Yarn Bombing @ Your Library: new tags, images

With photos the only surviving evidence of my first tags since moving to Ashland, Oregon, new images have been curated and added to the timeline for Yarn Bombing @ Your Library.

For International Yarn Bombing Day on June 8, I crocheted pansies and placed them in the landscape at Southern Oregon University’s Hannon Library and at Jackson County Library Services’ Ashland branch library. A couple days later, the tags were gone.

Summer course begins with student biography

LIBT 213, Advanced Internet Searching, officially begins on Monday. The first assignment: compose a biography.

My life has changed in numerous ways since composing the biography for my first course toward certification and an Associate’s degree in Library and Information Technology.

Oregon Trail: SNAP Challenge isn’t optional

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and 25 participating members of U.S. Congress are taking the SNAP Challenge this week, as related on ThinkProgress.org.

To draw attention to House Republicans cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (in Oregon, “Oregon Trail”) participating U.S. representatives are trying to live off less than $4.50 per day for food and drink, based on an average benefit of $31.50 per week.

Folium Partners: Contract work in Ashland, Oregon

To volunteering at Southern Oregon University’s Hannon Library, add contract work for Folium Partners, an Ashland-based company that produces audiobook interfaces. I started work on Wednesday doing online research.

‘Without a Net’: Digital divide explained

Jessamyn C. West explores the facets of computer use and Internet accessibility in her book, Without a Net: Librarians Bridging the Digital Divide (Libraries Unlimited, 2010).

The digital divide, according to West, is about:

“Some people lacking skills that other people consider basic, starter or remedial, and not having a peer group or an educational system that can teach you. It’s also about people assuming, ‘Oh, everyone knows that,’ and moving right on by. The digital divide isn’t about not having a computer, though that can be part of it. The digital divide isn’t really about not knowing how to use a computer, though many people I work with can’t. The digital divide is about not knowing anyone who knows how to use a computer well enough to teach you. It’s about not being part of a tech-literate culture and not knowing a way out of that setting.”

Treecat Wars: Compelling YA science fiction

Treecat Wars by David Weber and Jane Lindskold is a Young Adult science fiction novel that will be published this October by Baen Books.

Treecat Wars is the continuation of a story that began with A Beautiful Friendship and continued in Fire Season. The series tells the story of first contact between a young girl, Stephanie Harrington, and a race of beings called Treecats on the planet Sphinx.

Harrington and a treecat, Climbs Quickly, formed a telepathic bond and, as Treecat Wars opens, Harrington has been offered an opportunity to go off-world for special training.

Back on Sphinx, a treecat clan whose territory was destroyed during the recent fire season is bereft of land and faces starvation if it cannot find a new territory.

People with print disabilities: Petition supports global access

The American Library Association (ALA) urges members to sign a petition asking the Obama administration to help ensure a global right to read for people with print disabilities.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is set to meet next week in Morocco. In recent email correspondence, the ALA declared its support for a copyright exception to a WIPO international treaty.