UCM’s SOLIS Book Club: Our pick for Fall 2026

In Fall 2026, SOLIS Book Club will read and discuss Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross. We’re the only VIRTUAL book club at the University of Central Missouri and our discussion is open to students, faculty, alumni, and staff.
https://youtu.be/Tfh4lj4lhxA

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you are enjoying my videos.

Video tutorial: Locating books with the library’s online catalog

Here is a video tutorial about how to use the school library’s online catalog to look for books in the library. I’m asking teachers to consider sharing and reviewing this process with their students because being able to locate books through a library’s online catalog is an important life-skill.
https://youtu.be/Bm5jZz_I1TA

Cultural humility and a diverse library collection

Building and promoting a diverse library collection begins with materials selection. In an earlier writing I talked about the fact that communities served by libraries are increasingly diverse. “Race, ethnicity, language, physical and mental ability, socioeconomic status, gender expression, and sexual orientation are just a few ways diversity is reflected in [students’] lived experiences” (Hughes-Hassell, 2020, p. 21). My goal when building a library collection is to serve this increasingly diverse community by ensuring variety among the books in the library’s collection.

Building and promoting a diverse library collection

How effectively am I creating and marketing a balanced library collection that represents the variety among residents of our community? As part of my studies in librarianship this semester, I plan to explore this question.

Cataloging win: Form/genre subject headings

An interesting development in the realm of cataloging: the Library of Congress will expand its use of genre and form terms as separate subject headings instead of appending them as form subdivisions at the end of subject strings.

Library reference work with children

In my readings this week concerning children and their information needs, some considerations that especially stood out for me were the need for preliteracy or bibliographic instruction, the importance of approaching each child as an individual, and the fact that a third-party adult is often part of the reference equation — either through being physically present, as in the case of a parent/caregiver, or having imposed the child’s query e.g. through a school assignment.

‘Information Sources and Services’ (Toastmasters speech)

After an absence of several years, I recently became reinvolved with Toastmasters International. This time I thought I’d try out 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

UCM’s SOLIS Book Club : Our pick for Fall 2025

Poll results are in and we have a winner! In Fall 2025, UCM’s SOLIS Book Club will read Life Hacks for a Little Alien, by Alice Franklin. Franklin wrote this book in the second person and, in an interview with NPR’s Scott Simon, Franklin said she “wanted readers of the story to feel as much empathy as possible” with the titular “Little Alien.”
https://youtu.be/GP3OdRWoj5g

‘Action Research’ expressed in a zine

Parkhill-ZINE-Participatory-action-research-with-an-Autistic-Book-Club
by Cynthia M. Parkhill

As part of my studies toward “Action Research” in libraries, I worked on constructing a zine that explored the concept of “Participatory” action research and applied it toward my interest in creating an “Autistic Book Club.”

UCM, LIS 5900 : Introductions

For spring 2025, I am enrolled in LIS 5900, Action Research in Libraries, as part of my studies in librarianship, University of Central Missouri.
https://youtu.be/Hh-gPbPEF-Q

UCM’s SOLIS Book Club : Our pick for Spring ’25

In the Student Organization of Library and Information Services, University of Central Missouri: Our next book-club discussion will be I Must Betray You, a work of historical fiction by Ruta Sepetys.
https://youtu.be/oQpaztvJ338

Autistic librarians ‘on the job’ in libraries

As part of my studies toward “Culturally Competent Librarianship” (LIS 5350 in Fall 2024), I composed a systematic bibliography concerning autistic librarians and other workers “on the job” in libraries.

Burden of ‘approachability’ in librarianship

In thinking about librarian stereotypes, and factors that can influence patrons’ user-success and confidence: Pagowsky and Rigby (2014) suggest these factors can include “approachability, identity, warmth, openness, and body language of the librarian” (pg. 7), suggesting that “even active users, who are already in a library with research questions, carry preconceived notions that might hinder or help their access to information, depending on what they encounter and how librarians presents themselves” (Pagowsky and Rigby, 2014, p. 7).

LRS8 : Presentor’s recap

One of my professors, Dr. Amanda Harrison, and I gave a co-presentation at Library Research Seminar 8, which took place in mid-September at the University of Kentucky. Our presentation focused on portrayals of autistic people in “readers’ choice” state book award nominees from 2014 to 2024. Here is a brief recap of my experience.
https://youtu.be/5Xlm5xlmEF4

UCM, LIS 5350 : Introductions

In Fall 2024, I am taking a course in “Culturally Competent Librarianship” through the graduate program in Library and Information Science, University of Central Missouri. Among things I’m looking forward to this year is a department book-club reading of Verified by Mike Caulfield and Samuel S. Wineburg. And check out a couple of fun pictures of myself: a “Wanted” poster for my cosplay of Monkey D. Luffy from the One Piece franchise, and a photo from my junior college days, where I look like a young Justin Bieber.
https://youtu.be/ne6-6HF8qnk

Ethics in library cataloging

This week, I watched “Change the Subject,” a documentary that’s related to the ethics of library cataloging.

Morale-boosting reminder : ‘All library staff’ were ‘Librarian of the Year’ in 2022

Library workers faced multiple challenges in early 2022, and it remains tough for us now. In the interest of boosting our collective morale, here is a reminder that in 2022, Library Journal honored “all library staff” as its Librarian of the Year.

‘Windows and mirrors’ in children’s literature : Issues and challenges

My studies this semester in Children’s and Young Adult Literature included the importance of books that can offer their readers “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors” (Bishop, 1990/2015) into the lives of people who are like, and also unlike, them. “Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience” (Bishop, 1990/2015, p. 1).

Book-Talk : The Cardboard Kingdom

Welcome to the “Cardboard Kingdom,” where a group of neighborhood children have created their own imaginative world out of ordinary household items and materials. This book-talk was created as part of LIS 5400, “Children’s and Young Adult Literature,” for the graduate program in Library and Information Science at the University of Central Missouri.

Sexuality and reader’s advisory

A question was posed to me as part of my studies in Children’s and Young Adult Literature: How would I provide reader’s advisory for young people who are looking for books related to sexuality?