libraryofthemuses

[libraryofthemuses]

This is Michigan centric but know this is going to be a country wide ordeal. Now is a good time to show some support for your local library and make an effort to organize, and not just for libraries.

Links for ease of access:

American Library Association

EveryLibrary

American Association for State and Local History

American Alliance of Museums

[libraryofthemuses]

Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to defund libraries!

SHOW UP FOR OUR LIBRARIES! 📚 CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSPEOPLE!

[libraryofthemuses]

a quick psa to anyone recently getting into greek mythology and is a victim of tumblr and/or tiktok misconceptions:

-there is no shame in being introduced to mytholgy from something like percy jackson, epic the musical or anything like that, but keep in mind that actual myths are going to be VERY different from modern retellings

-the myth of medusa you probably know (her being a victim of poseidon and being cursed by athena) isn't 100% accurate to GREEK mythology (look up ovid)

-there is no version of persephone's abduction in which persephone willingly stays with hades, that's a tumblr invention (look up homeric hymn to demeter)

-as much as i would like it, no, cerberus' name does not mean "spot" (probably a misunderstanding from this wikipedia article)

-zeus isn't the only god who does terrible things to women, your fav male god probably has done the same

-on that note, your fav greek hero has probably done some heinous shit as well

-gods are more complicated than simply being "god of [insert thing]", many titles overlap between gods and some may even change depending on where they were worshipped

-also, apollo and artemis being the gods of the sun and the moon isn't 100% accurate, their main aspects as deities originally were music and the hunt

-titans and gods aren't two wholly different concepts, titan is just the word used to decribe the generation of gods before the olympians

-hector isn't the villain some people make him out to be

-hephaestus WAS married to aphrodite. they divorced. yes, divorce was a thing in ancient greece. hephaestus' wife is aglaia

-ancient greek society didn't have the same concepts of sexuality that we have now, it's incorrect to describe virgin goddesses like artemis and athena as lesbians, BUT it's also not wholly accurate to describe them as aromantic/asexual, it's more complex than that

-you can never fully understand certain myths if you don't understand the societal context in which they were told

-myths have lots and lots of retellings, there isn't one singular "canon", but we can try to distinguish between older and newer versions and bewteen greek and roman versions

-most of what you know about sparta is probably incorrect

-reading/waching retellings is not a substitute to reading the original myths, read the iliad! read the odyssey! i know they may seem intimidating, but they're much more entertaining than you may think

greek mythology is so complex and interesting, don't go into it with preconcieved notions! try to be open to learn!

[libraryofthemuses]

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

[libraryofthemuses]

To everyone in red states where book bans are likely to take place soon, here’s some lists for you <3

As a history student going into library science, people way under hype how crazy book banning is

Multiple lists of books already banned in schools/libraries or ones that likely will be:

Banned Books Week 2024: 100 of the Most Challenged Books

Banned Books: Top 100

Banned Book List

Colorado Banned Book List

The Complete List of Banned & Challenged Books by State

Banned Books from the University of Pennsylvia Online Books Page

Top 10 Most Challenged Books in 2023

PEN America Index Of School Book Bans – 2023-2024

Challenged and Banned Books

Places to order books other than Amazon:

Internet Archive (free)

Libby (free with library card)

Thrift Books

Book Outlet

BookBub

Abe Books

Half Price Books

Barnes & Noble

Better World Books

PangoBooks

Book Finder

Goodwillbooks

Alibris

Places to support that fight against book banning:

American Library Association

Unite Against Banned Books

National Coalition Against Censorship

PEN America

There’s a reason politicians fight so hard to limit knowledge and it should scare you.

Some recs below based on reviews I’ve seen

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing by Maya Angelou

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

Melissa by Alex Gino

Looking for Alaska by John Green

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

All Boys Aren't Blue by George Matthew Johnson

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Flamer by Mike Curato

Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison

This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg

Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Beloved by Toni Morrison

[libraryofthemuses]

Toni Morrison? Alice Walker? Zora Neale Hurston? Ralph Ellison? James Baldwin? Lorraine Hansbury? Maya Angelou? Octavia Butler? Langston Hughes? Bell Hooks? Many many many many others? Go fuck yourself you lazy, anti-intellectual asshole

[libraryofthemuses]

Public Access Museum Collections

Just because I think y’all should know, the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities literally has their entire collection available for an online viewing for free, both on their website where you can search for stuff, and on google street view. You can literally digitally walk through the museum and look at everything and they even have extra meta info on their objects in there.

