Connecting the Stacks

  Image Source By now most people have heard of those Meta glasses, a thick set of frames that are mostly only distinguishable from regular glasses by the cameras mounted near the hinge. Smart glasses are on the rise, with the biggest retailer out there being a collaboration between Ray-Ban and Meta (yes, as in Mark Zuckerberg). Meta glasses are much more normal looking than the original Google Glass and are said to have much better functionality. But are these smart glasses worth it? Cellphones were once a novelty, and now most people could not imagine a life without them. Are smart glasses going to become the new "must-have technology"? Let's start with some features. The first feature marketed in Meta glasses is Meta AI, a virtual assistant that uses AI technology to answer questions and complete tasks similar to Siri. Meta glasses also feature a camera, bone-conducting personal speaker, and microphone. You could also use these glasses to make calls, send texts, and l...

Image Source: Nana a Mischevious Monkey by Shum Zay on Amazon Blog Post #12: AI Books and Libraries By Madeline Feehan Is an AI author really an author? Are AI books valid, and should they be on library shelves, or should we steer clear of them? What about  AI- assisted   work? Is the best compromise adding some to our collection and clearly labeling them as AI, or is it best to not even indulge at all?  Do you find work that was written with the help of AI but was also written by a human less egregious than something entirely written by AI? Should those books still be labeled?  These are some of the many fascinating questions discussed by guest speakers who came to my library. Lisa Zuena, Nicole Scherer, and a third librarian from the Nassau County Library Association came in to talk about AI slop and what it means for the future. AI slop refers to poorly edited, weirdly formatted, strangely written books that find their way into ordinary collections. This happens w...

  Does your library’s mission include diversity, equity, and inclusion? East Hampton Library’s (EHL) mission statement reads:   The East Hampton Library, a free community resource center, provides a welcoming space to all who enter its doors, in which to read, learn, communicate, create, play and participate. Through its collections, services, innovative programs, historic preservation, virtual access and technology, the library advances literacy, knowledge, cultural engagement and entertainment for all ages, elevating our understanding of the world. I highlighted “welcoming space to all,” but let’s take a closer look. In East Hampton, New York, Latinos comprise nearly 27% of the population. But are we drawing them into the library? Are we meeting their needs? Are we telling their stories? By examining EHL’s Facebook and Instagram posts, it appears that the library lacks a DEI initiative. EHL needs to increase the representation of diverse people on its social media. Inviting...

Last week ( or maybe it was two weeks ago?) I wrote about the annual event my library puts on, Fan Fest! Now that the 2025 one is over, I wanted to share some details and offer tips in case anyone is interested in putting one on at their library. My number one piece of advice is don't have it in November lol. This year and last year, the winds were INSANE, and it felt colder than it really was. Last year, we actually had to take down a tent we had put up over the band because it would not stay up. At the yard sale table this year, I witnessed many items flying away in the wind that I didn't think could fly. Thankfully, the winds died down after a few hours, and all the items stayed on the tables afterward. In the end, we made $190! That money all goes to the Friends of Sayville Library.  My second piece of advice is to plan for the unexpected. You never know what the weather will be like, how many people will show up, or how many food trucks will show up. You must go with the...

                                                         (Courtesy of the Jefferson Parish Library Program ) Hey friends! As an ever-learning librarian, I’m currently in the thick of helping teen librarians plan one of our library's most exciting teen events yet: Wicked for Good .  It’s a community service program with a magical twist - inspired by the upcoming movie release  Wicked For Good ,  our teens will be creating zines about kindness, assembling care kits for local shelters, and painting positivity rocks with quotes from Glinda and Elphaba themselves.  As we prepare the program, I’ve been thinking a lot about digital accessibility - not just who can attend, but also  how we communicate about it. If our goal is to build an inclusive and empowering space, then accessibility can’t be an af...

Image source: The 'Killing Eve' Finale has Infuriated Queer Fans   Blog Post #11: Killing Eve and "Bury Your Gays" Backlash By Madeline Feehan Some of the fiercest allies and supporters of diversity, equity, and inclusion (and some of its greatest opponents) can be found in the unlikeliest of places: Tumblr, Twitter, and AO3. What do these people all have in common? They are heavily immersed in fandoms. Whether they're reblogging content or creating their own, whether they're starting Reddit threads, writing fanfiction, drawing fanart, posting to their stories, making video edits, or starting petitions, these fans all share a passion for fictional worlds. So what happens when a fandom all comes together and agrees on one thing? This is what happened with the Killing Eve fandom after the show's finale. Sometimes audiences are split between opinions. For example, when a beloved book gets turned into a movie, some will argue that the book's better or that...

