Instructional design in a short story mode
Aspiring to maintain communities where people want to keep studying. Maintaining space for everyone.
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2025
Weekly Assemblage for 2025 Week 03
Llama Life, Italian tomatoes, Ghost, the Personal Web, and The Twilight Zone.
Weekly Assemblage for 2025 Week 02
Adopting a ‘rally pace’ mentality. Writing in smaller chunks. Downsizing.
Weekly Assemblage for 2025 Week 01
Reflecting on Winter Break. Challenging myself to post more frequently this year.
2024
Add it up; or Counting events with Obsidian’s Dataview plugin
A new note on how to teach Obsidian to list and count days related to events in your daily notes—plus add them up.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 47
Internship, Interstellar, Mean Girls, AI Refusal, the Kobayashi Maru, Finding Your Purpose, and Kudos with Tinylytics.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 46
Languaging, proposing, policy-making, policing, potentially melting, and other misadventures of the week.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 45
espanso, Policing the Crisis, Goosebumps, Star Trek, Lower Decks, Dub Syndicate, and Dominion.
Other People’s Book Notes
Enthusing about how other people share their notes.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 31
Infomocracy, Idaho Fire newsletter, weeknotes, consensus, cycling, and words I learned.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 30
Easy A, electoral politics, ethicswishing, etc.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 29
Extraordinary Birder, Hyperlocal Psychogeography, and External Link Indicators.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 28
A few movies, a few links; a pleasant little week.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 27
Postrolls and Posthumans. Plus some other things.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 26
Betty, Turkeys, Discovery, Tags, and Categories. Also, I’m back on my BookWyrm again!
Now June 2024
Some of what I’m doing as of June 2024.
Navigating Privacy Issues with Generative AI Panel
I was honored to participate in this panel, plus create the linked bibliography of related resources.
AI and Knowing vs Languaging, plus Cosmospolitanism
Toward a definition of ‘knowing’ that distinguishes it from languaging. And a little on what I want to call ‘cosmospolitanism,’ while we’re at it.
Now March 2024
Some of what I’m doing, as of 2024-03-19.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 05
Amy Minervini published a new OER English composition book. Mita Williams might dropkick you. Plant43 might make you move to the Sentient City.
Patterning, a Groundhog’s Day Theme
Aspirations for this year, perhaps in fractal patterns.
Acid Jeep’s Clock Rhythm
Tough electro with bouncy rhythms and squiggly synths.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 04
A quick poem, resources for the fun web, dolphining, A Fine Start, and a process improvement.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 03
Lots of snow, incremental correctness patterns, the ELIZA effect, and more.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 02
RSS reading; Author, Author and A.I.; and Site Refinements of the Week.
Observations on Aaron Swartz Day
A tiny tribute based on dots I just connected, as I was going about my business.
Weekly Assemblage for 2024 Week 01
Perspectives on AI from writing instructors, home page changes, and a new semester.
2023
rearview mirror 2023
Seeing things somewhat clearer; initial reflections as we move beyond 2023.
A small, curated set of Mastodon starting points.
Other people’s guides to getting started with Mastodon.
Weekly Assemblage for 2023 Week 50
Wrapping up 2023 Fall Semester. Enjoying reading Overwhelmed. Toxic positivism and reply guys.
Parking Lot Posting
Brief mobile reflections.
A formula of questions for critical thinking
A new note with some questions to spur critical thinking.
Weekly Assemblage for 2023 Week 49
Writing with Executive Dysfunction webinar. A WorkingOnIt group. Links Rhizome and other site updates.
Original publication dates in Zotero
A new note on how to add original publication dates in Zotero.
Obsidian Tasks patterns
How I use the Tasks plugin for Obsidian.
AcWriMo2023
Here’s how I’m giving Academic Writing Month a go this year.
My Obsidian plugins shortlist
The plugins I use most with Obsidian.
I’ve Been Using Obsidian
I’ve been using Obsidian. Both enthusiastically and reluctantly.
Light Mode in Progress
Today’s work on putting together a light mode.
Now May 2023
Some of what I’m doing as of May 2023.
Weekly Assemblage for 2023 Week 17
VS Code Snippets and Spellcheck customizations. Designing for motivation.
New note on Spellcheck Squiggles in VS Code
If you find the default indicators distracting, here’s how to customize them.
