Lowrider Librarian

"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