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librarian.bsky.social
jessamyn
@librarian.bsky.social
10K followers 460 following 2K posts
Vermont librarian. Technology hobbyist. I love the post office. Fix your hearts. Live in hope if you can.
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librarian.bsky.social
Notes and slides for my talk "Strategic and tactical decisions for positive engagement during challenging times" which is less dry than its title might suggest.

Links: www.librarian.net/talks/videot...

Read the talk including slides with alt text: www.librarian.net/talks/videot...
Photo of someone in defensive gear at some sort of self defense training. Text reads: SPECIFICALLY? PROTECT YOURSELF + Be aware of what you look like online. Speak and act publicly with intent. + Assess your own level of risk + Make tactical determinations whether your workplace has your back or not and act accordingly. If they don't, find colleagues who do. + Consider passive sabotage.
November 11, 2025 at 7:52 PM
librarian.bsky.social
The cover of the Dead Kennedys album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables showing some sort of a car, maybe a police car, on fire. The name of the band is in yellow blackletter in the upper left.
November 8, 2025 at 7:04 PM
librarian.bsky.social
Steve how do we get more books on axolotls into your library? Could we sponsor a couple?
Two kids dressed up like a pink and a blue axolotl respectively for Halloween
November 8, 2025 at 2:36 AM
librarian.bsky.social
Such a ghost town here in shitty New England Halloween.
Street in Vermont crowded with kids who have various costumes including a tiny Mario and a couple kids in banana costumes. At the front of the picture is a basket full of candy that the kids are approaching
November 1, 2025 at 2:54 AM
librarian.bsky.social
The Grokipedia article about me omits my middle name which is Charity. It also calls me a rabble-rouser which is a phrase not in my Wikipedia article. So on balance, okay?

I am kidding, it is not at all okay. But I had a fun 10 minutes reading it and being mad.
Goya's etching "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" (which is represented in text in spanish in the lower corner) showing a man asleep at his desk who is set upon by bats and owls.
October 28, 2025 at 10:12 PM
librarian.bsky.social
I actually had a picture of mine handy. My current longtime partner and I both grew up in the same part of Massachusetts where we listened to Dr. Demento on the same radio station in high school. Didn't meet til 30 years later, it was an early thing we shared.
A generic audio cassette that is white with a label on it that just has list of numbers across the top and Dr. Demento written in a child's handwriting on the bottom
October 13, 2025 at 1:54 AM
librarian.bsky.social
“the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa”
Screenshot from a promotional poster for Pretty in Pink cropped to show only Molly Ringwald pouting at the camera and Andrew McCarthy cropped right out of the top.
October 9, 2025 at 3:06 AM
librarian.bsky.social
Occurred to me that I should not presume everyone knows the history of public library service in the US, especially the formerly-segregated US, and how white library leaders could have acted sooner and done more than they did. Further reading on that topic.

www.librarian.net/talks/whiten...
Screenshot from a slide deck showing the "mug shots" of nine black young people. The men are wearing shirts and ties, the women are in dresses. There is a longish quotation to them about their read-in in Jackson MS culminating in the line, bolded, that the librarians called the cops on them.
October 1, 2025 at 12:04 AM
librarian.bsky.social
When she passed in 2002 this was the eulogy that my woodworking cousin did for her. It fit her well www.jessamyn.com/journal/02/g...

RIP Jean, you were never dull.
A woman in an older style bathing suit bends down and hold her knees while the waves crash on the shore there is a younger man or maybe a boy encouraging her to get into the water
September 29, 2025 at 4:27 AM
librarian.bsky.social
The public library would never do you like this.
Screenshot from an iPhone where someone has asked Siri "What is the zip code for Bridport Vermont?" (Siri typoed it) and the reply says "I don't know where you are"
September 22, 2025 at 8:47 PM
librarian.bsky.social
I was in a dark room talking to my guy on the phone and assumed there was a car parked outside my house because it was so bright. I even took a picture of my curtains so I could show him when I got off the phone.
Light shining through some sheer curtains from the outside. It is entirely dark and the light is brighter than you might expect from the moon
September 8, 2025 at 3:24 AM
librarian.bsky.social
“You can tell [the book] was made by some early-gen AI bot, because it can’t even spell monetization correctly” Clayton Cheever, Sarah Manning, @tuphlos.bsky.social @sonderbooks.com & others talk about the thorny problem of LLM-made books in libraries.

americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2025/09/02/b...
Illustration from a book that has an ornate frame and reads "To you, Dear Abbé, who watched by me, when in my fever I dreamt this dream, I dedicate the little book"
September 7, 2025 at 5:49 PM
librarian.bsky.social
My real question about the Anthropic copyright settlement is how good their is authority control? Like, can I claim damages for the OTHER Jessamyn West also? I wouldn't be me if I didn't at least try.

