meredith.wolfwater.comInformation Wants To Be Free | A librarian, writer and educator reflecting on the profession and the

tools we use to serve our patrons Home About Speaking Writing Contact Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Skype RSS SEE FULL POST With Work Time at the Center slow librarianship , Time , Work , Work-life balance by Meredith Farkas on 3/27/2024 with Comments Off on With Work Time at the Center This is the second in a series of essays I’ve written on time. You can view a list of all of them on the first essay. Once upon a time, people lived more by the natural rhythms of seasons, the movement of the sun, and their bodies. There weren’t clocks to tell them when to … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST Time: It doesn’t have to be this way slow librarianship , Time , Work-life balance by Meredith Farkas on 3/13/2024 with 3 comments What we think time is, how we think it is shaped, affects how we are able to move through it.” -Jenny Odell Saving Time, p. 270 This is the first of a series of essays I’ve written on time. Here are the others (they will be linked as they become available on Information Wants to … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST Slowness, disability, and the art of losing about me , career , slow librarianship , Work-life balance by Meredith Farkas on 1/8/2024 with Comments Off on Slowness, disability, and the art of losing A few weeks ago, I had what honestly felt like a perfect day. It was a bright sunny day in December that felt almost stolen from the jaws of our long, cold, gray Portland winters. I woke up with almost no joint pain for the first time in ages and tons of energy. I worked … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST Open Offices are Neither More Open nor More Equitable libraries , management , MPOW , Work by Meredith Farkas on 10/16/2023 with 5 comments I can’t properly describe the level of annoyance I felt when I read Steven Bell’s latest piece in College and Research Libraries News about open offices entitled We’re all about openness: Except when it comes to our workspaces.” At first, I thought the piece was about open communication and transparency in the workplace, which is … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST Out of sight, out of mind? prioritizing support of online learners instruction , librarianship , libraries , online education , screencasting , Work by Meredith Farkas on 10/5/2023 with 1 comment It’s been eighteen years and I can’t believe this is still an issue. In 2005, I started my first professional library job as a distance learning librarian. At the time, half of Norwich University’s students were in fully online graduate programs and when I started in this brand-new position, very little had been done to … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST Slow librarianship and prioritizing life over work librarianship , slow librarianship , Work , Work-life balance by Meredith Farkas on 8/8/2023 with 6 comments I recently wrote an essay for CHOICE’s LibTech Insights blog entitled Building a Better Library Tech Future with Slow Librarianship.” It provides a brief introduction to slow librarianship, how it relates to library technology, and how our profession’s reification of innovation has kept us from really focusing on the needs of our patrons. I know … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST The power of shame and belonging about me , instruction , librarianship , libraries , Work by Meredith Farkas on 7/5/2023 with 2 comments In my last post, I wrote about the absolutely monstrous difficulty I was having getting off the migraine prevention medication (that wasn’t actually preventing migraines) I had been taking for 11 years. I saw two doctors and a sleep specialist about the issues I was having and none of them were helpful. My interactions with … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST Have you thought about just quitting? about me , Work-life balance by Meredith Farkas on 4/27/2023 with 8 comments In a world where there is always content being pushed at you, it’s hard to notice when a particular author hasn’t posted in a long time. There have been so many times where it has taken me a year or more to realize that I haven’t heard anything from one of my favorite bloggers or … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST Vocational awe is always harmful librarianship , slow librarianship , Work , Work-life balance by Meredith Farkas on 12/22/2022 with 18 comments A friend of mine wrote a tweet that really made me think the other day: I understand arguments against a default vocational awe,” but much of the discourse denies the existence and validity of vocations. Some think of what they do as more than a job. They feel called to it. Not everyone is, and … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST Valuing maintenance librarianship , libraries , slow librarianship , Work by Meredith Farkas on 12/14/2022 with 3 comments My town maintains an old dairy farm from the turn of the 20th century that now contains public gardens, a CSA, and community garden plots. In the Summer and Fall, I love to walk through the gardens and see all the amazing flowers, fruits, veggies, and more growing there. I love the mix of well-manicured … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST The end of Twitter? free the information! , librarianship , our digital future , social software , tech trends by Meredith Farkas on 11/18/2022 with Comments Off on The end of Twitter? The tl:dr is in whatever online communities you frequent, do you ever ask yourself who isn’t here? Who doesn’t feel welcome here? What barriers are there to participation?” If not, you should. What I like about Twitter is how much more diverse it was than any place I’ve been online, and also how so many … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST Stop normalizing overwork community college libraries , instruction , librarianship , mid-career , slow librarianship , Work , Work-life balance by Meredith Farkas on 10/23/2022 with 5 comments In the years that I have been trying my best to avoid overwork, I’ve become more attuned to the signs that I am indeed overworking. I usually notice one of three things: an inability to slow my brain down and not think about work during my off-time, difficulty with problem-solving (where my brain becomes like … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST Cultures of care and solidarity librarianship , slow librarianship , Work by Meredith Farkas on 8/24/2022 with Comments Off on Cultures of care and solidarity I had a dream the other night about my high school history teacher Mr. Farina who I haven’t seen since I graduated and he retired. I was ridiculously happy to see him, even in my unconscious mind. Back then, he saw something in me that I clearly didn’t at the time and his belief in … continue reading ... Universal design for work? librarianship , libraries , management , slow librarianship , Work , Work-life balance by Meredith Farkas on 5/12/2022 with 3 comments I’ve had migraines for over 20 years. I didn’t seek workplace accommodations for them until this year. The biggest barrier to getting accommodations at work was my own internalized ableism, but of course I came by it honestly in our society. There were two elements holding me back. The first was shame about my limitations. … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST So I’m a conspiracy theorist now? A call for retraction free the information! , librarianship , management , Work by Meredith Farkas on 3/19/2022 with 11 comments I know a lot of librarians get mad about poorly informed articles about libraries all the time. It’s rare that I ever really get truly angry about an article. I expect nothing less from the NY Times at this point than both-side-ism and Nazis! They’re just like us” articles. I expect too-late, tone-deaf statements from … continue reading ... SEE FULL POST When to say yes (or no) librarianship , management , slow librarianship , Work , Work-life balance by Meredith Farkas on 3/14/2022 with 5 comments Workaholism is a hard addiction to recover from. It’s not like some addictions where you can avoid the places or substances that played a role. Most of us are not in a position to just stop working. We have to somehow develop...