thespookylibrarian - Tumblr blog

[thespookylibrarian]

people today with access to more raw information than any other period: the earth is flat

german artilleryman in 1916, who barely washes his own ass: I need to account for the curvature and rotation of the earth when plotting my firing plans

[thespookylibrarian]

posts that make me want to rip my heart out part 5

[thespookylibrarian]

Tip for school librarians and teachers regarding bookmarks on a budget

I work at a school with 700+ students, so buying bookmarks is simply not an option; I'd spend my whole budget on bookmarks alone in no time.

So what to do?

I make bookmarks out of the books that are too damaged to be fixed. And the kids love it.

At first, they're kinda horrified that I cut up a book, but once they understand that it was either "get cut up" or "garbage" they really get on board.

[thespookylibrarian]

I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness.

- Franz Kafka

[thespookylibrarian]

 Window to Literature in Paris -   Marco Barberio , 2023.

 Italian , b. 1971 - 

Acrylic on canvas , 98 x 69 cm.

[thespookylibrarian]

dead metaphors are really interesting honestly and specifically i’m interested in when they become malapropisms

like, the concept being, people are familiar with the phrase and what people use it to mean metaphorically, but it’s not common knowledge anymore what the metaphor was in literal reference to. people still say “toe the line” but don’t necessarily conjure up the image of people standing at the starting line of a race, forbidden from crossing over it. people still say “the cat is out of the bag” without necessarily knowing it’s a sailors’ expression referring to a whip being brought out for punishment. some metaphors are so dead we don’t even know where they come from; like, there are ideas about what “by hook or by crook” references, but no one is entirely sure. nobody knows what the whole nine yards are.

and then you throw in a malaprop or a mondegreen or two, where because people don’t know what the actual words of the expression refer to, they’re liable to replace them with similar sounding words (see “lack toast and tolerant”). so we can literally go from a phrase referencing a common, everyday part of life to a set of unfixed, contextless sounds with a completely different meaning. that’s fascinating. what an interesting piece of the way language and culture are living, changing, coevolving things.

maybe part of the reason we can’t figure out where some phrases come from is that over time the words themselves have changed! one of the theories about “the whole nine yards” is that it’s a variant of “the whole ball of wax,” which some people further theorize was originally “the whole bailiwick,” meaning just “the whole area”! the addition of “nine yards” might be related to “dressed to the nines,” which might reference the fucking Greek muses! language is so weird and cool! (and I only know any idioms in two languages!)

the point is. I just came across the words “nip it in the butt” in a piece of published, professional fiction, and now I can’t stop giggling.

[thespookylibrarian]

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.

~ James Baldwin

image credit- coffeesoakedpages

[thespookylibrarian]

October is about trees revealing colours they've hidden all year.

People have an October as well.

- Jim Storm

[thespookylibrarian]

[thespookylibrarian]

great news, one of the books I was looking for arrived today and it has a whole section on pre french revolution book piracy and the thriving trade in hiding and trafficking banned literature.

[thespookylibrarian]

In the early 70s Sesame Street was created with an eye towards educating poor, inner-city children for free, and became a massive hit with all children. In 2016, faced with going off the air forever after facing conservative efforts to destroy public broadcasting since basically its beginning, new episodes became a timed exclusive for premium cable network HBO. In 2022 HBO Max, newly merged with and taken over by reality TV channel Discovery, removed Sesame Street episodes and spin-offs from streaming as a tax write-off and scheme to avoid paying residuals.

[thespookylibrarian]

It's been hard to make time for a little update here—lots of stuff going on, some of it not so great, but we're pushing through.

Summer semester was a LOT of work and I was grateful that my information ethics professor canceled our final paper at the last second. I don't think I would have made it through all three classes with A's otherwise. Overall, I did enjoy the assignments I had though!

For ethics, I got to interview my supervisor about information ethics in our academic library, which was enlightening to say the least. I also loved the professor and how she included current events in each lecture.

The graphic novels course I took was suuuuper chill, mostly a readers' advisory sort of class. My final project was an info graphic on LGBTQIA+ paranormal graphic novels, which I had so much fun with. (I have lots of recommendations if anyone is interested!)

As for the research class...I really didn't mesh with the professor's teaching style at all. Still, I convinced my group to write our research proposal on how Florida's K-12 book challenges are affecting incoming college students and had a blast putting that together. I don't know how great of a researcher I would be (not in love with the science aspects), but it would be really cool to put this proposal into action.

My graduate assistantship with the library got extended through graduation! Incredibly grateful for that. I spent the summer redesigning the library's open publishing website and working on some instructional materials (WordPress tutorials, copyright, etc). I've also led a couple of consultations with researchers who are looking to build websites using our hosting platform—a little nerve-wracking, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Anyway, that was pretty much the summer. Will do a separate post on the fall semester at some point.

[thespookylibrarian]

I don't know; I kind of think that our culture is based around systematic denial of human limitations. I mean, there's the eight-hour work day (which is about 4 hours longer than most people are consistently able to remain productive); buffing your qualifications on job applications (which everyone needs to do to some extent, because everyone else is doing it); the expectation of multitasking, even though it's not really possible; academics are running around with impostor syndrome, ultimately because there's only so many books that an individual is capable of reading, while a bunch of liars and grifters pretend that they're experts at *everything* and are held up as thought leaders. Billionaires are held up as if they're just incredibly hard workers, photoshopped movie stars held up as if they're just incredibly beautiful. We feel guilty for not being something that never has and can never exist.

[thespookylibrarian]

Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits

[thespookylibrarian]

Vassal and Veil

[thespookylibrarian]

Finally on summer break! Hope to write a bit about my experience with the graduate assistant position and the courses I took before the fall semester starts and I'm buried in stuff again (halfway through my program now!)

[thespookylibrarian]