‘Sex, Drugs and Asperger Syndrome’

With Sex, Drugs and Asperger Syndrome (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2016), Luke Jackson offers A User Guide to Adulthood.

When he was 13, Jackson wrote Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence. Now 26, Jackson has accumulated “an entire lifetime’s worth of aging” since he wrote his previous book.

With forthright candor, Jackson offers guidance on various aspects of life — including work, education, bullying, friendship, intimate relationships and the use and abuse of drugs.

Bags from give-away materials

Each of these bags is one-of-a-kind and these two are the only two like them there are. Anywhere. In the world. I made them out of repurposed materials. The handles were strips of wool fabric, the decorative panels came from chair upholstery and the body fabric bore evidence of pleating — possibly curtains or a skirt. I feel good that this bag “closes the loop” by salvaging valuable materials and giving them new life.

‘Rules’ is problematic Schneider award recipient

Continuing with my discussion of the Schneider Family Book Awards: I struggled with this next part’s social acceptability.

Would expressing concern about a prior award recipient be “second-guessing” a past committee, possibly inviting defensiveness, or would it demonstrate the need for nominated titles to be considered carefully?

Here goes:

For discussion of a problematic Schneider award recipient, I ask that the committee read a review of Rules by Cynthia Lord, the 2007 middle-school winner.

‘Commitment’ shouldn’t obligate children to stay in abusive friendships

A 2014 article by writer Amy Joyce for The Washington Post showed up this week in my Facebook feed. In it, Harvard psychologist Richard Weissbourd and his colleagues with the “Making Caring Common Project” offer five strategies to raise moral and caring children.

‘Meh’ means ‘Merry Christmas’

“Meh! Meh!” Starfire says when she attacks wrapping paper, or otherwise behaves like the joyous cat that she is. And so, in this hand-drawn card, “Meh” means “Merry Christmas.”

Schneider Family Book Award

Each year in January, I await the announcement of American Library Association Youth Media Award winners.

And each year with its emphasis upon portraying the experience of people with disabilities, the Schneider Family Book Award uniquely piques my interest — both as a person on the autism spectrum and as a library professional who wants the collection to “mirror” the experience of a diverse readership.

‘The Red Bicycle’ by Jude Isabella

In North America, a young boy, Leo, saves the money he earns by doing work for his neighbors so that he can purchase a new bicycle. When he outgrows “Big Red,” his beloved red bicycle, he donates it to a bike-relief organization that transports it to the West African country of Burkina Faso.

“Big Red’s” story is told in The Red Bicycle by Jude Isabella with illustrations by Simone Shin (Kids Can Press, 2015).

This book offers an informative look at what can be accomplished by bicycle, when the luxury and privilege of automobile driving simply do not exist.

Yarnbombing at Gonville Cafe and Library

Photo credit: The Inked Librarian on Facebook

Readers of my blog may be familiar with Yarn Bombing at Your Library, a project on Facebook where I curate images and articles about yarn-bomb installations involving libraries. The project’s scope is international and in the latest post to its timeline: the Gonville Knitting Group brought holiday color to the Gonville Cafe and Library in Wanganui, New Zealand. The Inked Librarian (Kelly Scarrow) wrote about the yarnbombing in her column for the Wanganui Midweek newspaper.

NPR should track disabilities among staff diversity

National Public Radio ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen has released a look at diversity among NPR newsroom staff, encompassing race, ethnicity and gender. She also addresses diversity among on-air sources for Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

‘Every Vote Matters’ in 5-4 Supreme Court rulings

Cases that have direct bearing on students’ lives were decided with a vote of 5-4 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Their rights to free speech, limitations on speech, drug testing and treatment in the courts might be radically different if these splits had gone a different way.

In Every Vote Matters (Free Spirit Publishing, March 2016), Judge Tom Jacobs and his daughter Natalie Jacobs review several U.S. Supreme Court cases that were decided with a single vote.

Like the title suggests, “Every Vote Matters” to Judge Tom and Natalie Jacobs, and they present a strong argument that it needs to matter to young people reading this book. Their one vote could shape who is elected president or elected to U.S. Congress — which, in turn, affects the ideology of who is appointed to the United States’ highest court.