Please have a look through, it’s really fun!

[libraryofthemuses]

WE decided to jump on the current Barbie trend for some fun!

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Has anybody explored Persepolis through the Getty experience??? Because oh my god

Such a well done project, with very nice details!!!

high-key want to use the last one as my new desktop background

[libraryofthemuses]

so this is an extremely cool resource

the JSTOR article by Catherine Halley

a list of series at Reveal Digital

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AYO??? 👀👀

[libraryofthemuses]

It’s not hard to understand. If a person has a biology degree but works as a music producer, they’re not a biologist, they just have a biology degree.

If someone researches a subject but never got a degree in the subject or research in general, they are a hobbyist, not an academic.

Hey, thanks for coming here and providing this stone cold take!

See, if a person has a degree in a topic, despite not working in the field, they are, by definition, an -ist/academic of said field. A doctor, after all, doesn't stop being a doctor or lose that knowledge just because they teach biology for a few years. I became an Egyptologist when I was handed my degree the first time, and I'm an Egyptologist every time I answer an ask on this website. I also worked as an Egyptologist for a time. I take it that me no longer being paid just means they revoked my title? That's not how it works!

An academic, by dictionary definition, is someone who is related to education or scholarship or someone with an academic viewpoint/scholarly background. If someone devotes their time to scholarship of a certain field, then yes in one way it is a hobby, and in another way they're an academic. It is elitist to state that people who have great knowledges of subjects from their own careful research cannot be considered in any form 'academics' simply because they do not possess the bit of paper that says 'I studied this for 3 years at university'. University academics would not have half the knowledge they do have if it wasn't for non university academics. We work cooperatively, sharing the knowledge that we have. Is the hairdresser who showed university academics how she'd worked out the method for styling Greek and Roman hair not an academic? No, she didn't have a degree, but she worked on her hobby of a love of hairstyling through history and that became academic knowledge. She then shared this with university academics, who recognised the academic scholarship and took her research forward. She is, by definition, someone with academic knowledge of the history of hairstyling, and her contribution, due to lack of formal degree, should not be dismissed as merely 'hobbyist', because that is grossly elitist.

The fun thing about 'academia' is that it's flexible, despite what most people think. More people are academics than you might imagine. Doesn't mean you have to take all their word as gospel, and you have to be careful about what information they're giving you and the inherent biases therein. However, you have to do this same process with someone with a degree in a field too. We are not immune to being biased or presenting incorrect information by purview of X number of years at an academic institution, nor is anyone who is paid to be an academic exempt from this. It's about critical assessment of the information presented to you. Those who know what they're talking about present themselves in ways that aren't shouty and flashy. I know instantly when I'm talking to someone who's spent time doing research into a topic, whether formally or as a hobby, because of how they present themselves and their research. You can peer review a person and their knowledge by how they demonstrate it. Trust me on that. Other academics can tell the difference between a person who is 'I read a few books on this once' and one who is 'I have spent years of my life looking over different things and comparing them critically.'

Examine your own biases here; a) your comments aren't even what the original post was about, and b) your definition of what constitutes an academic is extremely narrow, so much so that it excludes a multitude of people, to whom academics would say 'they are one of us'.

[libraryofthemuses]

If any of y’all didn’t know, there’s a free online library, aka

https://openlibrary.org/

and I found like, twelve ebooks I’ve been wanting to read on there, and blasted through like three of them during the course of a boring-ass shift.

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BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS

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Guide to Figuring out the Age of an Undated World Map.

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i’m watching this documentary about halloween and there’s a part where they’re explaining that ghost stories got really popular around the civil war no one could really deal with how many people went off and died and

the narrator just said 

“the first ghost stories were really about coming home”

fuck 

[libraryofthemuses]

So I’m at a library in a town I don’t live in to spend time with my nieces and I go to the bathroom and see this sign.

They turned their old card catalog into free supplies people can discretely take on their own.

This is the coolest thing ever, a great way to help people without making them ask, and an amazing reuse of a the card catalog. I’m seriously about to cry I love it so much.