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  Book 45: Love by the Book. This is a story within a story of a platonic and yet also romantic (bot not sexual) friendship between two women. Remy is dealing with the inevitable aging-and-distancing of her best-friend group and she meets Simone who is pretty closed off but maybe open to being friends. Both women go through a lot in the short course of this novel. Remy is also trying to undo some writer's block after her first successful novel and decides to write about their friendship.

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  Excellent free zine about overcoming voting barriers. "Plenty of people hit a wall when they try to vote. Their name is missing from the voter list. The mail ballot never showed up. The signature on the envelope doesn't match. Someone at the door tells them they can't. None of that happens by chance. This guide covers the barriers that come up most often, and what to do about each one. English and Spanish versions are the same zine." From @monteiro@simian.rodeo and friends....

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  I've been using an app (CBT-i) for years. I manually enter my sleep details and it makes me some simple charts to see trends. Recently, I found a weird bug which I reported. Got SUCH a nice email back. 🥰 "This is a clear bug & one we were not aware of. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this & I will make sure it gets added to our fix list. Please be patient with us- our resources are limited, and it may be a while before this gets addressed, but I assure you we’...

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  I rewrote my will this month because - my old one was out of date - I actually got some free psychic space to handle this - I really like my lawyer and he works how I work - I enjoy crossing things off of my clipboard If you're someone who has been putting this off, please let this be a small nudge to do it. It may be a lot simpler than you think, depending on your jurisdiction. Nolo's got some good Getting Started stuff, as does GYST https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/wills-trus...

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  👋 An #introduction. I'm Jessamyn (she/her) an #ExtremelyOnline #GenX #librarian and #technology educator. I care a lot about the #DigitalDivide and #accessibility I live in #rural #vermont am a #civics #nerd and an elected #JusticeofthePeace I used to own #MetaFilter and help run #MLTSHP I like #moss #wikipedia #trivia #birds #scrabble #antiracist librarianship and practical #anarchism - Reading list https://glammr.us/deck/@jessamyn/115839891017442334 - Wikipedia work https://glammr....

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  The Mastodon web app has subtly changed the way their advanced interface works w/r/t seeing my own replies and I am now doing my bi-yearly "Are there other interfaces I might like better?" quest. Really pining for the Tweetdeck of yore (with an option for more columns). Anyone got one that they like? Note: not looking for iOS apps, just the web app.

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  Jessamyn's Maxim of Uptime says that the likelihood that your website will be up and running is in inverse proportion to the amount of media mentions that you've gotten in the past 24 hours. I did an interview with a person who works for an indie news outlet. I mentioned my work with Flickr Commons and my blog, librarian.net. Within 24 hours of the interview going up, both sites were down (and are both back up now. Here's the interview. I think it came out well. https://www.newsju...

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  Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on how to turn off (or quiet) intrusive AI so that I can help my patrons at the public library who often come to me asking for this help. Can't promise that I'll keep this updated but for now I got a domain for it and everything (just redirects to a page on my website) https://NoToAI.org

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  Friday afternoon reminder to not empty your inbox at the expense of someone else's. I had some tree guys working early today and so I am even more out of it than usual in this election primary season. Going to try to regroup before the first of two candidate campaign kickoffs this weekend (I am not a candidate, phew) and see if I can channel my inner Chisholm. May we all be unbought and unbossed. Have a good weekend. Image credit: Library of Congress on Flickr Commons https://www.flickr.co...

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  Once a month I do Drop-In Time at the local independent living place. This is a decently high-end place for this region, so people's issues are often more specific, less about going over the basics. On the other hand, more memory/mobility issues to finesse around. Here are the issues affecting them. I helped seven people in two hours.

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  Blog post: Coupon. I went to a new library this week, all because I had a coupon. https://www.jessamyn.com/journal/2026/07/coupon

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  RE: https://mastodonapp.uk/@taoish/116884161402249680 One of the biggest questions I get at Drop-In Time at the library (besides "what is taking up all my cloud storage??) is how to disable or avoid intrusive AI that shows up where people don't want it. I'm going to make a handout that explains how to do some of the basic AI-removal or AI-avoidance things. Would appreciate links which give simple steps to do this for the most-used (Siri, Alexa, Gemini, Copilot, Firefox's AI n...

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  Dear quilting/library community, please enjoy this bookshelf quilt made as a fundraiser for the new library (in Belleville ONT). The books are all named after local people and organizations. https://www.flickr.com/photos/cabhc/55366630415/

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  I have a tall stump in my front yard that I left when I had to take down a dead tree. it is right on the sidewalk. It is now home to some incredible massive wasps. They look scary but are harmless to humans. I have a laminator. I made a sign. (CWed pix of wasps in next toot)

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  (re-posted from 2023) I asked why the library didn't have a #Juneteenth holiday. The response was "It's not one in the policy manual." I wrote to the trustees, they put it on the agenda, voted unanimously for it, and now it's a library holiday. When we talk about white supremacy and libraries, think about how a group of well-meaning but ultimately non-proactive trustees (and director) just kind of... didn't think about this for two years, just never put it on the age...