Autism Speaks: Two autists elected to board

From John Elder Robison, I learned this week that, for the first time, Autism Speaks has elected two actual people with autism to its board of directors.

ESSA includes favorable library provisions

President Obama signs the ESSA. Photo credit: U.S. White House

President Barack Obama has signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and American Library Association (ALA) President Sari Feldman credited ALA members’ advocacy efforts with favorable provisions for school libraries.

‘Susan B. Anderson’s Kids’ Knitting Workshop’

After three attempts at learning to knit, I finally succeeded with the help of a circular-knitting class: 16 inches of knit stitch on circular knitting needles to form the body of a bag.

It’s precisely this approach that is taken by Susan B. Anderson in her Kids’ Knitting Workshop (Artisan Books, 2015). “Knitting in the round is the easiest and most effective way for children (and adults) to learn how to knit.” All of the knitting in her book uses circular knitting needles.

Knitting: No longer ‘left-’ or ‘right-handed’?

Knitting-book authors seem to be moving away from terms like “right-handed” and “left-handed” knitting, referring instead to “Continental-” and “English-style” knitting. (In “Continental,” the yarn is carried in the left hand; in “English-style,” it’s carried in the right.

‘Autism and Everyday Executive Function’

For a thorough explanation of executive function as developed by people with autism, I recommend Autism and Everyday Executive Function by Paula Moraine (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, November 2015).

Moraine recommends identifying an individual’s particular strengths (described as “Autistic Access Points”) and applying them to “unlock” or support the development of executive function in a child on the autism spectrum.

With comprehensive detail, Moraine describes the “languages” with which people communicate, the “ingredients or tools” that can especially assist children with autism, and the eight skills of executive control.

Commingled books, the Dewey way

In an online group, someone posted a link to an essay by Alexander Chee, which discusses combining — or not combining — bookshelves as part of living as a family. I used the Dewey Decimal subject classification system to combine and organize our books. As a result, many of the issues about commingling books — of one partner’s books isolated in a “cell” or books given greater or lesser prominence — are not really an issue when their order is determined by a numerical system.

Grateful for libraries, today and every day

Library cards from nearly everywhere I have lived or worked

I have my advocate’s hat on today, to talk about my gratitude to libraries (continuing with a seasonal focus on things I am thankful for).

Thanksgiving blessings: Work in tough economy

Thanksgiving offers a time each year to take stock of our blessings, and I make a regular practice of listing things I am thankful for. To begin with, I feel blessed by the work I do in southern Oregon’s extremely tough economy.

‘Camp Midnight’ by Steven T. Seagle

Within minutes after Skye’s mother leaves her with her father and step-mother for the summer, the adults spring their plans for Skye — they’re sending her to camp.

Only problem (from the adults’ perspective, that is), they don’t remember the name of the camp but they think the name started with “M.” On the basis of that hastily-remembered detail, Skye finds herself on a bus bound for “Camp Midnight.”

From its eerie first impression and the official beginning-of-camp, Skye quickly discovers that Camp Midnight is like no other summer camp.

Bellview Elementary School library ‘Top 10’

Bellview Elementary School library ‘Top 10,’ Nov. 23, 2015

Featured titles in Oregon Battle of the Books captured all 10 slots again this month on the Bellview Elementary School library “Top 10,” representing the most often-checked-out books during the previous 30 days.

Religious Explorations: Recent posts

Here are recent posts to social media in my professional role as Administrative Coordinator for the Religious Explorations program at the Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. I have worked part-time in this capacity since May 2014.

Oregon Blue Book in Bellview library

New in Reference, for use in Bellview library, the Oregon Blue Book almanac and fact book is a great official source for looking up information about Oregon economy and government.

The Oregon Blue Book has been published regularly for more than 100 years, according to an introduction by Kate Brown, secretary of state at the time of publication (sworn in as Oregon’s governor after the Blue Book went to press).

The 2015-2016 edition was donated to Bellview library compliments of the Oregon Secretary of State. Its web version can be visited at http://bluebook.state.or.us/​.

