Weirdly enough--or maybe not so weird--the specific use of "illegal immigrants," a term used to dehumanize and deny agency, was a very large sticking point and on July 10, 2016, the LOC was ordered to continue using that subject heading. Many libraries across the country began creating their own subject headings to bypass this and, as of today, right now, the term is still very much in use within the LC Catalog.
#FairytaleTuesday: Herr Fix-It-Up
Fix-It-Up had been a soldier for a long time. When the war came to an end, however, and there was nothing but the same old things to do every day, he resigned from the army and decided to become a servant for a great lord. There would be clothes trimmed with gold, a lot to do, and always new things happening
#FolkloreThursday: Hekate
It was Hekate and her torch that assisted Demeter in her search for Persephone, and it is Hekate who leads Persephone back and forth on her yearly journey between life and death. Hekate's transformation into the patron of witches arose out of this chthonic and nocturnal nature and she became heavily associated with herb-lore and the use of poisonous plants. It was written that Hekate was the patron of the witch Medea, which helped to further her reputation as the Goddess of Witches.
Sometimes You Have to Step Out of the Library
But, the only way for libraries to be a place where the entirety of the community is welcome, is to understand the community in its entirety. And this isn’t something that’s necessarily going to be easy. Librarians have to get to know the people in their communities. All of the people. They have to understand their patrons, and potential patrons and make sure that the library is a place where everyone feels that their needs are being met.
#FairytaleTuesday: Hansel and Gretel
The fact that the woman who willingly marries the widowed father was most likely doing so because she literally had no other options--due to poverty, age, or suspected infertility--is never considered because her feelings are of little value. The potential for being resentful at having a husband and children forced upon her for reasons out of her control is is great, but it doesn't matter, given that women are expected to be motherly, no matter the situation.
Slouching Towards a PhD in Rhetoric
That was when my advisor and I hit on the idea of connecting these books to Open Access and the idea of who has access to the knowledge, how, and why. Thus was born the idea of the Rhetorics of Knowledge Control and Dissemination.
#FolkloreThursday: Lilith
There are reams of lore and academic texts and hypotheses and theories about who she was, where she came from, and what she became. But in studying the fragments, it's not hard to see how women would find a kindred spirit in her. All the stories seem to agree that Lilith was passionate and wanted to be independent.
Grafting Diversity to a Fracturing Framework
The inherent problem is that these statements are being grafted onto a framework that is steeped in white supremacy and has been for decades. Diversity statements cannot just be attached, like a rider that no one actually reads.
#FairytaleTuesday: Nasty Flax Spinning
The queen summoned the three spinsters to the castle, and on the day that the king was supposed to return home, she sat them down next to one another in her room, gave each of them a spinning wheel, and ordered them to spin. Moreover, she told each of them what to answer when the king questioned them. As soon as the king arrived, he heard the humming of the wheels from a distance and was so glad that he intended to praise his daughters.
#FolkloreThursday: The Ceasg
Stories of the ceasg tell that it is not uncommon for them to come to land and take a human lover. It is believed that they are able to shed their mermaid skin and become human while on land, which allows for these assignations. If any children should be born from these unions, the ceasg, even once she has returned to the water, will continue to watch over her her children and their descendants by protecting their boats from storms and guiding them to the best fishing areas.
