Authors and librarians are NOT groomers

Amid ever-increasing incidents of book challenges, I’m worried by inflammatory rhetoric that portrays librarians and authors as “groomers” of young people. Speaking as someone who survived an attempt at grooming, I consider this characterization to be vile and obscene.
https://youtu.be/SPMmEs7KdGM

Just Lizzie, by Karen Wilfrid (eBook preview)

Presenting … First-chapter Friday, the eBook edition. The July 4 selection features Just Lizzie, by Karen Wilfrid.

Librarians I admire (Hohl, Threets, and Helmick)

With a couple of photos that came across my timeline, I want to honor three librarians I admire: Cindy Hohl, Mychal Threets, and Sam Helmick.
https://youtu.be/2XxcIyjl6-s

Treasure Island: Runaway Gold (eBook preview)

Presenting … First-chapter Friday, the eBook edition. The June 20 selection features Treasure Island: Runaway Gold, by Jewell Parker Rhodes. I typically schedule an eBook preview for the first Friday of each month — but over the summer, in the interest of supporting students’ retention of learning, I decided to schedule eBook previews for the first and third Fridays.

‘Information Sources and Services’ (Toastmasters speech)

After an absence of several years, I recently became reinvolved with Toastmasters International: this time with a club in Santa Rosa, California. Here is a practice run-through for my Ice Breaker Speech in the Toastmasters pathway, “Motivational Strategies.” As the Ice Breaker Speech is about sharing my personal story, and the focus of my graduate studies this fall will be on “Information Sources and Services,” I decided to share my experience offering Information Services: working first as a newspaper editor and then as a librarian.
https://youtu.be/IJNkCF2yjlE