mastodon
4.6.6
They/Them/Theirs pronouns. Youth Services Librarian. I play games (poorly), do technology and FLOSS things (non-optimally), and have Opinions (frequently). Often seen wearing floral print shirts.
In the department of "internal screaming intensifies," one of the regulars we have, known for significant amounts of paperwork and paper printing on hand, was asking for help about putting information into what I assumed was a blank form, and I thought I would find a non-fillable PDF on the other end.
Instead, this person was using ChatGPT, Esq. with the intention of filing a motion in court, and wanted me to help them fill in the blanks in the generated text, then print the finished item.
I know that if I said anything, I'd only get back "limited public forum, time, place, manner," because that is the response you have to give, but finding out a local Moms for (White, Christian) Liberty group is having a "celebrating America's 250th" thing in one of my locations' meeting rooms, promising all kinds of fun activities and crafts for the kiddos, it's the kind of thing where I wish I could say "No. You are opposed to libraries. Go away until you stop lying about us and our books."
Oh, and one other thing: As I was getting library cards set up for some kids, their grownup was reciting the telephone number and it ended in "6-7."
If you are familiar with the meme, you know what gesture the kid made at that. If not, https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/67-meme can get you up to speed.
I noticed, and I pointed out that I had noticed. The kid seemed entirely unbothered at either having been caught out memeing or that a grownup of some age knew what the meme was.
The kids are all right, I guess?
Yesterday was fun. I got to hear someone compliment the Latest Kate-on-whiteboard copy-drawings that I do, so now I have hard with my own ears what others have been telling me about them.
Also, as we were about to close, a little one was ready to have a floor tantrum about having to leave. I popped down to the floor to say hello, and instead of a floor tantrum, the child set up the wail of terror at having been Perceived by someone they found terrifying in the moment. Mission accomplished?
Performative message about National Library Workers Day from the chief of the org, trying to get us to believe we're valued and important in the middle of a reorg that continues to ravage the people who do the most important work for the system.
I fielded some questions from a person yesterday who wanted to know why we had changed hours and was unimpressed with the official explanation of trying to standardize the experience across our locations. Despite being "community-focused" and such.
ALA just put out their State of Libraries report, and with it, the top 11 challenged books of 2025. (https://www.ala.org/news/2026/04/american-library-association-releases-2025-most-challenged-books-list-national-library)
What are the likely objections to these books?
Trafficking of girls, queer (gay), queer (gender), too sexy for the teenagers, queer (lesbian), betrayal and bad decisions by teenagers, too sexy for teens (same series), rape and ultra-violence, incest+terrible parenting+fallout from, the impact of a life, and too sexy for the teens (different series).
I finished @aartiramkrishna@toot.io 's @SeaGL@mastodon.social talk, "The Leaky Pipeline" ( https://seagl.org/archive/2022/the-leaky-pipeline ) and think that it could serve as an example of how any minoritized group is dropped from the pipeline, even though many professions (like my own) desperately want to be seen as not contributing to the problem, even though they do things like mount structural barriers and create norms that discourage the participation of the few minoritized people who manage to persist.