The librarian’s ‘customer service’ hat

What would my ‘customer service’ hat look like?

Among library blogs, 500 Hats by Barbara Braxton is a personal favorite; it expands the perceptions of people who think of librarians only as “keeper of the books.”

Each entry focuses on one of many “hats” worn by the library professional.

Hats are a big part of my image and so in that vein, I offer thoughts on my “customer service” hat. Customer service is a big part of my daily activities in Bellview Elementary School library.

‘Deserving’

The Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, where I work part-time, is participating this year in a study and small-group discussion program called “Soul Matters Sharing Circles.” Each month, people work with materials organized around a theme. This month, the theme is “Grace,” a blessing that is unexpected and perhaps even undeserved.

‘Peeple’ app, now ‘100-percent opt-in’

Cartoon image created with Bitstrips

As a survivor of bullying, I reacted with concern when I learned about the “Peeple” app, particularly that people could be added without their consent and subjected to negative ratings.

Blog posts classified with Dewey numbering

This week I’ve been researching Dewey Decimal classifications for the subject tags in my blog. It seemed thematically appropriate, with my emphasis on librarianship, and is a natural progression from organizing my own books in numerical order by subject.

In Bellview: Teacher-librarian Weatherly Oakes

Teacher-librarian Weatherly Oakes presented her first library skills lessons in Bellview library today. Using colorful posters (and a Jeopardy-style game for the older children) she reviewed library expectations. Welcome, Weatherly!

‘The Sign of the Cat’ by Lynne Jonell

In the island kingdom of Arvidia, Duncan McKay’s mother insists he must always wear a cap with earflaps whenever he is outside. His grades in school must never be too good. And when he fences with the baron’s son Robert, he is (mostly) careful to lose.

Duncan’s cat Grizel taught him to speak Cat, but this too must stay a secret.

About his father, Duncan only knows what little his mother has told him: that he once owned a boat but he was not a fisherman, and was an excellent swordsman. To be near his father, Duncan can only visit a grave that his mother says is his.

Project PALS module 2, ‘Arranging the Library Environment’

“Arranging the Library Environment,” Module 2 in the Project PALS online course, “Serving Library Users on the Autism Spectrum,” invites library professionals to critically evaluate the environment and the structure of activities in the library to consider the effect they might have upon autistic patrons.

STDL and autism: Are self-advocates part of discussion?

From Targeting Autism, a project and blog addressing library service to patrons with autism, I learned that Kate Niehoff, program and outreach coordinator with the Schaumburg Township District Library (STDL) in Schaumburg, Ill. will be part of a panel discussion that focuses on programs for adult patrons on the autism spectrum.

Bellview Elementary School library ‘Top 10’

Bellview Elementary School library ‘Top 10,’ Oct. 17, 2015
from Cynthia M. Parkhill

The Bellview Elementary School library “Top 10” represent the most often-checked-out books during the previous 30 days, as tracked by the Follett-Destiny online public access catalog. Roughly once per month, I like to create flyers that showcase these often-used resources.

Autism ‘not associated with brutality’

For the New York Times, Andrew Solomon debunks the “Myth of the ‘Autistic Shooter.’” Because it happened again; only a few days into coverage of an act of domestic terrorism — the killing of nine people and injuring of several others at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon — a news outlet drew attention to posts attributed to the killer’s mother in which she claimed that “I have Asperger’s” and “I also have an Asperger’s kid.”

Bookmobile memories

During a year that I worked in Bel Marin Keys, I was a regular visitor at the Marin County Free Library bookmobile when it parked across the street from my employer. Ever since, I have been intrigued by these portable libraries’ capability to expand libraries’ physical reach.

Five years ago today, during a walk around San Francisco, I couldn’t resist having my photo taken next to the San Francisco Public Library bookmobile. For an assignment that fall in my library studies program, I advocated resumption of bookmobile services among Lake County Library programs.

Oregon Battle of the Books, audio-format resources

A number of this year's Oregon Battle of the Books titles can be checked out in Audiobook or eBook format through Overdrive/Library2Go, available to Jackson County Library Services cardholders.

