Lowrider Librarian

We are proud to announce the publication of our new book.  Published by Hinchas Press, edited by Yago Cura and Max Macias, designed by Autumn Anglin.  This book is comprised of 6 great chapters of varied Library/Information Science topics.  Our authors are amazing and the content is unlike any other you will find out there. Librarians with Spines Vol. 2 is now available here . Here is the content of the book! Here is what people are saying about the book! Intended audience: LIS Instructors LIS students Academic Librarians Public Librarians Outreach Librarians BIPOC Librarians  Librarians in general Educators who are interested in libraries Everyone

Librarians and Self-censorship Free speech for librarians comes with unspoken conditions I encounter many (often young) librarians in real life and online.  One of the most frequent things people tell me is, "How come you are so free with your speech?  I could never talk about those things--I would get fired." or more often, "...I would never land a job!"   It is striking that librarians consider themselves defenders of free speech and intellectual freedom, but that the above sentiment is held by so many librarians.   Why are librarians scared to speak about important issues? I understand about library constituencies, but I'm not talking about library directors here--I'm speaking about regular librarians, or librarians searching for a job. Last month, I had a session at the Oregon Library Association Conference.  My session was on cannabis resources for librarians.  The session consisted of a panel.  I had invited another kn...

Information and knowledge are diffused via artistic expression in Hip-Hop culture among other methods. Here is a very brief sketch of some ideas on this topic. ANY and ALL comments will be answered and are valued.  Graffiti and Tags There is a lot of metadata here!   Tags and other graffiti carry metadata. for instance, when one sees a tagger's tag--and one is familiar with the the tagger, then one will know about them--how brave they are--by where they throw up their tags--the more dangerous, the braver. One would know much about their style oftentimes. If they are a local, they might have legendary status, people might know much about the tagger from the metadata derived from their tags, yet they might not even know the tagger's real identity. Murals Political Information Hip-Hop Mural Hip-Hop murals tell stories. Sometimes the story is that of the local neighborhood. The art will be done by someone who intimately knows the neighborhood's charac...

I was was gazing at some train tags--some nice bombs in the train yard with my littler brother, who happens to be a graffiti artist.  He interpreted the tags and bombs I could not read.  He and I read me all kinds of information from throughout the country, from LA, to Chicago, to Seattle and other places.  Then a train yard cop came and chased us away. Tags in Denmark My brother Jaimie used to be well known throughout San Jo as Daze2000 back in the 80's, then went on to LOVE and other names throughout the years.  He's retired now. For those unfamiliar with tagging--here is a sufficient definition from Wikipedia: Some of the most common styles of graffiti have their own names. A " tag " is the most basic writing of an artist's name, it is simply a  handstyle . A graffiti writer's tag is his or her personalized signature. Tagging is often the example given when opponents of graffiti refer to any acts of handstyle graffiti writing (it is by far the...