libraryben

[libraryben]

"In Writing Mad Lives in the Age of the Asylum, Michael Rembis fundamentally shifts the conversation on the history of madness away from medical perspectives to center mad voices and experiences. To do so, he draws upon approximately one hundred first-person, nonfictional writings by former asylum inmates in the United States published between 1830 and 1950, supplemented with a vast array of other sources on madness. Through an analysis of these writings, Rembis transforms mad people in history from hollow shells legible only through diagnoses and professional records to complex agentic actors with rich experiences in navigating madness and complex relationships related to family, labor, and politics. Writing Mad Lives articulates and validates mad expertise in the conceptualization and treatment of madness, while demonstrating the harmful tactics used to discredit mad people."

[libraryben]

[libraryben]

Historians have trust issues—and they should. When scholars evaluate texts, art, material objects, and oral histories from the past, they’re diving into deeply personal and inherently human sources. And humans lie all the time. As professionals, we understand that no single source stands alone as a voice of authority. The research process requires contextualization, layering, and a nuanced understanding of interpersonal dynamics. In my classroom, this is a problem.

[libraryben]

This Book Is Banned - Canada

This is a book about dinosaurs. No it's not. Dinosaurs are not allowed.

Oh. This is now a book about avocados! Sorry. We deleted those too.

FINE. This book is about—nope! Forbidden!

Maybe you shouldn't even try reading this book…But what could possibly be inside?

Discover just what can happen when ideas are erased instead of expressed with this hilarious picture book romp that kids (and grown-ups) will want to read over and over again.

[libraryben]

"Public Disability History is a blog journal and a forum for exchange between the diverse actors involved and invested in issues regarding disability. It’s a website to gather and provide resources for the history of disabilities. Furthermore, it offers a “fast track” publication mode for theoretical/methodological reflections with a lower threshold than full scholarly publications."

[libraryben]

iFixit

iFixit is a wiki-based site that teaches people how to fix almost anything. It was started in 2003 by Luke and Kyle, in a dorm room at California Polytechnic University when they tried to fix an old iBook together. With no instructions, they tinkered, fiddled, broke some tabs and lost some screws. But they fixed it. When they decided to start selling spare parts themselves, iFixit was born. It now hinges around its step-by-step repair guides, which are free to download and use under Creative Commons licenses.

Now, anyone can create a repair manual for a device on iFixit and anyone can edit the existing set of manuals to improve them. The site’s founders say that thousands of people make use of the guides every day.

“We’ve heard repair success stories from forensic detectives, field translators, and even kids,” say the pair. “From New York to Alaska, Tibet to the Faroe Islands, people have used our guides to fix their stuff.

“Our philosophy is that if you can’t open it, you don’t own it. Once you disassemble, repair, and put back together your laptop or iPod, you have a much better understanding of what goes into it. It’s astounding how just 20 minutes of work can make an iPod good as new – but most people have no idea that there are instructions available to make the work easy. And why should they? Apple tells everyone that the battery isn’t user-serviceable.

“That’s where we come in, filling the ecosystem hole that Apple created by manufacturing a device without an end-of-life maintenance and disposal strategy.”

Restart Wiki

This is a place where members of the Restart community share tips for mending appliances and gadgets with people who are starting out, or whose knowledge lies elsewhere.

This wiki won’t show you how to fix a particular make and model of device: they leave this to the various fix-it websites and disassembly videos. (You can also get help with a device on social media using #SOSRestart). Rather, contributors to this page concentrate on basic and widely applicable principles, for example soldering and how to stay safe while fixing things.

The site is aimed at anyone with a curiosity about how things work and how to fix them. No prior knowledge is assumed. In the spirit of spreading knowledge as widely as possible, everyone is welcome to read it – and to share it. Anyone is welcome to reuse anything on the wiki, under the terms of the Creative Commons ShareAlike Licence 3.0.

[libraryben]

new ebbits! new site!

[libraryben]

"We are a peer support network for neurodivergent staff in the Library, Information and Knowledge sector in the UK and Ireland.  

We aim to provide a visible online presence; a regularly updated resources list; run a buddying service, providing a named person for informal chat; organise regular in person and online themed networking events; and produce occasional research outputs.

We welcome anyone in, or aspiring to be in, the library and information knowledge sectors who are either diagnosed, waiting for diagnosis, or are suspected or self-diagnosed neurodivergent.

There is no formal membership required, just join our JISCmail list or Forum to become part of the network!"

[libraryben]

The Alliance for Neurodiversity and Disability in GLAMR Professions Australia Inc. (ANDPA) aspires to empower Australian GLAMR professionals and institutions in the acceptance of disability and neurodiversity. There are approximately 150 ANDPA members across Australia and its gallery, library, museum, archive, and record sectors.

[libraryben]

Haunted Books

[libraryben]

This week I was on a panel at the Generative AI in Libraries (GAIL) virtual conference. Along with my fellow panelists Andrea Baer and Emily Zerrenner, I joined moderator Sarah Appedu to discuss the cognitive dissonance that we recognize between the widespread exhortations to adopt GenAI tools in libraries and the harms that we see in the usage of these tools. The panel was well attended and well received, with the most frequent comment we received in the chat was that attendees hadn’t heard about the concept of AI refusal before. 

AI refusal can refer to a spectrum of approaches to AI, whether that’s refusing to use AI tools entirely, refusing the use of AI as much as possible, refusing to prioritize the use of AI, refusing to accept either boosterism or doomer narratives, refusing to accept the idea that AI is inevitable, or some other refusal. It can also refer to more cheeky ways of refusing AI, such as using scare quotes around “artificial intelligence” to indicate disbelief that these tools are actually displaying intelligence (hat tip to librarian Dave Ghamandi!).

[libraryben]

1954 Blab-Off Remote Control ad

[libraryben]

A LibGuide for research guides, from Dalhousie University librarians (seen at the APLA Conference 2025):

[libraryben]

It's probably more that it's incumbent upon me to seek out things that I actually am impressed by or learn something from, rather than just kvetching.

It's hard to tell if I'm just not easily impressed by professional development activities because of legitimate knowledge and experience... or if I'm just a crusty curmudgeon.