New note on Snippets and VS Code
Type similar things often? Here are some snippets you can use in VS Code.
Weekly Assemblage for 2023 Week 12
Patterns for VS Code.
Weekly Assemblage for 2023 Week 10
A week of sidequests. FOSS and Crafts podcasts. Notes spring cleaning.
Weekly Assemblage for 2023 Week 09
Daily and weekly notes; Patterns; Something like an Information Humanities.
New note on Casey Boyle’s …something like a reading ethics…
Looking for a brief but open-ended approach to reading and note-taking? Try Casey Boyle’s suggestions!
New note on Rhetorical Précis
Looking for a succinct note-taking format? Try a rhetorical précis!
Phone to Blog Blip Workflow
I’ve got blips in phone places.
New note on Jekyll Guides
Note linking to some useful Jekyll guides.
Introducing Blips and Link Rhizomes
Testing blips, emitting bleeps. Popping up in places.
2022
New note on Mastodon Settings
Looking to understand some Mastodon settings? Here are my own settings.
New note on Mastodon iOS apps
Looking for iOS apps for Mastodon? Here’s a few I recommend.
New note on task tracking in Dendron
Note about how I track tasks in Dendron.
Now June 2022
Some of what I’m up to as of June 2022.
New note on math accessibility
Note about MathML, MathJax, and a workflow.
New note on beginning to use Dendron
New note with suggestions for starting to use Dendron.
New note on the Daybreak theme for VS Code
Looking for a nice dark theme? Here’s how I’ve customized Daybreak.
2021
New note on keeping literature notes in Dendron
Looking for ways to keep literature notes? Here’s how I do so in Dendron.
2020
New note on the VS Code editor
Looking for a nice code or text editor? Here’s why I like VS Code.
New note on reading snippets about Information and Informatics
Note with quotes about the cultural concepts of information and informatics.
New note on ADHD technologies
Note linking about ADHD technologies.
August 2020 Monthly Signal Boost
Mindfulness with the Waking Up and Plum Village apps; Most excellent tunes from Sonic D and Autodidact
New note on Apple Watches and ADHD
Note about ADHD and Apple Watches.
SIFT Links
Links related to a lightning talk for the 2020 MOSS Meetup about our switch from the CRAAP test to the SIFT moves.
July 2020 Monthly Signal Boost
Organizing Ideas Podcast; The Latino Card; Tricycle Magazine; etc.
Introducing Monthly Signal Boosts
Monthly signal boosts will be short reflections on what I’ve read, listened to, watch, etc.
Now July 2020
Some of what I’m doing as of July 2020.
ah, Carl, while you are not safe I am not safe
The social model of disability offers insights into society, differences, and oppressive structures beyond disability.
2018
ALA Annual 2018: My Schedule, Our Notes
Where I intend to be for ALAAC2018 and how I think we can make group notes.
2017
WA 2017 Week 09: Badges, Type, BibTeX
Briefly linking to Emily Ford’s article about badges, a short reference about using type on the web, and getting going with a bibliography tool.
WA 2017 Week 01: Journaling, Pedagogy, and Advocating for our Patrons
Can I make routinely time for these round-up posts this semester? Let’s find out, shall we? Links about journaling, pedagogy, and advocating for our patrons.
2016
Critical Reflection #critlib chat
Critical reflection questions I ask myself and tools I find useful.
WA 2016 Week 32: Lots of Linkage; Comments Have Arrived
Many open access links plus excitement about adding comments to the site.
WA 2016 Week 31: Design Things Galore
Design thinking in Idaho libraries, button templates from Librarian Design Share and Char Booth, and a few minor site font updates.
WA 2016 Week 27: Weekly Roundup and Website Housekeeping
Links to some great articles I’ve read this last week, plus mentions of a few changes here on my site.
WA 2016 Week 19: SJL Seattle and Lots of Great Readings
Another student-led conference that I wish I could have attended, plus more readings related to critical librarianship than you could shake a hashtag at.
WA 2016 Week 18: First Reading Notes and #critlib on Emotional Labor
I published the first reading notes on my open research notebook and I share some follow-up thoughts on emotional labor after this week’s Twitter chat.
WA 2016 Week 17: Research Notebook is Go!
Much like with succulents, I’ve planted an offshoot of this blog to see whether it’ll take root. Open Humanities Research Notebooks—come and join the future™.
