Lowrider Librarian

The dysfunctional model of Librarians, who already have great jobs as librarians--writing books for ALA, or other publishers who will then pimp their information out to libraries who can afford the price to these publications. Most often, these publications are on essential library best practices and technology implementations. To put up a barrier to this librarian created information is ethically and morally wrong. It goes against the librarian principle of sharing information. This information should be made freely available to libraries who can't afford the new ALA techSource title, or to small rural libraries who can't afford to attend the 350.00 pre-conference. Shit--I have learned more from Hackers for free than I have learned from librarians sharing their vital information. This site needs to be hackerfied--meaning--it should be converted to an information sharing site: http://www.alatechsource.org When I was first introduced to computers and the internet I...

Book Review! Cannabis Pharmacy By Michael Backes 978-1-57912-951-4 Michael Backes has done a great service by producing this wonderful book on medical cannabis. His book covers a nice portion of material on cannabis and related subjects.  It is often hard to get all this material in one book. Cannabis as medicine has a long history of usage.   Here are the contents: Contents of book.  Click image to enlarge. This wonderful resource is broken into logical chunks of information for readers who want to learn about medical cannabis.   Mr. Backes gives a great historical and social perspective on cannabis that is well-researched and is put in terms that the average reader can understand. Adverse side effects are covered and explicated. He then goes on to describe what makes the particular varieties of cannabis and shows a large sample of strains that have been developed by breeders. Varieties of medical cannab...

Racial Microaggressions in Academic Libraries: Results of a Survey of Minority and Non-minority Librarians The Journal of Academic Librarianship Volume 41, Issue 1 , January 2015, Pages 47–53 Jaena Alabi , doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2014.10.008 Abstract There is relatively little literature on racism within the profession of academic librarianship. To investigate academic librarians' experiences of racism, this research project uses the framework of racial microaggressions, which are subtle, denigrating messages directed toward people of color. According to the results of an online survey, some librarians of color have had racial microaggressions directed at them by their colleagues. Non-minority librarians, however, are unlikely to recognize these disparaging exchanges. Keywords Academic libraries ; Racism ; Diversity ; Racial microaggressions Read it here:   http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0099133314...

The glass comes between our love. My hand reaches for the father that is gone. "No touching allowed!"  Orange jumpsuits?--they have been putting us in those things long before Guantanamo. A long row of desperate communication to my left and to my right. I pick up the industrial black transceiver so we can talk. ‪#‎ Jail‬ ‪#‎ NewJimCrow‬

[We welcome this week's guest post from Da` Lyberri-Ann] By: Da’ Lyberri-ann So another Midwinter has passed and like red carpet season, our new literary award winners have been announced with great fanfare. Facebook was filled with selfies and group pictures of committee members proud of a year’s hard work and accomplishments. As a librarian I should feel giddy and excited. New books are winning awards for outstanding literature in many different categories. As a children’s librarian I should be pulling out rolls of golden stickers to note these books of honor and proudly promoting them to my community. But I am not excited or proud. I’m upset. Disappointed. Dare I say “pissed off?”. Why? it is because again I see that although #blacklivesmatter for sound bites in the news, it doesn’t result in actual change.   At the risk of pointing out the pink elephant in the room I’ll tell you why: The Caldecott committee didn’t have any people of disadvantaged minority status. ...

How do we get kids to read--especially those that appear to not be interested in reading?  Reading!  The answer is:  find relevant material that the reader can empathize with and that the reader can understand.   Back cover of book An adventure making something out of the best of what you have is something ANY kid can empathize with, but the subject matter is most definitely something young Chicanos can relate to and understand.  Cars, space, excitement and fun make this dynamic story a great read young readers.   This is not to stereotype young Chicanos, we are far more diverse than lowriders, but many of us grew up in Lowrider Culture and love and understand this culture.   The language and characters are fantastic, but rooted in Chicanismo.   Cathy Camper and Raul The Third have developed friendly, characters who speak much of the vernacular I grew up with as a 3rd generation Chicano in CA.   ...

Lowrider Literacies and Fluencies * 10 Point Program 2015 1. Technology: We demand free access to technology and technology instruction, training and applications that meets our community needs. 2. Mechanics: We demand free access to mechanical technology and instruction. By this we mean we want motor vehicle, heavy equipment and other mechanical training and access that meet our community needs. 3. Reading: We demand free access to books that meet our needs. By needs, we mean: Cultural, Political, HIstorical, Language, Social, Psychological, and Health needs. We also demand books in a variety of formats. 4. Writing: We demand free access to writing and publishing technologies as well as the instruction to become fluent with them, and the ability to apply them to our needs. 5. Critical Political Analysis: We demand free access to critical political science analysis instruction, training and applications of this critical thinking to our nee...