‘Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library’

My exploration of this year’s titles in Oregon Battle of the Books (third- to fifth-grade division) begins with Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.

Luigi Lemoncello, who made his fortune designing games, has given the town of Alexandriaville, Ohio a new library. Twelve students have been challenged to be first to “escape” during a lock-in at the library before its official opening.

Author Chris Grabenstein presents an array of clues for readers to solve with the characters. The library’s resources — beyond their intrinsic value — advance the students in their quest.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library combines a first-rate, entertaining read with a healthy course of information literacy.I highly recommend it.

Special appreciation to Bellview PTO, which purchased OBOB titles for Bellview Elementary School library

Bullying Prevention Month book display

In honor of Bullying Prevention Month (October), I put books on display that address bullying. The books are available from our collection in Bellview Elementary School library.

Halloween bulletin boards in Bellview library

Bellview library is home to elaborate bulletin-board designs that combine posters and die-cut characters. They're the work of Traci Ordenez, who put up Halloween themes today.

New books for library: Always a highlight

With a new year at Bellview, I’ve resumed management of daily library operations. I do my best to keep the collection as current as possible: adding titles to my recommendation list based on student interests and curriculum support. Always a highlight: placing that order and awaiting a shipment of books!

Mystery bicycle light

Here’s a mystery twist to my bicycle commute. I worked at Bellview Elementary School this morning, then rode to Body Support Systems, Inc. Someone attached this light to my bicycle fork at some time during the day. When did it arrive? At which work site did someone attach this to my bike? I didn’t notice it when I left Bellview, but the light’s cheerful green contrast against my bike’s teal frame caught my attention right away when I left Body Support Systems, Inc.

Cross-posted from Librarian on a Bicycle

Oregon Battle of the Books in Bellview library

Several of the titles for Oregon Battle of the Books have arrived in Bellview library! I spent the past couple of days getting books ready for use and putting them out on display. By the time I left today, many of these titles were already in students’ hands. Big thanks to Bellview PTO, which purchased the books, and volunteers who applied each book’s barcode. This library assistant really appreciates the support.

Town Square Academia, life and learning outside campus walls

I’m continually intrigued by the decoupling of education from the university setting. This latest example, Town Square Academia in the Upper Galilee Region in Israel, offers free courses with direct relevance to “life outside the campus walls.”

Project PALS library service and autism : Please consider autistic perspectives concerning ‘Autism Speaks’

This evening, I completed “About Autism in the Library,” the first of four modules in the Project PALS online course, “Serving Library Users on the Autism Spectrum” (offered through OCLC WebJunction).

Library Card Sign-Up Month in Bellview library

The beginning of a new school year coincides with Library Card Sign-Up Month. One year ago, I designed this sign promoting Jackson County Library Services, and once again this year, I put it out on display in Bellview Elementary School library. The sign specifically highlights resources through our Ashland library, and when I first designed the sign I made it available to Ashland library children’s department staff. I encourage children’s department staff at other JCLS branches to download the file from Slideshare.

Library ‘makerspaces’ inspire manufacturing

With their investment in machines like 3-D printers, public libraries are becoming “one-stop shop[s] for manufacturing in the digital age." That’s according to Justin Lynch writing for the Pacific Standard.

New books for new year in Bellview library

I was back in Bellview Elementary School library this week, getting ready for a new school year — where I found awaiting me, an order of Scholastic​ books thanks to spring book fair proceeds.

Steve Silberman slams ‘Autism Speaks’

People on the autism spectrum are the ones “most often sidelined or excluded” from public discussions of their condition. For author Steve Silberman, the organization “Autism Speaks” is a case in point. In his Los Angeles Times op/ed, Silberman argues that this organization, which sets “the global scientific agenda” on autism, needs to listen to, and truly serve the needs of, autistic people and their families.

Friends of the Medford Library book shop reopens

Source of image: Friends of the Medford Library

One of the ways I volunteer in support of local libraries is by publicizing “Friends” group activities. From Friends of the Medford Library comes word that its book shop remodel is complete and the shop is now open inside the Medford library, 205 S. Central, Suite 107 in Medford, Oregon.