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  Friday afternoon reminder to not empty your inbox at the expense of someone else's. It's possible it won't rain this weekend. It's possible I'll get outside and do stuff or, slightly possibly, get outside and DO NOTHING. Spring hope springs eternal. May you do just as much as you want to this weekend. Even if it's email. Image credit: OSU Special Collections, on Flickr Commons https://www.flickr.com/photos/osucommons/3945310205/

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  @neaveeng@hachyderm.io Someone may have been listening to the same podcast as I was. I just learned that this week also!

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  @morganth@social.tchncs.de Yes. I'm bad at asking for help, frequently would like to offer it or be helpful, sometimes don't know how. One thing I try to remember is that for some people, just asking "Hey do you want to hang out sometime?" is actually asking for help. I understand there's a bit of an ask/guess culture divide where some people feel put on the spot if you ask them for a thing they can't/won't do, so I try to be careful with my requests, but it's g...

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  Happy Pride Month. If you know a young person (age 13-26) in the US who is getting their access to queer library books restricted because of local small-minded policies or laws, please refer them to the Books Unbanned program where they can get digital access to banned or restricted books thanks to the cooperation of larger libraries in more open-minded locations. It's a great program that more people should know about. #pride #libraries https://booksunbanned.com/card

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  I got a second-hand Apple Watch partly so that I could help people at the library learn to use theirs. One notable difference between me and my (mostly older) patrons with our Apple Watches. I charge mine when I wake up because I track steps/sleep. They charge theirs at night because they mostly use it for fall detection and emergency SOS features.

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  Friday afternoon reminder to not empty your inbox at the expense of someone else's. The beloved beardo in my life has a gig this weekend (Feeding Tube Records - May 31) and I'm planning a road trip. I'll deal with what email I can and leave the rest for work times. Be mindful about your messaging and go interact with some art. Have a good weekend. Image credit: Swedish National Heritage Board, on Flickr Commons https://www.flickr.com/photos/34419668@N08/5493576767/

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  There are a lot of up- and down-sides to living someplace ruralish (my town has 4500 people). We have no food delivery. The town is asleep by 9 pm. All our street parking is free. I know everyone who works in my town's government. It's easy to get elected to do stuff if you want to. You have to make your own fun. On the brightest side, I was able to go into my public library and the new Murderbot was on the shelf! Exciting! #vermont

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  @gsuberland@chaos.social I helped an 80+ year old woman install a wireless printer today and the step I *thought* we were going to get hung up on was her having her apple ID password to at least pretend to install software (fuck you HP) but she whipped the little piece of paper it was on out from under her desk blotter SO quickly.

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  Today's library outreach: getting my snows off. Gave the guy at the tire shop my zip code. He said "best zip code" I asked if he lived in town. He did. I asked if he had a library card. He said no but he'll think about it. I explain the many benefits. He says both his kids are readers. Other guy in waiting room is laughing, I'm not sure why. I look, it's the former library director from two towns over. Reading Murderbot, in print (I was reading a book about the Edmund F...

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  "CARRYING QUEENS IN TUBULAR CAGES. on the tips of my fingers" A random image from the @internetarchive account on Flickr that caught my eye today. https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/20390023456/ #flickr #bees #fingers

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  People assume my partner "does computers" for a job because I do. He has a job title that is confusing and not very revealing but I tell people that he mostly "does spreadsheets." This nice profile of him from the student newspaper (so I'm not burying the lede: AT HARVARD) is a great way to get to know a few neat things about him. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/11/27/james-poolner-profile/

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  @ifixcoinops@retro.social So. Many. Domains.

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  News: "It’s with a great sense of calm I introduce our newest team member, Jessamyn West. She’s joining us as the new Community Manager of the Flickr Commons program." We should all be so lucky to be onboarded like this. https://www.flickr.org/welcome-to-the-team-jessamyn/

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  Sometimes when I'm trying to keep the existential dread at bay I spend some time lovingly tending to my paper files. PSA reminder that there is a font called Land Speed Record which I call the "Hüsker Dü" font which I am now using for all my drawer labels. https://www.whatfontis.com/FF_Land-Speed-Record.font

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  Librarian.net: Oral testimony for the Vermont data privacy and online surveillance bill I was invited to give testimony in front of this committee about S.71, An act relating to consumer data privacy and online surveillance. This is what I said https://www.librarian.net/stax/5856/oral-testimony-for-the-vermont-data-privacy-and-online-surveillance-bill/