MLA’s fifth Virtual Living Library will be held on Tuesday, February 25, from 1:00-3:00 pm CST.
What exactly is a Living Library and why would I want to attend?
The Living Library is an event that is comprised of “books”, and each of those books is a person who has a lived experience that often is met with stereotypes, prejudices, and misunderstandings.
Have you ever wanted to ask someone who is different from you questions but have been too shy to ask or not even know how to ask the question? This is the event for you. Each book will share their introduction to their experience, and readers are then able to ask the book questions they are curious about without judgment. This is an interactive and often very enlightening experience, with both readers and the books themselves coming away with much more than expected. This is a chance to talk about topics we may not understand very well through those that have experienced them.
To register:
- Please read the book descriptions below to decide the top 3 books you’d like to “check out.” Some have multiple topics.
- Complete and submit the registration form below by February 21.
Before the event:
- Be sure to reserve February 25; 1pm-3pm CST on your calendar.
- Read the MLA Statement of Appropriate Conduct.
- Look for an email closer to the session with titles of the two books you will read and the Zoom link to the event.
Living Library Book Titles and Descriptions
Today I am disabled, tomorrow I may not be In my late 20s, while working through my MLIS degree, I was diagnosed with multiple lifelong medical conditions. The navigation of early diagnosis and re-evaluation of my physical and mental capacity on a daily level became inseparably tied to my journey into librarianship. In this book, I will explore the complexity of intermittent disability, neurodiversity, and self-advocacy as an early career librarian. Perpetual and ongoing as the process is, I hope to provide a safe environment for questions, connection, and insight on these topics.
A convert to Islam in the age of the muslim ban As a Muslim convert I often say that I walk in two worlds, yet belong to neither. Many of us are shunned by friends and family after we embrace Islam, and in the mosques we are often ignored at best. In today’s social and political climate being visibly Muslim can carry with a great deal of anxiety, with Muslim women often being easy targets of public harassment.
Trans & Disabled in a neo-fascist world: health librarianship & life as Praxis
Description: More bills are being passed that restrict transgender and gender non-conforming folk’s pursuit of gender affirming care, with no restriction on cisgender people’s pursuit of gender affirming surgeries, hormones, or treatments. This impact is multiplied by the bills specifically targeting trans people who are also autistic, ADHD, or depressed- calling them comorbid conditions or arguing that those conditions need to be “resolved” in order to qualify them to receive gender affirming care. Soph shares what it’s like to work in a field that is politically aimed towards their eradication and what they do to keep fighting and thriving.
Ups and downs of being a clinical librarian for more than 50 years Clinical outreach is the center of my career. Care teams welcome me and thank me for my information follow-up and hold questions until they see me. I have gotten thanks and monetary recognition for being a personal librarian and my hospital and Magnet recognized my contributions. Friendships developed and some romance. But, the sights and smells of a hospital are not pleasant. A supervisor does not always stand up for you. Sometimes you doubt if you are really a member of the team because you were not notified of rounding time changes. I endure the downs and build on the ups.
Black immigrant, American librarian My path to American citizenship has been a 14 year long process, filled with periods of hoping and waiting to feel like I belong; in a place that may one day decide I am not wanted here. Even before starting the immigration process at age 25 to my citizenship ceremony at almost 40; becoming American has been the all consuming, undercurrent of my life. Fear of rejection, feelings of outsiderness and proving one’s worth of the “American Dream” have been my constant companions for more than a decade. The question “where are you from?” can hurt deeply when it translates to “you’re not from here, are you?” The journey has been full of the extreme highs of dreams coming true, as well as the heartbreaking challenges of others delayed or unfulfilled. Of love conquering distance and time, of finding new community in the US while maintaining connections across the Caribbean Sea. Immigration has shaped every aspect of my personal and professional life in ways I never even imagined- including my library career.