WA 2016 Week 16: SWILA 2016; Joacim Hansson on Chantal Mouffe
The SWILA 2016 UnConference was a blast, and Joacim Hansson’s chapter on Chantal Mouffe in LIS is well worth your time.
WA 2016 Week 15: UC Davis Wants Some Scrubs
Radical Librarians; UC Davis imagines a memory hole; Infrastructures of student dissent; Revolting Librarians.
WA 2016 Week 14: Intro to #critlib chat, Reveal.js image alt tags
Intro to #critlib 2; Improving accessibility for my reveal.js slides; Maker Showcase sounds and accessible statistics.
WA 2016 Week 12: DERAIL, Site Updates
DERAIL 2016 student forum at Simmons! Also site updates — recommended readings pages and deep links with Anchor.js.
WA 2016 Week 08: CLAPS2016 Critical Librarianship and Pedagogy Symposium
Links to the CLAPS2016 site, Storify, and shared notes. And some photos!
WA 2016 Week 07: Tools for Thinking
Tools for Thinking (for information literacy instruction) and Tech Tools for Keeping Thoughts in Order (using Atom and its packages).
WA 2016 Week 06: THATCampBoiseState 2016
THATCampBoiseState2016 was a gem—I hope it comes back next year.
WA 2016 Week 05: #critlib chat on Patience and Impatience; Alison Hicks’ LibGuides: Pedagogy to Oppress?
Critlib chat about how we deal with the slow pace of social justice work; a great article examining how LibGuides hinders and potentially supports liberatory pedagogy.
WA 2016 Week 04: Library Privacy
Library privacy session with ACLU Idaho’s Ritchie Eppink and Library Freedom Project’s Alison Macrina at Meridian Library District’s unBound technology lab.
WA 2016 Week 03: Du Bois & scientific sociology, #WOCinTechChat stock photos, LIS Mental Health Week
W.E.B. Du Bois as the founder of scientific sociology & its relevance for LIS; #WOCinTechChat stock photos; LIS Mental Health Week.
WA 2016 Week 02: Giroux on Neutrality
A culture of positivism, distinguishing between objectivity and objectivism, hegemony, false neutrality, values—this article has all sorts of relevance for librarianship!
WA 2016 Week 01: #critlib chat on information resources & incarcerated people
A #critlib chat on information resources & incarcerated people; an upcoming #moocmooc on Instructional Design; Nuzzel the app.
Weekly Whaaa…?
Why weekly? Why assemblage? Why Fluxus? And what’s that ‘sous les pavés, la plage’ thing about?
2015
critlib #feelings
Why do I #critlib? Because another librarianship is possible.
WA 2015 Week 49 Holman, Mattern, Barron, Students
Makerspaces as Civic Infrastructure; Libraries as Infrastructure; Safe Spaces as Protections of Freedom (Not Censorship); The Demands.
WA 2015 Week 48 Fister, Kurz, Vecchione
Unanticipated Costs of “Doing More with Less”; Be Yr Own Her@; Making It Known that Libraraies are Spaces for Making.
WA 2015 Week 47 Schoofs and Battista
Articles from LOEX Quarterly (one by Schoofs, another by Battista) that look at learning beyond the library’s space.
WA 2015 Week 46 Massumi and North
Enthusiasm about Massumi putting Deleuze in a nutshell! Analogies between the pedagogy & structural place of Writing Centers & libraries! Jekyll on the Run!
Weekly Assemblage 2015 Week 45
Three links & lots of enthusiasm! Elmborg’s Literacies Large and Small, a Time Management mega post, & how STEM relates to the liberal arts.
Weekly Assemblage 2015 Week 44
Halloween at CWI Library (Once Upon a Time); Readings I’m looking forward to; Taught my first library resources session.
Weekly Assemblage 2015 Week 43
A #critlib chat on gender & leadership in LIS, plus some history links.
Weekly Assemblage 2015 Week 42
Live! Real! Humans! (in the Classroom); Code Camps, the “Californian Ideology,” & Higher Ed’s Purpose; Open Access & “The Library of Forking Paths.”
Weekly Assemblage 2015 Week 41
Talking about librarianship values: objectivity as a value and valuing inclusivity enough to work toward it in earnest. And again—sorry, Eduardo.
