Lowrider Librarian

Study Finds Illegal Immigrants Pay $11.8B in Taxes BY   ERIC PIANIN ,  The Fiscal Times April 16, 2015 A new nationwide study on the fiscal implications of illegal immigration concludes that millions of undocumented immigrants are paying billions of dollar in taxes into state and local coffers, and that substantially more would be generated if President Obama prevails in imposing a new executive order protecting many of those workers from deportation. The 50-state analysis by the  Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy  released on Thursday found that roughly  8.1 million of 11.4 million undocumented immigrants  who work paid more than $11.8 billion in state and local taxes in 2012, even while they were living illegally in the country. The group’s analysis estimated that illegal immigrants’ combined nationwide state and local tax contributions would increase by $845 million under full implementation of Obama’s 20...

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...

Here is a link to the presentation with notes:

I hope your Spring is springing. I wanted to ask you all to consider volunteering to be on your state's LSTA Grant advisory boards. I am currently the chair of the Oregon LSTA Advisory council. My place on the council give me a voice that I can use to represent others who are not at the table. There have been many times already where I was able to make an argument that would have not been made (concerning Latino issues) if I had not been there. If we take our places on these and other committees that have a say in where money goes, then more Latino programming may get funded. At the very least, we can represent where we are not represented already. We can create change, we can lead from anywhere we are and we can help one another be strong.

Ola 2015 Presentation from Max Macias This slideshow and talk was the first part of the first library conference session on cannabis resources for Librarians ever. The second part of the session was a panel. Max Macias: librarian, Jake Boone: dispensary owner and Bethany Sherman: cannabis testing facility owner. This presentation was meant to show general types of cannabis resources available in Oregon and other places.  This was not a primer on Cannabis. But you can find that here: http://lowriderlibrarian.blogspot.com/2014/07/cannabis-resources-for-librarians.html    Link to handouts:   http://tinyurl.com/o62rr2m   This was not a primer on Cannabis. But you can find that here:  http://lowriderlibrarian.blogspot.com/2014/07/cannabis-resources-for-librarians.html

This book is amazing on so many levels. Poetically, it stands almost alone as an example of relationships, alienation, microaggressions, and racism in the 21st century US. Quote from Citizen A friend recommended this book to me over the break--as we were all freshly cut wide open from the Ferguson coverage, revealing local discussions and ongoing murder of POC from any age and area in the US. I finally got a hold of it via the library and read it in earnest. The descriptions of racial microaggressions in 2nd person narrative poetry are so powerful I was shaking as I read them. Quote from Citizen Each page is condensed emotion, reaction and analysis of a lifetime of experiencing relationships that bite while smiling.  Her poetry describes how inescapable it is to be a POC in the US at this time and place.  The relentless assault upon our senses of 21st century lynchings and their impact the mental health, awareness and identity of POC is explicated in de...

On a web site I frequent someone recently posted a photo from an article on the san Francisco police giving some books to children.  Here is the link to the article: Article I commented on the site that “I hope they gave the kids some books on how to survive a confrontation with the pigs.”  I said this in all seriousness because the police routinely kill people of color in the US.  In fact, citizen survival tactics during interactions with police should be programming in libraries. Using the term pig is English in origin and has also been used to describe police since 1851. Apart from the police brutality based on race there was also some POC on POC bullying going on in this exchange on the board. Immediately, the person who posted the article (a professional in the same profession as me) told me that I should act professional--”Aren’t you a professional Max--we should behave as professionals!” I’m used to getting the “professional” ad hominem fro...