12pm PST.   Potential topics covered: Book publishing Editing Writing LIS And more  Audience: LIS students Library workers Librarians BIPOC LIS students/Librarians/library workers/information professionals People interested in publishing Information professionals in general Others

Coming in November!

 

    There has been an awakening on Instagram this year--a political, social, and historical awakening that is helping to change thinking about race, racism, activism, social justice and more. The beautiful thing about this awakening is that it is being led by BIPOC. One of the most prominent accounts to follow on instagram is @BIPOC_in_LIS! This account brings together so many issues of people who are oppressed--not only in LIS and libraries, but also in education and in general society. Every day I am moved by her posts and also learn from them. @BIPOC_in_LIS can be thought of as a clearinghouse of information related to BIPOC in libraries. @BIPOC_in_LIS goes beyond BIPOC and posts about all sorts of oppressed groups and intersections! You can read more here .

  [Please share widely!] Greetings! Librarians with Spines is proud to bring you another outstanding author showcase recording! Dr. Miguel Juarez, Rebecca Hankins and Jina Duvernay (Librarians with Spines authors) interviewed Anthony Bishop and Kael Moffat (Librarians with Spines authors) on 8/24/2020. Topics discussed: Whiteness in LIS Ethnographies Recruitment of BIPOC into LIS careers Many other LIS topics relevant to students, librarians, library workers and others. Here is the link! https://www. librarianswithspines.com/post/ librarians-with-spines-author- showcase-3-1 Respectfully, 

I am so proud to announce that Librarians With Spines: Information Agitators In An Age Of Stagnation (or Vol. 1), is now available in an E-book format. The e-book can be found on Amazon, and is responsively formatted, so you can control the font size, etc. with your e-reader. HINCHAS Press is working hard to bring you Vol. 02 in an E-book format by this fall and we plan on publishing Vol. 03 as a print and E-book format together. If you are interested in submitting an abstract or an idea for a chapter in the next book, or as an author on a blog post here, please email Max at librarianswithspines@gmail.com . Librarians With Spines E-book

Image source: Millenial Grind [Please note--this is not an extensive, comprehensive definition--it is my working definition.] I'm sure you have probably heard the term antiracist recently.  It is a current trend for organizations and businesses to use the term antiracist in their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion documentation and activities.   But what does the term Antiracist really mean? Not being racist is NOT antiracism.  In fact, nobody in the americas can escape being racist in some way.   Being antiracist is actively working toward creating a society that does not view individuals as representations of their entire people.   Being antiracist is being actively engaged in bringing about this change in your organization. We must root out the idea that certain groups of people are superior, by their nature, and force structural change in our workplaces, organizations and society. A way of thinking. Here is what Ibram X. Kendi says about it in his boo...

  Information and registration is here: https://www.librarianswithspines.com/blog

"Anti-racism is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably." - NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global Solidarity   Here are three Anti-racist actions you can take today in your library: Give your library policies an anti-racist audit. Form a group from different stakeholders at your library.   Recruit individuals from the administration of your organization, your union and your HR department--if possible. Pick a simple policy, practice or procedure to analyze. Notify any stakeholders who might not be included yet about your intent to audit the policy, practice or procedure.   Crowdsource your analysis on a zoom whiteboard, or Google Doc, or something that makes collaboration easier.  Present your findings to the group who owns said policy, practice or procedure.   Ask for feedback fr...

The recording is now available!  You can now hear  Grace Yamada  Interview  kYmberly Keeton  about the Black Covid 19 Project .   Here is the recording of the Showcase:

Come hear and interact with two Librarians with Spines: Grace Yamada Interviews kYmberly Keeton about the Black Covid 19 Project, about Hip-Hop and Information Science  (kYmberly's chapter was on this) .  The conversation will be sure to include aspects of digital citizenship (Grace's chapter was on this topic), books, libraries and more. More about the Black Covid-19 Project:  Keeton--Austin History Center's African American Community Archivist and Librarian was instrumental in organizing and launching Growing Your Roots, the four-day statewide African American genealogy conference earlier this year. But in this case, Keeton is all about the present – specifically about African Americans living through this same pandemic that's sending the AAABF to Zoom this year. She believes  their  stories matter, and she's collecting them for the  Black COVID-19 Index , an independent project she initiated to gather stories, images, audio, and video created by Africa...

A conversation with Ann Matsushima Chiu and Cathy Camper on 6/27/2020 from 1-2 pm on Zoom! Both Ann and Cathy Camper were chapter authors in Librarians with Spines Vol. 1. Interviewers: Autumn Anglin, Yago Cura, Max Macias.     Here is the recording of the Showcase:

Please join us for a conversation with Ann Matsushima Chiu and Cathy Camper on 6/27/2020 from 1-2 pm on Zoom! Both Ann and Cathy Camper were chapter authors in Librarians with Spines Vol. 1. Interviewers: Autumn Anglin, Yago Cura, Max Macias.  This event is free. Add caption Please fill out the form below to register for this exciting event.  We are requiring registration to avoid unwanted visitors and other forms of Zoombombing.  Once you are registered, we will send you the login information.   Loading…

My backyard in San Jose had two backyards.  One with a garage and a small patio and then a yard way out back that had a garden and some apricot trees.  We hadn't gardened in years and I had just started skating.  This is the story of how a group of skater kids with nothing created a place for others skaters to skate and hang out.  We created our own scene and didn't wait for others to do it for us. We had been hitting Paul's ramp downtown, but he just had to tear it down. "Hey, they had to tear down Paul's ramp!" "We need to build a ramp!" "Can we build one at your place?" "You have that extra backyard!" "I don't know--let me ask my mom!" "Hey Mom, can we build a skateboard ramp in the backyard?" She looked at me like I was crazy and said,  "I don't want someone to get hurt and sue us.  We could lose the house!" "Ah, c'mon ma!  We don't have anywhere to...

It was raining again. Matt hated taking the bus to school. There was a bully and his brother that terrorized the other kids. His name was Manuel--the bully that is, and his little brother's name was Jesus. Their family was tough and the kids roamed the neighborhood beating up the other kids, standing over them and otherwise intimidating them. In my family, if someone tried to bully you

[ Cancelled --we will be back soon with a different, more focused format.    Max] A librarian with a spine hard at work! Please join us for a series of Librarians with Spines Salons. This is a collaboration between Hinchas Press and Lowrider Librarian. We wish to host conversations between Librarians about important issues such as: Information Literacy in the time of Covid-19. Self-publishing and censorship BIPOC Librarian experience ethnographies, or other related topics. Anything you all want to talk about--we are pretty open and can have a conversation about anything... Please join us weekly on Friday evenings from 6-8 pm PST here: JOIN WEBEX MEETING https://educator-jfp.my.webex.com/educator-jfp.my/j.php?MTID=m60611cf105b024e6fa3409d96b27c7ff Meeting number (access code): 627 993 612 Meeting password: GPxVc9YZ6K2 (47982999 from phones and video systems) JOIN BY PHONE +1-408-418-9388 United States Toll Tap here to call (m...