“With the additional space you have many more books to choose from, including lots of Good As New books.”

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 24 and visitors during the day will receive a gift certificate for a free book, up to $2 in value, to use during the month of September. Learn more from Friends of the Medford Library’s latest eNewsletter.

‘Accessing the Future,’ disability-themed SF

As a library professional, it matters to me that resources in the collection validate the experiences and reflect the diversity that exists among its readership. Science fiction, like other genres of storytelling, needs to advance this aim.

For this reason, Accessing the Future (Futurefire.net, 2015), is a vitally important addition to the diverse library collection. Edited by Kathryn Allan and Djibril al-Ayad, Accessing the Future explores issues of disability, accommodation and accessibility through speculative fiction and art. Its contributors provide unique and valuable perspectives in which characters with disabilities navigate future societies.

Keep Autism Speaks out of library-service discussion

As an autistic person who is beginning a library career, I was excited to read about Project PALS online training for library service to people with autism.

Children understand more than they articulate

“We underestimate our kids all the time, about what they hear and what they understand, based on what they can articulate.” At Mama Be Good, Brenda Rothman shares her child Jack’s understanding of a woman forced to give up her seat on a plane because the gate agent and a flight attendant insisted that her wheelchair “wouldn’t fit.”

‘Racebending’ challenges literature’s ‘default’ race

Hermione Granger, via dellbelle39.tumblr.com

How do you envision the characters in a book when no description is explicitly given? Do you “by default” attribute white race? Who you are and how you answer reveals whether or not your identity is “mirrored” by the literature you read. At Huffington Post, Zeba Blay highlights “racebending” — where fan artists portray Harry Potter characters as black and other non-white ethnicities.

(Social sharing credit to We Need Diverse Books)

Related posts, showcasing more revolutionary art:
Authors’ books get ‘Coverflip’ treatment
Cosplay ≠ Consent
Hawkeye Initiative: Male superhero duplicates women’s awkward poses

Teen self-help with self-checkout for privacy

Credit: aphroditzy on Tumblr

With this awesome sign created by library supervisor Justin Azevedo, the Sacramento Public Library points teens in the direction of sensitive information that they may be too embarrassed or afraid to ask an adult to help them locate. The sign reminds teens about self-checkout to help protect their privacy.

As Azevedo told Buzzfeed News, “I would notice how popular teen books on these topics were, but how rare actual questions about them from teen library patrons were. Most of the topics would be embarrassing to ask about, but some of them could threaten their privacy or even safety if asked in front of people or discovered by parents in a search engine history.”

Because the Dewey numbering system is a subject classification, many of these topics will likely have their counterparts in the same order in our Jackson County libraries — and our teens, too, can access them in privacy through self-checkout machines. (The photo was first posted by Tumblr user aphroditzy and Buzzfeed News elected to share a reblog by user kassysgalaxyyy).

UUA Common Read: Children’s book pairing

A few months ago I suggested, concerning the UUA’s “Common Read,” that the adult non-fiction book that is selected each year be paired with books for children and youth that compliment its theme.

Today the UUA announced that this year’s Common Read is Just Mercy, A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (Spiegel & Grau, 2014).

With Just Mercy’s emphasis on people trapped by the criminal justice system — specifically poor people, people of color and children — a possible pairing that came to my mind for this year’s Common Read was Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me by Daniel Beaty (Little, Brown and Company, Hatchette Book Group).

This picture book depicts a boy whose absent father advises him through letters about how to be a man. Incarceration is not identified in the story as the reason for the father’s absence, but is addressed in an afterword. The illustrator, Bryan Collier, received the American Library Association’s 2014 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award.

‘Just Mercy,’ UUA Common Read

The Unitarian Universalist Association announced today that this year’s “Common Read” is Just Mercy, A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson.

Since the program’s inception, I’ve closely followed each year’s Common Read selection.

I have long appreciated the shared experience of reading a book in common, and the UUA Common Read was an important addition to the UU lending library where I volunteered as librarian. Promoting the Common Read continues to be in-character as Religious Explorations administrative coordinator and web editor for a UU congregation.