  (courtesy of Cobb County Public Library Teen Programs ) Today’s teen librarians are more than information guides - they’re cultural facilitators in a digital landscape where teens aren’t just reading content, but remixing , creating , and collaborating . Drawing on Henry Jenkins’s concept of participatory culture , social media becomes not a bulletin board, but a shared creative platform,  especially powerful when designing teen programming around emerging technologies like AI . Young & Rossmann’s (2015) five social media content themes,  Announcements , Library Services , Engagement , Community Building , and Education,  offer a strong strategic base. But when filtered through Jenkins’s participatory lens and applied to AI literacy, they become catalysts for co-creation . Start with Announcements and Library Services : instead of simply posting “New AI workshop next week,” make it participatory, “Should our next AI lab be art, code, or chatbots? You decide.”...

  Image Source Engagement farming is incredibly common these days. You may know it by another name, like engagement baiting, rage baiting, or even clickbait. This tactic is almost unavoidable at this point, especially if your personal "algorithm" has noticed you engaging in even just one bait post. So what is engagement farming ? The term refers to a tactic used on social media to bait people into engaging with (watching, liking, commenting on, etc.) their posts, artificially boosting their engagement metrics. Many people might do this for attention, but often there is some financial gain to it. For many social media platforms, more engagement = more money paid to the creator. Engagement farming is generally looked down upon, but is seen as easy money by those creating it. If you are on any social media platform, you have probably seen engagement farming of some sort. Here are a few examples: Clickbait : a post that entices the reader with sensational terms to click a link in...

Image source I want to say “It’s always a good day when I can talk about Star Wars,” but that’s not always true. Loving something means acknowledging its flaws, and it’s pretty safe to say that Star Wars as a franchise has a racism problem, from the lack of the BIPOC characters in its movies (and accession to stereotypes when they were depicted), to the racist harassment that that BIPOC actors in recent shows have faced from certain sections of the fandom. While the franchise has taken steps to address these issues in recent years, it’s still got work to do–and if it doesn’t, fans are more than willing to call it out. This exact thing happened in 2021, with the release of The Bad Batch. This show follows a group of clones (soldiers born and bred specifically to fight for the Galactic Republic, introduced in the Prequel Trilogy) known as “The Bad Batch” as they try to find their place in the galaxy during the Empire’s rise. Each member of the The Bad Batch had “desirable mutations” tha...

Yes, we all know that social media is essential for informing patrons about programs, services, and resources, but how many of you also use social media for library advocacy? Community stakeholders can work as partners to promote all the free and wonderful things that your library has to offer.   According to the American Library Association , “advocacy is central to everything we do, from intellectual freedom to library funding (ALA.org). The ALA recommends several ways to achieve library advocacy. One suggestion is for librarians to report instances of censorship of patron-challenged books. As ALA gathers data, it can help libraries combat censorship. Another way to support a public library is to invite a congressperson to tour the library and learn about all that it offers. With the politician’s advance authorization, the library may be able to tag them in the library post and ask them to share information about their library tour. One of my relatives just won her second term as...

  Image source Boy, oh boy. I can't even describe how long I've been waiting to talk about this one.  So, LinkedIn. It's a great place to network, showcase your career accomplishments, and foster healthy professional connections, right? That's what it's supposed to be for, anyway. There's a certain subset of LinkedIn users who have taken things to the next level, however. For these users, the mundanities of personal life become profound business lessons that absolutely must be posted immediately. Something like dealing with a bad Uber ride becomes a reflection on the importance of speaking up and having courage (which is a fair lesson, but not exactly something you'd expect is relevant on LinkedIn). It is apparently also a place to discuss how your decision to open a notebook for brainstorming instead of staring at a screen totally, 100% led to a "major media executive" handing you his business card. And for some of these users, LinkedIn presents ...

Image Source Some countries, and even some U.S. states, are working on restricting the use of social media for children under a certain age. One of the major players making the shift right now is Australia, who's parliament approved a strict social media ban for children under 16 . While the ban is not yet in effect, it will restrict children under 16 from creating and using social media, with no exceptions for people already with an account or for people with parental consent. Other countries, like France, have similar restrictions. However, other countries, like Italy, allow exceptions for children with parental consent. Some states are attempting to do the same . Connecticut and New York are working to create safeguards to lower the risk of social media addiction, while Georgia and Tennessee want to require age verification and parental consent. In the U.S., most of these policies have been blocked due to litigation regarding whether or not such restrictions are constitutional. ...

  Source : WHO's automatic message that would appear on YouTube in light of the COVID controversies. Blog Post #10: YouTube and the Danger of COVID Misinformation By Madeline Feehan We all know misinformation is dangerous, but what if it could cost you your life? Let's talk about misinformation during COVID times and how it affected the nation's most vulnerable populations: old people and the immunocompromised- two groups who are the most at risk yet the most desperate for a cure and to stay safe, at the cost that they'll believe anything... One of the greatest sources of misinformation during this time was YouTube. Mainly because the site is designed to be a place of entertainment rather than a hub of information, and because there were no regulated labels differentiating when something was approved by the CDC and WHO, and not.  According to a study by the National Library of Medicine , YouTube was proven to be an unreliable source during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is...