S.S. Librarianship

Mega Mind Grapes! We go through the top ten things we loved this year. The only caveat - it had to be made this year (or be a series that continued into this year). Jon also drops in to give us his rapid-fire top ten (it's mostly horror video games). We also do a part of a year-end quiz that recaps our year and gets ready for the new one.

This week... Mind Grapes: Alli is all about voiceover, having watched both the documentary I Know That Voice and Lake Bell's In a World. Having finally gotten to see Gone Girl, Sam is on a Gillian Flynn kick, reading Sharp Objects and Dark Places. Class Z(ed): Last week, we attended a talk given by Michael Vonn of the BC Civil Liberties Association regarding a change of policy in VPL's Internet Use Policy that prohibits the viewing of "sexually explicit materials" on library workstations. While they have some good explanations, we discuss our own opinions (and certainly not those of our employers) why the problems with this policy may run deeper than they look.

We're Alli & Sam. We met in a pub the night before our first day of library school, and since then we've been through a lot together - classes, jobs, weddings, D&D campaigns - always finding ourselves engrossed in wide-ranging conversations about television, film, books, technology, and what it means to be a young, nerdy, lady librarian in the 21st century. This podcast is our invitation to you to join our conversation. We hope you'll join us by sending in a question, comment, or topic for us to discuss on the show!

Mind Grapes: Glowing recommendations all around today. Sam extols the virtues of the new movie Birdman starring Michael Keaton, and it sounds like an amazing commentary on the super hero genre mixed with innovative cinematography. Alli has been getting into Canadian journalism through the podcast Canadaland, produced by Jesse Brown. Both are work checking out for sure. Where Do We Put This?: In a very special conversation, we recap a recent opportunity to discuss the future of libraries and technology with author and activist Cory Doctorow. In this amazing but brief encounter, VPL library staff and Doctorow ingaged in an enlightening and inspiring conversation that get us super riled up about technology, the changing nature of library collections, and how to better connect with our patrons through information literacy and digital literacy education. Please let us know what you think about all these extremely important developments!

Mind Grapes: A well rounded mind grapes today, we have a play in the form of Educating Rita, Mary's been watching the new show Jane the Virgin, and Sam has been catching some of the extensive backlog of CBC's Writers and Company. Class Z(ed)/Where Do We Put This?: For the last few months, our first mate Mary has been acting as a Community Representative for the Digital Public Library of America. This amazing organization aggregates collections of freely available totally awesome collections from around the U.S. while advocating for freedom of information, open source, and creative commons licensing. They also offer opportunities to create apps for their collections - how cool is that? Currently they are also running a GIF contest! Create GIFs using the DPLA collection and submit them here!

Mind Grapes: It's all shows this week, both in the formof the new-time podcast in the form of old-time radio, Thrilling Adventure Hour, and Shonda Rhimes' new melodrama vehicle How to Get Away with Murder. We also discuss some recent articles about Shonda Rhimes and our love of Bradley Whitford. Class Z(ed): It's a new job checkpoint. A couple of months ago, we walked you through our job hunting process when we both got our jobs. Now, a month or so in, we tell you a bit about auxiliary work at a public library and doing reference at the academic. What have we learned so far and what skills are we using the most?

Mind Grapes: We are all doing reading, whether in hardcover, audiobook, or web serial. Sam suffered some disappointment in We are Not Ourselves. Nadia has had her nose in her phone reading Worm. Alli's commute has been accompanied by the audiobook of The Maze Runner and lunches by American Gods. Class Z(ed): Nadia is a real MLIS success story. A little over a year after graduation, Nadia tells us all about her amazing job as the Academic Technologies Librarian at Mount Mercy University. She tells us about the tech and people she works with and what skills gathered at library school has served her best in the professional world. Please rate and review us on iTunes, buy buttons from our wonderful store, donate to our show, or share us with your librarian or nerdy friends!

This week, with very special guest Jennifer Lee.. Mind Grapes: Alli enjoyed some end of summer live entertainment with Bard on the Beach's production of The Tempest. Jen gets an advanced look at If I Stay. Sam remains inspired by the Book Camp authors and reads The End of East by Jen Sookfong Lee. Class Z(ed): Jen and Sam were the leads for Vancouver Public Library's Teen Writing and Book Camp this year. They talk about pulling off a week-long event for over 100 tweens and teens, the challenges of large-scale planning, and the rewards that come with creating a unique, safe, and creative space for a group of talented and enthusicastic young writers. Please rate and review us on iTunes, buy buttons from our wonderful store, donate to our show, or share us with your librarian or nerdy friends!

This week, with special guests Melanie Cassidy, Jonathan Kift, Anna Ferri and Matthew Murray... Mega Mind Grapes: It is our one year anniversary!! How exciting! We have an amazing round-table mind grapes for you today that includes some return guests and one new voice (that will, surely, be on again). The prompt we gave was "tell us something you have done or discovered in the last year" and we got some fantasic discussion ranging from adult digital literacy education to Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Get in touch with us and tell us what you've fallen in love with this year! Also, please rate and review us on iTunes, buy buttons from our wonderful store, donate to our show, or share us with your librarian or nerdy friends!

Mind Grapes: Sam's been reading Susin Nielsen's absorbing, overlapping tales of Vancouver teens after catching the YA bug at Book Camp; Constance is all about Oscar Wilde right now, including big works and small, and reminds us of the nuance lost in some modern adaptations; Alli - in fact, all of us - LOVED Guardians of the Galaxy, but can see where it could have been even better. Where Do We Put This?: Constance is here to tell us about bringing steampunk into the library. She's developed a toolkit for creating library displays, programs, reading lists, and even educational content for kids and adults related to the genre, aesthetic, and attitude of steampunk. Visit the Steampunk Library, email or tweet at Constance, or check out some of the steampunk works she suggests, including Soulless by Gail Carriger, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, The Gentlemen of Steampunk by Evan Butterfield, and the Steamposium convention, where she'll be appearing next month!