Say Anything, but That
Last Thursday the UPS man came in and said he had 17 boxes for us. What? Oh yeah, the STEM kits!! We have been waiting patiently, well, not really, since the beginning of May. But now that they are here, we face a whole new set of challenges: how to catalog them, do we let people take them home or keep them for in-library use only, and the biggest challenge, where do we store them?
It was around 2pm when they arrived and I was having a hard time with 17 dirty boxes being in our work area. And, to make matters worse, I just couldn’t get them all at the right angles and the level of neatness I need to soothe my soul. I let Brittany open one box to check them out, and that led to all the boxes being opened, it was a little like Christmas. A big messy Christmas. I don’t enjoy messy. For the next 3 hours Brittany and I did some rearranging, purging, and sweating. We moved our collection of puzzles, which led to multiple piles, one almost as tall as me. We gave some away to both nursing homes, my lucky aunt who happened to be here at the right time, 2 large boxes went home with me (I have a puzzle buying problem, in fact I just received a new box of 13 at home) and we will be selling the rest. I threw away a pile of things, reevaluated our “Shirley Shelf”, that holds duplicates for the collection, and just pretty much trashed our whole work area. After 3 hours, we had all the kits in their new homes, and I needed a shower. We hope to have the kits ready for checkout in the next few weeks.
Yesterday, our special guest, author, Kevin Sherry was here for SRP. He was so much fun, he amused all of us, not just the kids. He sang a song, “Meat, Eat the Animals”, that everyone, minus the vegetarians, got a chuckle out of. We had another 100+ attendance. SRP is going grandly, and I can even admit that I am enjoying my teens. Remember I left teaching to come to the library, I previously thought that I needed to find someone else to take care of the teens, but they are teaching me to laugh, to relax, and to not take things, myself included, so seriously. Wish I would have been better at this when I was in the classroom, sorry to all my former kiddos.
This bookworm, really is proceeding along smoothly, not what I expected, considering all the things I really want to talk about. A few weeks back when the “leak” was released I mentioned that I knew some lines I could not cross, you know I sure don’t want to get fired over the words I share, when I have put so much work into our library. So I attacked this bookworm with a “say anything, but that” attitude. Well, I have a little space left, so I am going to talk about That.
At this point some of you might be saying that what has happened in the last few weeks has nothing to do with the library, so I need to shut my mouth. Oh, you know I am not good at that, and honestly I think anything that compromises our autonomy also has potential to compromise our intellectual freedom. Definition of autonomy 1: the quality or state of being self-governing especially: the right of self-government The territory was granted autonomy. 2: self-directing freedom and especially moral independence personal autonomy. Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction.
This is only the third time in American history where the Supreme Court limited a previously outlined constitutional right. What is next? I understand that people are abhorred by abortion, that people want prayer in school, but this is all a slippery rope. No abortion, what about birth control, what about an ectopic pregnancy, what about a diagnosis of fetal demise? Prayer in school, using what religion? Sorry, not sorry, this librarian and, yes, this liberal, is worried about our future. We are a nation of many, I said that last week and I am saying it again. Not everyone believes as you do, as I do, and if we really desire autonomy and intellectual freedom, then we must recognize this simple truth. Similar to Kevin’s song, not everyone gets it, some could be abhorred by it, some could think everyone should join in with him, but really the decision is for each individual based on their moral independence. Moral independence that should be gained after the individual has a chance to seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction.
Upcoming Events: 7/6 Summer Reading Program at 10am. 7/9 LEGO Play at 10:30am. We have SRP adult book bags available for checkout.