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My year in review – a month or so late.

In the year 2009 I…

1.) Hosted many Interlibrary Lushes, then…didn’t.
One of the biggest changes was the passing of the Interlibrary Lush torch. I began Interlibrary Lush, the monthly meetup for librarians and information professionals, in September 2008, and one year later I decided to move on to have time for other projects, and let someone else take over. So that is done. Besides the occasional, ‘How do I start a librarian happy hour in my town?’, I have little part in the group but the new organizers continue to host meetups each month. For more information on ILL check out the MySpace page, as well as the Facebook group.

2.) Learned to accept that I work in an archive, not a library
Having worked in libraries since 2001, this was difficult for me. For a long while I wanted to return to the library environment, the one I felt most comfortable in, and found it frustrating to live in a city with such a competitive job market – particularly for librarians. Two years ago, I found work in a departmental archive, and did not like it. I felt like I was settling, but over time this changed. It took a lot of work but now the archive is something of my own creation. I have a ’system’ in place – it is efficient and it works, and I am pretty happy about that.

3.) Completed many Rad Ref related projects
Which I have mentioned here and here and here.

4.) Wrote a fanzine about Margot Ruth Kidder
The fanzine is called Margot Ruth Kidder: Queen of the Margotnauts and is about all things related to Ms. Kidder. For those of you not familiar with her work…well, guess what? You actually ARE familiar with her work! Maybe from Sisters or Amityville Horror but most likely from the Superman movies where she played Lois Lane. Issue #2 is in the works but its completion date, at this point, is unknown.

5.) According to the timestamp on the first entry…I launched boldlygone[dot]net
Um…just so you know, some of the images in these zines have GRAPHIC depictions of interspecies love so NSFW, okay?

6.) Read one million comics books
Yes, one million comics books, which need to be reviewed, so I will, here, and soon!

Interlibrary Lush checks out…sort of.

Please join us Thursday, September 24 @ 7p at Vendetta, a lovely bar frequented by librarians and…mayoral incumbents? Yeah, I’ve seen Mr. Adams there once or twice. We mostly just ignored each other.

Interlibrary Lush August 2009 – Singing encouraged but not required.

Please join us Thursday, August 27th @ 7p at the Alibi – a poorly lit tiki joint with a tasty selection of pupus and karaoke starting at 9p.


Original photo courtesy of Arkiva Tropika.

Premiere of Bitch Magazine’s Lending Library!

Back in August of 2008, myself and a few other members of the Portland Radical Reference Collective came together to organize and catalog the 800+ titles that comprised Bitch Magazine’s lending library. After some researching, we created a thesaurus and assigned subjects to each book, then had a cataloguing party with a slew of Rad Ref members and labeled and shelved the collection in its entirety. We determined the ’social catalouging’ site LibraryThing, which is cheap, has a social networking component, and is pretty intuitive to use, would be used to catalog the Bitch library. Procedures were then written up to assist future volunteers in assigning subject headings and cataloguing new titles. And that was that! Bitch volunteers finished the online cataloguing and on July 30th, during Portland’s Last Thursday, the lending library will make its debut!


Unfortunately, I’m guessing the Dolly photo will have to be changed at some point.

From Bitch Magainze’s Facebook events page:
Come celebrate the grand opening of our community lending library with us! It’s happening at our Alberta Street office during July’s Last Thursday. The Bitch staff will be hanging out and showing off our 800+ book collection that covers topics like feminist theory, media studies, queer and gender studies, history, and sociology, to name a few. Bring an ID and a piece of mail and we’ll get you signed up to borrow books.

The library is open to the public on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-7pm, and on other weekdays by appointment. We hope to see you on Thursday!

More DEETs:
Date: Thursday, July 30, 2009
Time: 5:00pm – 8:00pm
Location: The Bitch Offices, 4930 NE 29th Ave., Portland, OR
Email: library@b-word.org

And don’t forget to CHECK OUT [smooth] the library catalog here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/bitchlibrary

Interlibrary Lush July 2009 – do not discard us, eheheheh eh.

Please join us Thursday, July 23rd @ 7p at the Lucky Lab pub – a jolly establishment with lots of outdoor seating, as well as pets for petting.


Original photo taken from here.

Interlibrary Lush June 2009 – For all librarians…corporeal or otherwise

Please join us Thursday, June 25th @ 7p at Vendetta – a fine establishment with lots of outdoor seating and landscaping that reminds me of a peaceful zen rock garden.


Screencap courtesy of smarty shots

Everything you wanted to know about public records access and archival methods in 15 minutes or less!

Interested in copyright issues, information access, public records, and seeing my face turn 30 shades of red? Then you may be interested in the Rad Ref Collective’s “What is fair, free, and available, and how to make sure it lasts” talk Saturday, June 6th @10a at the Portland Anarchist Bookfair…

Flyer courtesy of Axiom Infoshop

Interlibrary Lush May 2009 – So a librarian walks into a bar…

Please join us Thursday, May 28th @ 7p at Ducketts – a fine establishment with pinball tables, good eats, and HAPPY HOUR PRICES UNTIL 9P AND ALL DAY W/STUDENT ID! Slight catch though…Ducketts is CASH ONLY so stuff your wallet accordingly.


Photo source: The Viking yearbook, 1950 – Vanport Extension Center of the University of Oregon

Librarian Prom 2009 – Somewhere over the Reading Rainbow!

Candise from SCALA asked if I wanted to put together the flyer for the Librarian Prom so here is my attempt. I sort of had the ALA Read posters in mind. Incidentally, a super special shout out goes to Scott and Heather for letting me exploit their photo…I am guessing they were probably the most attractive couple at the 1997 Junior Prom.

DEETS:
Your local Emporia SCALA group has put together an amazing night for all you librarians and library workers – it’s Portland’s Librarian Prom!

Here are the details:

When: Saturday, May 16th from 7-11 pm.

Where: Liberty Hall, 311 N. Ivy. It is near Fremont and Vancouver Avenue
in close-in North Portland. Just off Tri-Met buses 44 and 4.

Cost: $7/individual or $12/couple. If you RSVP, it is only $10/couple,
so let us know you plan on coming! To RSVP, email e.g.ryan@gmail.com.
Pay (in cash) at the door.

We will have punch, snacks, DJs, and (you guessed it) PROM PHOTOS! Dressing up is optional, but it would be an excellent opportunity to don that frilly peach thrift-store find. Feel free to print out the attached flier to post at work. And of course, non-library folk are welcome (though there may be a hazing). If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me. Hope to see you all there!

April Interlibrary Lush!

April showers bring…etc.

Please join us Thursday, April 30th @ 7p at Goodfoot Lounge a fine pub and lounge with pinball tables, dancing on the first floor, and plenty of good eats!