Are school librarians responsible for the re-election of Trump?

‘Brain rot’ is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Oxford University Press, Dec 2, 2024 Oxford Dictionary 2024 Word of the Year

Librarians of my generation were trained to function in a world of print information sources - old fashion things like books, magazines, newspapers, and vertical files. A large part of our professional training involved learning how to select quality resources for our collections and how to weed out those which had become dated.

Our students (and teachers) had little need for information evaluation skills themselves when I started teaching in the 1970s. We librarians made sure they only had access to the good stuff. Maybe not a heck of a lot of it, but what we had in functioning libraries could be trusted.

Of course our students and staff (and ourselves) started getting access to the Internet (Internet was capitalized in those days) in the early 1980s and the horse was out of the barn when it came to information reliability. One of the earlier and more controversial websites was Wikipedia.  "Just anyone could write or edit an encyclopedia entry? The horrors!" A professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato designed a fake Mankato City webpage as a tool to teach people not to take Internet information at face value. (Mankato actually had tourists visit expecting to see its Great Pyramid.) Many of my articles and columns examined the need for increased information literacy. (See “Survival Skills for the Information Jungle,” Creative Classroom, Sept 2001 for example.)

Information professionals also warned early about something we called "ego-casting.” With a large selection of information sources, one could pick and choose only those in which one was interested or with which one agreed. It was an early view of what social media and cable news now makes so easy - and popular.

But such warnings went unheeded. Despite advocating for good information literacy skills, it seems that a large percentage of the US population still does not critically analyze the information they find online and gives credibility to only those sources to which they are politically aligned, leading many voters to choose candidates whose policies may not be in their economic or social best interests.

So, does the 2024 election prove that we as school libraries did not do our job - or not do it well enough? After 30 years of Internet access, have we still not gotten the message across to our students, to our teachers, to the public they need to be critical information consumers? If so, I feel great responsibility, having been considered a leader (or should I now say influencer) in the field for many years.

I can only hope the next generation of librarians is more effective than we were.

If God hadn’t wanted us to eat animals...

My dad and his younger brother

My dad died December 22, 1996 at the ripe old age of 65. I think about him now and then when one of his old sayings somehow pops out of my mouth. I doubt many of these were original with him, but they are what I remember him saying:

• If God hadn’t wanted us to eat animals He wouldn’t have made them out of meat.
• God only gives you so many heartbeats. Why waste them exercising?
• If you’re not ten minutes early, you’re late.
• Don’t ride the clutch.
• It all winds up in the same place anyway. (When the melted jello would mix with the mashed potatoes on his plate.)
• Call me whatever name you want, just don’t call me late for supper.
• Smells like money. (Whenever there was the smell of manure in the air.)

Anything your parents said that you now repeat?

See also Voices from the Past, Blue Skunk 6/4/09

Those who are alone for the holidays

Image source

I gave a ride to a woman I’ll call Mary yesterday in my role as a volunteer for a non-profit organization. She went first to a gas station to purchase a carton of menthol cigarettes, then to a dollar store, and finally to a grocery store. She didn’t get much. She lives in an extended living hotel, possibly with the help of a state homeless program. Mary doesn’t look healthy.

And it sounded like Mary was spending this Thanksgiving alone. Trying to make a pleasant conversation, I often ask the clients I drive for about their family and plans. Not all responses are happy and I often wonder if I should have asked the question.

It is knowing that these people exist, those who have no one with whom to share the holidays, that breaks my heart. Personality, life-choices, mental illness, poor health, addictions, trauma - one can only guess why some folks do not have family connections or good friendships. And Mary is only one of many people who live alone whom I serve as a driver. Seemingly very alone.

I expressed to my daughter this feeling of heartbreak regarding my passengers and at her suggestion I recently read the book Trauma Stewardship by Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky. Lipsky wrote the book for those in professions that face far more stressful situations than my volunteer driving - police officers, emergency room workers, social workers, etc. But the takeaway is that anyone who wants to help others in need, needs to also make sure they take care of themselves both physically and mentally.

My mother’s death this past summer changed my plans for this holiday season. Over the past few years, my sister and I both drove to Mom’s house where we brought in a traditional holiday meal and spent the day with her. Without Mom, there is little reason to drive to my hometown. So my sister is spending this Thanksgiving with my daughter who lives in the same city and I am spending it with my friend Heidi and her daughter (after a traditional feast last night with son which Heidi generously prepared). As far as I can tell, no one I know, close family or friends, will be alone today. Were it otherwise, I think I would do something about it.

So thank you, Mary, for reminding me that of all things for which I should be grateful - health, wealth, travel, leisure activities - connection to other human beings ia the most important to recognize and celebrate.

Thank you, family and friends. I love you all. Happy Thanksgiving.