"Libraries are the second defense of freedom -- reading is the first."
Haikus and collages from a school librarian
The following post is part of a Seed Pod collaboration about libraries. Seed Pods are a SmallStack community project designed to help smaller publications lift each other up by publishing and cross-promoting around a common theme. We’re helping each other plant the seeds for growth!
Regular subscribers, I didn’t email this to you at first because I thought it might be too weird. But hey, maybe you’ll enjoy it! And I’d love to know your name pick for that first collage…
This is what I put on the bulletin board of one of my former school libraries. As many point out, libraries are a vital “third place” where people can go and just *be* without needing to buy anything, believe in anything, or belong to a particular group. Any person can go to the library.
With that in mind, I wrote these haikus about public libraries:
In Defense of Freedom
Everyone’s welcome,
no money or creed needed?
Public Library.
Got Whatchu Need
Books/art/magazines
restroom/printer/internet:
Public Library.
No Limits
Freedom to explore!
Check out more and more, at your
Public Library.
This summer, I made a couple library-inspired collages. I’m excited to share them on this Seed Pod — yours are the first eyes on them other than my husband’s!
School Library Ephemera (or, Artistic Library Garbage)
This collage is made from things I found in the school library, tucked into books, left on the floor, or even displayed on my desk like the poker chip our superintendent gave all teachers last year telling us to “bet on kids.” But the lotto ticket was someone’s bookmark! It wasn’t a winner, I checked…
(If you can’t vote in the poll, just leave a comment lol.)
Next up…
School Librarian’s Summer Vacation
This one is made mostly of clippings from Real Simple, along with a guitar pick and a due date card. I intended to make a more wholesome collage incorporating some cheery bookmarks, but the more I clipped the more subversive the collage became. And it sums up my summer, at least while my kids were in daycare!
Most of the time, my Substack is about personal finance and underground heavy music — and often, where those two divergent topics intersect. If that sounds interesting to you, subscribe!
I’m also the author of Money Hacks for Metalheads and Old Millennials, all about turning your personal finance game up to 11! It was a Plutus Awards finalist for Best New Personal Finance Book of 2020 and #3 (I think?!?) of Ghost Cult Magazine’s Top Ten Books of 2020. Volume 1 has more reviews but Volume 2 (released December 2022) is better… :p
Thank you
for creating this opportunity to share some thoughts on my day job!Cheers,
Jessie
Want to see more posts from this Seed Pod or join in on the fun? Head over to our thread to learn more!
I like both names but Artistic Library Garbage makes me smile more 😀
Dig this piece. It underlines just how cool librarians are.
I loved our school librarian who really got the third place scene you talk about.
And…that due date card is a thing of beauty, man.
And, I prefer School Library Ephemera.