“If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.”
--Audre Lorde

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Prelude to a Report Back: ACRL Immersion 2010

There are already a few blog posts about our shared experiences in Vermont. What I can say about Immersion is that it stretched me really far as a teacher, as a student and as a librarian. I learned a lot about how I like to learn (and how that affects what I teach, and that one of those things is that I need time to reflect, contemplate and collate what I've learned. Being back in Brooklyn I've been on to other things but I hope that soon I'll get a chance to share here and also implement what I took away from Immersion (that hopefully doesn't violate the copyright statement--couldn't let that go without mention!).

Do It Yourself Zine Definition

As I am doing a bit of schoolwork and other projects related to zines and print culture, I dug up an old piece that I had originally written for the Madison Zine Fest's website in 2005. I thought it might be useful to share here. Re-reading it again in combination with another survey of the literature has likewise inspired me to create more comprehensive list of definitions, so stay tuned for that.

(click through for)
Rhymes with Bean: A Do-It-Yourself Zine Definition

Upcoming Events

Lots of upcoming news and events for the Spring semester, most notably:

I'll be speaking with Matthew Goins at two upcoming events about eBooks and readers' rights:

I'll be participating in ACRL's Immersion Teacher Track program this Summer in Burlington, Vermont. I wrote in my application that I am
interested to examine how critical pedagogy fits into library instruction, so I am excited to see how this can be discussed within the larger frameworks of the program. I'm also excited to get the chance to focus on teaching for a bit and to share what I learn with my colleagues.

And finally, I am really excited to be a part of the upcoming Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America's Library History Seminar XII: Libraries in the History of Print Culture. I can't wait to hear Janice Radway speak and to spend some time in Madison talking about print culture (whilst also enjoying some New Glarus!).

Queens Librarian Talk

Jenna and I will be presenting "Zines 101" tomorrow at the Queens Public Library. I'm excited to spend some time looking at works with our librarian audience as an attempt to define them (an illustration of my DIY Zine Definition). For slides you can see Jenna's post.

Metro Panel Slide Share

Here are my slide shows from the Metro Panel that I was a part of called "Get Published!: Create Your Own (Unconventional) Opportunities."

Come see these slides brought to life tomorrow!

Who knows, maybe we will just "debate whether the collecting of zines by libraries and museums contradicts, even cancels out, the basically anti-establishment zine concept."... But don't bet on it. I'll be speaking about how my radical library heroes have taught me what's worth collecting (esp. Dodge and Danky, both of whose work I plan to talk about at length and to whom I owe another round of thank yous).

Jenna posted her slides for our talk tomorrow, "Zines: Institutional Collecting, Zine Makers, and the Fine Line of Art,"on Lower East Side Librarian. Click through for mine.

Library Camp: Presentations

One great thing about Library Camp and unconferences at large is that you not only attend, you contribute. I was surprised and excited to hear on Tuesday evening that I would be presenting on not only one but two topics: Organizing Library Events and Drupal. It was nice to have a heads up so that I knew what I was in for on Wednesday morning, and also nice to know that people had voted and there were certain to be participants interested in each of these sessions.

Tags in Brokenja.ws

Currently Reading

Seed to Harvest
Blindness
Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods
The Republic in Print: Print Culture in the Age of U.S. Nation Building, 1770-1870
Digitize This Book!: The Politics of New Media, or Why We Need Open Access Now
Critical Teaching and Everyday Life
On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog



Alycia's favorite books »


Daily Reading Log

February 3, 2012

  • More Murakami, still in small bits.

February 2, 2012

  • After seeing someone reading the new Murakami on a train platform yesterday (and seeing that they were further along than I am--after a month of reading and not reading it), I lugged it along on my commute.

February 1, 2012

  • Started LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness, traveling from work to school.

January 30, 2012

  • "Pictures will be graded on sincerity and evidence of time spent using up your crayons." (If only all art teachers were this straightforward.)
  • More of The Marriage Plot. Probably will finish it today and look into more Eugenides.

January 29, 2012

  • The Marriage Plot. Sympathizing with Leonard perhaps too much, from multiple perspectives.

January 28, 2012

  • More of The Marriage Plot

January 27, 2012

  • The Marriage Plot

January 26, 2012

  • Started The Marriage Plot, and am really, almost guiltily enjoying it.
  • Watched this crazy PBS show where they dissect a sperm whale because of just finishing Moby Dick. Although probably not as gory as a whale ship, it's really the real thing--watch out!
  • Realized that Moby Dick is the original Animals Being Dicks:*


*Or maybe that should be Animals being (Moby) Dicks?... Now somebody's gotta make a GIF...

January 25, 2012

  • Finished Moby Dick. Wow.

January 24, 2012

  • Articles and passages for a bibliography
  • Just a bit more of 1Q84

January 23, 2012

"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, through many there be who have tried it."*

(you couldn't tell our tale on a flea either--working on chapter XVIII)

January 22, 2011

  • More Melville.

January 21, 2012

  • Moby Dick on the train. Pulling out the tome made a fellow train traveler jump at the chance to discuss the book (he thought that the first and last 100 pages were amazing, but didn't like the parts in between, and wished me luck with getting through the rest of it. I'm in the 600's and not worried about finishing it, but I am wondering when that damn white whale will show up).
  • "Street Books: Anatomy of a Street Library" zine. Totally amazing! Check out Street Books!
  • This is Why I'll Never be an Adult

January 19-20, 2012

  • A tiny bit of Moby Dick, but stress city.

January 18, 2012

Official reaching-the-limits day. Read things, can't remember what.