Editors’ filters reshape authors’ worlds

At Huffington Post, Deborah Plummer examines the impact of an editor upon the radically different portrayal of Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, compared to his depiction as “racist-rhetoric ranting, card-carrying member of the Klu Klux Klan” in Lee’s Go Set a Watchman.

‘The Real Boy’ by Anne Ursu

In the cellar beneath a magician’s shop, a young boy named Oscar enjoys a life of quiet routine — of gathering herbs from his master’s garden and then grinding them for use while the household cats keep him company.

Oscar’s master, Caleb, and magic smiths of the community create and sell enchanted objects and charms for a city’s privileged inhabitants.

Suddenly, the community is plagued by terrifying and unexplained events and Oscar must emerge from his cellar sanctuary and tend the shop while his master is away. He reluctantly teams up with the healer’s apprentice to try to solve mysterious ailments that threaten the children of the city.

Jackson County Library Services, re-branded as independent entity

During a recent visit to the Ashland library, I picked up a letter that was sent to me. It announced my transition from Jackson County volunteer to being a volunteer specifically with Jackson County Library Services (JCLS).

‘Hattitude’: Cap in orange, green, blue and brown

I assembled various fabrics, in orange, green, blue and brown, into a spectacular hat. I love the way these fabrics work together, most re-purposed from other garments. Old pants, a skirt and fabric cut from a dress to make it “bicycle-friendly.” (’Cause at the risk of digression, a short dress over pants is much easier to ride in than a long dress that might tangle in the chain.) The blue-stripe comes from a sash that was very loose weave — just threads held together at intervals — so I stitched it onto another fabric to give it greater durability. Same thing with the green lace.

RVUUF website goes live

A new website went live this morning for Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship​. For the past few weeks, I’ve been working as its web editor: generating or locating content, editing it for style consistency and populating the site.

‘Like riding a bike’

Cartoon image created with Bitstrips

I'm always fascinated when the links I read and share, speak to seemingly disparate interests. A recent Wall Street Journal headline resonated both with my interest in colloquial expressions and my passion for traveling by bicycle.

People with disabilities assert ‘common identity’

More and more frequently, people with disabilities are attacking discrimination, writes Joseph P. Shapiro, discussing a new “common identity” for people with disabilities. “Rejected is the traditional mindset that it’s up to the individual to overcome his or her own physical limitation,” Shapiro writes at the Washington Post. “Instead, according to the disability rights movement, it is not so much the individual that needs to change — but society.” Quoting Judy Heumann of the World Institute on Disability: “Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives — jobs opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example. It is not a tragedy to me that I’m living in a wheelchair.”

Return of the incredible cane baldric

My cane baldric, braided from strips of T-shirt fabric

I caught my right little toe against a door frame Friday evening and it’s swollen, discolored and tender. This presented an opportunity to once again bring out the incredible cane baldric.

‘Station Eleven’ by Emily St. John Mandel

In Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (Vintage, 2015), a deadly virus has wiped out nearly all of the earth’s human population. Its survivors group in pre-industrial settlements in former strip malls, airports and schools.

A troupe of actors and a symphony orchestra travel among these settlements, performing Shakespeare’s plays. When they arrive at one settlement, they discover that it is under the control of a religious cult. A couple who settled there to have a baby have now disappeared and headstones mark their empty graves in the settlement cemetery. The couple’s last-known destination was the “Museum of Civilization.”

Oregon to offer ‘free’ community college

As noted by Nigel Jaquiss for Willamette Week, Oregon will become the second state to offer “free” community college (pending the signature of Gov. Kate Brown). Under Senate Bill 81, Oregon will pay the balance of tuition for eligible students who apply for and receive federal grants for community college.

‘Enabling Acts’ by Lennard J. Davis

Twenty-five years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Enabling Acts by Lennard J. Davis (Beacon Press, 2015) offers both a detailed history and comprehensive assessment of the ADA.