Authors: get your money. 📚

www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
Twin older women wearing matching smart red jackets and elaborate blonde hairdos sit smiling at a table that is set up for afternoon tea.
September 7, 2025 at 3:31 PM
librarian.bsky.social
Today is my birthday. I am 57. Send GIFs, if you're the type to do that. I always enjoy them.
Picture of me sitting on my sister's porch. I am wearing purple glasses and am a middle aged white lady with hair past my shoulders which is brown with a little grey in it. I am wearing a green plaid flannel shirt with some home made repairs on it. I am smiling as much as I am able.
September 5, 2025 at 2:49 PM
librarian.bsky.social
Drop an old person you’re going to turn into.

(if I am lucky)
Beverly Clearly in front of a book shelf. She is an older white lady with glasses wearing a white shirt with a red vest. She is smiling and is holding a hand to her face.
September 3, 2025 at 12:12 AM
librarian.bsky.social
Someone has "re-googled" the fire hydrants in my neighborhood (it was done once a long time ago, before my time with only one still googled) recently and no one will fess up to it. I have been asking lots of people and they mostly say "I thought YOU did it!" #vermont
A fire hydrant with googly eyes in front of a cemetery A tall red fire hydrant with googly eyes in front of a driveway and a carriage barn A short blue and red fire hydrant with googly eyes in front of a tree.
August 19, 2025 at 12:29 AM
librarian.bsky.social
Facts.
A dirt road leading to a large white barn with a field and some trees and beyond them some low mountains. It is a very sunny day and the sky is slightly hazy.
August 7, 2025 at 10:34 PM
librarian.bsky.social
Polaris. But don't update it *too* much.
Screenshot of a very bitmappy video game showing a submarine underwater shooting upwards at some boats and planes
August 7, 2025 at 3:18 PM
librarian.bsky.social
"Bricks for the Blind is a non-profit organization that
brings the joy of building Lego sets to blind people."

As someone who works in one of the many libraries with a hefty Lego collection, this is RTMI

bricksfortheblind.org

More about the man behind it

www.cbc.ca/radio/asitha... #Lego
A man with a beard and a big smile holding an assembled Star Wars lego kit with the caption next to him " “I loved building LEGOs as a child, but after I lost my eyesight I couldn’t do it anymore. Then I found Bricks for the Blind, and now I can build… View More Jacques C."
August 1, 2025 at 3:38 PM
librarian.bsky.social
My #FantasticFour

This one might need a little context for some people.
americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2021/09/01/d...
The Connecticut Four. Barbara Bailey, Peter Chase, George Christian, and Janet Nocek. They are all older white people, the last two are wearing glasses.
July 21, 2025 at 11:02 PM
librarian.bsky.social
Is this really the world you want your children to live in, and your children’s children?
The same image others are posting which is a picture of Zohran Mamdani looking determined next to a headline that says "Zohran Mamdani's Socialist promises" under which is written "Save the time of the reader."
July 3, 2025 at 7:22 PM
librarian.bsky.social
Just found my one page crib sheet for my "online databases" class from library school the mid-90s. We were allowed one page of notes to bring to the test. (Librarian) kids today don't know the struggle.
One page of notes which contains information on the search syntax for four separate online databases: DIALOG, BRS, WLN and EPIC. Each has a slightly different search syntax and must be queried in a slightly different way. Advice is stuff like "Must literalize numbers" and "fucked up hyphen thing" (no idea what that means anymore)
July 3, 2025 at 4:41 PM
librarian.bsky.social
While understanding that there is no such thing as perfect online privacy, I'd like to mention that there IS a tiny gear where you can turn off DuckDuckGo's Duck.ai "assist" Click the nearly-invisible cog in the upper right, choose "Never." Enjoy. #privacy
screenshot of a set of choices "How often do you want to see AI-assisted answers?" and options are Often, Sometimes, On Demand or Never. Never is selected Ruth St. Denis strikes a pose while wearing a long elegant white gown, outdoors in Yosemite Valley
June 25, 2025 at 7:21 PM
librarian.bsky.social
Vermont too! I was just at a NH one for Father's Day. RIP my dad. Your drinking wasn't your best trait but it wasn't your worst one either.
A large New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Store with a big sign indicating it out front. It's a red buiding made to look like a barn? A hand is holding up a small container of ashes which reads T. O. M. on it. The T and O are visible.
June 25, 2025 at 7:11 PM
librarian.bsky.social
BREAKING: Melville Dewey has endorsed Andrew Cuomo for mayor of NYC.
Melville Dewey as an older man wearing a suit and tie and spectacles
June 24, 2025 at 3:20 AM