Weekly Assemblage 2015 Week 40
Starting at the College of Western Idaho & going to the Idaho Library Association 2015 Annual Conference!
This Is Not a Pipette: Bringing Humanities Methods into LIS Programs
“Science” doesn’t have to be the only way to parse the “S” in LIS—I suggest some examples of using humanities-style critical theory in information studies in this post for Hack Library School.
Weekly Assemblage 2015 Week 39
Getting library cards and appreciating some unexpected aspects of Maria Accardi’s Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction.
Weekly Assemblage 2015 Week 38
Driving from Bloomington, Indiana to Boise, Idaho; Luciano Floridi’s Information: A Very Short Introduction.
Weekly Assemblage 2015 Week 37
A #critlib chat on information & migrant populations; threats to the Tor exit node in Kilton Public Library; CFP for papers on whiteness in LIS; study on lowering white defensiveness around racial privilege.
Weekly Assemblage 2015 Week 36
Reflections on the second #radlibchat and a Library Freedom Presentation by Alison Macrina.
All Hail Cloud Storage
Dropbox has both saved me from computer problems and helped me work more ubiquitously, so I sang the praises of it and other cloud storage at Hack Library School.
Critical Hot Potato! aka #Rhizo15 Week Four
Reflecting on #critlib morphs into #critpotato for my much-delayed Week Four of #rhizo15 post, examining how online learning operates.
Presentation Alternatives: Reveal.js
Are you looking for a good alternative to PowerPoint or Keynotes? Here’s a Hack Library School post about an excellent free & open source one!
Quick Thoughts on Method & Knowledge Practices in Arts & Humanities
I reflect on how arts & humanities undergraduates are taught critical theory & method, and how that might fall short preparing us for evaluating knowledge practices.
#Rhizo15 Week Three: "Content is People"
For Week Three of #rhizo15, I trace a few thoughts on content vs discontents or reification and the observable outcomes of human actions.
Everything Counts in Affective Amounts
Week Two of #rhizo15—How we might count the affective aspects of learning? Also, what potential does Git give us for making open humanities notebooks?
Hack Quirk Your Presentations
I wrote for Hack Library School about using quirky results or affordances to make your instruction sessions more engaging.
Learning Subjectives
For Week One of #rhizo15, I write about my predilection for research processes over writing outcomes & whether library “neutrality” thwarts supportive demeanor.
Wojnarowicz on a Sphere
Still under construction, this post will be about my process of making a map of artist David Wojnarowicz’s gallery exhibits for the NOAA Science on a Sphere.
#critlib Makerspaces
I write about moderating a #critlib Twitter chat on the constructivist potentials and neoliberal downsides of makerspaces, as well as briefly describe the moderation process.
Freire and Critical Librarianship
For Week One of the Critical Pedagogy MOOC MOOC, I write about Paulo Freire’s problem-posing method and its potential links to critical librarianship.
How Do You Take Notes (or Markdown and Bullet Journals)
I wrote for Hack Library School about taking notes—the actions, ideas, or project variety, not class notes—using Markdown or the Bullet Journal approach.
2014
#critlib Chatty Critical Librarianship on Twitter
I wrote about critical librarianship and the #critlib chats on Twitter for Hack Library School.
“Paper,” “Planned Obsolescence,” and Digital Libraries
Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Nicholas Basbanes recently gave talks touching on practices & situated uses of born-digital and cellulose-fiber materials, respectively. How can this inform digital libraries?
Software Carpentry Workshop Reflections
Although aimed at scientists, Software Carpentry’s workshops offer great learning experience for librarians, digital humanities folks, and anyone looking to work on digital files in groups.
Review of Online Archive of California
The Online Archive of California lies somewhere between a finding aid and a digital library—and is a huge boon to researchers that would be worth emulating elsewhere.
Bigfoot Spotting and Other Jekyll Adventures
A post where I describe trying—and thus far, failing—to use Bigfoot.js to make footnotes more engaging in a Jekyll/GitHub Pages blog. I’ll revisit this soon to give it another try.
New Directions in Information Fluency
Brief reflections on a talk about bringing digital humanities to the reference desk, which I co-presented with Katherine Ahnberg at the New Directions in Information Fluency conference.
Test One
Here’s a stellar ditty from Warp™ records that deserves being listened to with headphones or a subwoofer.
New Site
A Depeche Mode reference is more interesting than Hello World, isn’t it?