Davis positions his book outside “the popular story” (16) in which “activism led to dramatic legislative results.” Instead, Davis credits the energies of three groups in creating “the complex thing we call politics” (17): elected officials or “high-profile politicians,” staffers who write legislation and organize hearings and activists “who provide the momentum when the other two groups encounter a slowdown.”

Library work: My first 1,000 hours

Wearing my Hogwarts robes in Bellview library

With the completion of my contract-year in Bellview Elementary School library, I have amassed more than 1,000 hours in my library service career.

‘A Tale for the Time Being’ by Ruth Ozeki

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki is the latest book on my summer reading log through Jackson County Library Services.

The story is told through the alternating perspectives of 16-year-old Nao, a girl in Tokyo whose classmates subject her to cruel and relentless bullying, and Ruth, a novelist who discovers Nao’s diary after it washes ashore on the remote Pacific coast island where Ruth lives.

Nao’s mother is her family’s sole earner and her father, deeply depressed, has already attempted suicide and seems likely to attempt it again. Nao believes that her only option is to commit suicide as well.

Standing continues to present challenges

My cane baldric, braided from strips of T-shirt fabric

Two-and-a-half years after injuring my ankle, I continue the process of recovery. It’s a gradual process and, while I have regained mobility, standing for a long duration continues to present challenges.

‘Bikenomics’ by Elly Blue

My latest “Suggest a Title” recommendation to my public library concerns Bikenomics, How Bicycling Can Save the Economy by Elly Blue (Microcosm Publishing, 2013).

In a recent eNewsletter, Utne Reader magazine directed my attention to an excerpt from chapter 1, “The Free Rider Myth.” In it, Blue challenges the “myth” that auto users pay for the roads they drive on.

Blue argues that drivers only pay for half the cost of our roads. The rest is paid for through sales, property or income taxes — whether or not we drive. And much of the money goes to pay interest on loans that financed road construction projects.

RVUUF web editor

Among professional developments this week, I signed a letter of agreement to work as web editor for the Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (RVUUF).

‘Truffula Tree Yarnbomb’

I rely on Google alerts tied to “Library” and “yarn bomb” to help me locate many of the links and images that I post to Yarn Bombing at Your Library.

But I really appreciate it when artists contact me to let me know about their projects, as happened with a Lorax-inspired Truffula Tree Yarnbomb created by Jenny Brown.

Blogging at Hi, Jenny Brown, Brown writes that this was the biggest yarnbomb she’d done by herself with opportunities to learn lessons. Her adventure installing the Truffula Tree Yarnbomb makes an entertaining read and as a fellow cyclist (who rides a yarn-bombed bicycle), I also appreciate Brown’s crocheted seat-cover.

‘Someone with Autism Loves Me!’

My husband found a heart-shaped keychain with the caption, “Someone with Autism Loves Me!,” propped on our front-door handle, braced against the frame. He thought I might’ve left it for him, but I’m as mystified as he is concerning the keychain’s origin. For whatever reason it was left at our place, my husband is snagging the keychain because someone with autism loves him. But he hung it on our wall and so both of us can enjoy it.

EqUUal Access: Accessibility and Inclusion Ministry

The Accessibility and Inclusion Ministry (AIM) credentialing program is officially being released at the Unitarian Universalist Association’s General Assembly.

AIM was developed as a joint program of EqUUal Access (a group of Unitarian Universalists living with disabilities, their families, friends and allies) and the UUA. It builds upon a document that I helped co-author, “Accessibility Guidelines for Unitarian Universalist Congregations.”

Exclusion: Children learn from adults’ practices

David M. Perry’s son Nico’s name was “conspicuously absent” from a flier promoting end-of-year performances by his school’s reading groups. Nico’s teacher’s explanation: “Nico will get to participate as an audience member.”

‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’

An attempt at shaming directed against a stranger that showed up in my Facebook newsfeed led me to read Jon Ronson’s book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed (Riverhead Books, 2015).

I felt bad for the person depicted in the photo in my Facebook newsfeed. She made a poor decision in the past and attempted to put it behind her.

The photo campaign was an attempt to force this incident to the top of search results again, and I was profoundly disappointed that anyone I knew would choose to participate. Even worse, the campaign against this person is not an isolated case.