Meredith Farkas
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librarianmer.bsky.social
Meredith Farkas
@librarianmer.bsky.social
2.2K followers 600 following 840 posts
😷 🏳️‍🌈 🇵🇸 Community college librarian in Portland, OR. Solidarity, unions, slow librarianship, spoonie, autoimmune, still masking, disability justice. Blogging at Information Wants to be Free since 2004. Subscribe: http://meredithfarkas.substack.com
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librarianmer.bsky.social
I mean, that face. La-dee-dah.
Image of Annie Hall, a white woman wearing khakis, a white button down shirt, vest, and tie and a black hat with an incandescent smile
October 11, 2025 at 8:34 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
Has anyone seen this before where a publisher charges a different amount for a print book based on whether an individual or a library is buying it. This seems pretty gross (esp for a collection of articles we already paid through with our Chronicle sub). 🤯 store.chronicle.com/products/und...
September 18, 2025 at 4:56 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
A good Fall reminder: "If you feel like you’re overworking, that you can’t slow down when you need rest, if you feel guilty for taking sick days when you need them, if you rely on getting things done for your self-worth, it’s worth interrogating the stories you tell about yourself and your work."
September 2, 2025 at 7:46 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
I'm not sure this is the selling point you think it is, Colby. Emails like this and the list of schools that are embracing that new "dialogue portfolio" thing from Khan Academy (which also includes Colby) are really helping our family narrow down choices for next year -- just not how they'd hoped!
Email from Colby College that says AI Literacy is a Must-Have Skill for Colby Graduates.
September 2, 2025 at 5:47 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
My latest essay -- Rest as a productive act -- is out, in which I encourage folks to reframe rest and consider why they so often cheat themselves out of it for work that probably isn't nearly as important. meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/20...
The title Rest as a productive act over a painting of a dark-haired woman in a big puffy 19th century blue and cream colored dress reclining on a sofa. Do we call taking a medication that we need for our survival “giving in?” What if we treated rest as a productive act like exercise? What if we saw rest as protecting our capacity; our overall ability to show up at work and in our lives? What if we saw it as being as integral to our health as the medications we take? And why are we so willing to cheat ourselves out of rest, often for things that in the long-run are not that important?
August 19, 2025 at 6:53 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
This piece is a brilliant companion to @ruha9.bsky.social's Imagination: A Manifesto. "How will you protect your wonder — your freedom dreams — from an authoritarian who absolutely hates it when we imagine?"
The fact is, sometimes imagining is all we have in moments like this. I don’t mean only daydreaming. I mean imagining that a genocide can end and taking actions that manifest this imagined future into a lived reality. I mean imagining that foreboding, apparently omnipotent authoritarianism is not in fact omnipotent and living a politics that resists it. To resist is to live imaginatively, and to be imaginative is to be curious.
August 15, 2025 at 8:10 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
My latest essay looks at the toxicity of workload comparison, the erosive effects of time poverty, and a manager's duty of care to their direct reports in terms of preventing overwork and burnout (something we see too few managers focusing on). meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/20...
"The reality in libraries and in most knowledge work is that you’ll never really know for sure how hard everyone around you is working and, if you’re their peer, there’s no reason to even contemplate it. Comparison is toxic. It makes you brittle and resentful. It also feeds into scarcity thinking. Work isn’t a competition. Focus on doing your best work and set boundaries that keep you from taking on more than you can handle."
June 7, 2025 at 4:48 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
+1000000 to all of this! I promise to keep "caring loudly" about what matters most to me and to really deeply focus my attention on work that people put their heart and soul and sweat into. I think of my own blogging/writing as resistance to the prevailing culture. dansinker.com/posts/2025-0...
In the Who Cares Era, the most radical thing you can do is care. In a moment where machines churn out mediocrity, make something yourself. Make it imperfect. Make it rough. Just make it. At a time where the government's uncaring boot is pressing down on all of our necks, the best way to fight back is to care. Care loudly. Tell others. Get going. As the culture of the Who Cares Era grinds towards the lowest common denominator, support those that are making real things. Listen to something with your full attention. Watch something with your phone in the other room. Read an actual paper magazine or a book. Be yourself. Be imperfect. Be human. Care.
June 6, 2025 at 7:41 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
New at Information Wants to be Free: Toxic comparison, time poverty, and a manager’s duty of care meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/20...
We should never, ever, assume that other people with whom we work have it better than us or are doing less than us. It’s nearly impossible to know what our colleagues’ workloads look like. Meredith Farkas Toxic comparison, time poverty, and a manager's duty of care.
June 5, 2025 at 11:20 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
More from the Sick Times: I thought this was a great piece that describes how disappearing (or never collecting) data can invisibilize health disparities and harm and how this political effort to invisibilize Long COVID through data non-collection started under Biden thesicktimes.org/2025/03/25/l...
Data is “a major political determinant of health,” the public health scholar Daniel Dawes once told me, in an interview for a story about undercounted COVID-19 deaths among communities of color. In other words: without numbers to show that a crisis is real, it’s harder to argue for solutions, and thus, the crisis continues. In that vein, the lack of comprehensive Long COVID case counts may be considered one of public health’s greatest failures. But as we enter the sixth year of this ongoing pandemic, U.S. institutions are sweeping this mass disabling event under the rug perhaps more than ever before. We can’t let them get away with it.
March 25, 2025 at 8:09 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
For those with a free bitly account: starting in March, bitly is going to send users not directly to your link, but to an intermediate page with ads. Great timing given that my mission-critical survey that went out Monday and goes until 3/10 uses a bitly link & QR code! Total dick move!
Upcoming Changes to our Terms of Service We are making some adjustments to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy that will affect you as a user of Bitly's free plan. Beginning in the next month, when your audience interacts with your Bitly links or QR Codes, they may see a preview page prior to being directed to the destination URL. The page includes information about the link destination and may include advertising. As a free Bitly user, you can remove the preview page experience from your links and QR Codes at any time by selecting a paid Bitly plan. We encourage you to review the updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your continued use of our website or services is an acceptance of these new policies and terms. Thank you for being a part of the Bitly community. We appreciate you and look forward to continuing to help you connect with your audience! - The Bitly Team
February 14, 2025 at 12:25 AM
librarianmer.bsky.social
Did LA really not have a plan for evacuating those who could not evacuate themselves (if they did, it seemed to fail badly). I like that Disability Rights PA says about the responsibility of municipalities and landlords under the ADA. www.disabilityrightspa.org/wp-content/u....
The duties of public entities and recipients of federal funding under the ADA and RA extend to their emergency and disaster preparedness programs, including ensuring that their emergency evacuation plans address the needs of people with disabilities in terms of providing evacuation assistance, such as ensuring the provision of accessible transportation and accommodations.
January 16, 2025 at 3:50 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
Another great example of "the myth of white immunity" from this interview with the awesome founders of @thesicktimes.bsky.social. "I care & want to write about Long COVID, but not protect others or myself from it because it couldn't happen to ME." depthperceptionbyll.substack.com/p/the-sick-t...
Mark Yarm: I suspect that when you get on the mic at a conference you’re not particularly popular because people don’t want to think about this. Betsy Ladyzhets: Actually, this is a weird experience that I’ve had multiple times: People come up and thank me for doing that kind of thing, but they’re not wearing a mask. I find it so jarring. I’m like, “I appreciate this, but also I don’t really know how to continue the conversation with you.” I was at the science writers’ annual meeting a few weeks ago, and this happened to me several times. I had people who were interested in writing for us. But I was like, “If you’re not wearing a mask right now, you have a higher bar to demonstrate to us that you have expertise on this topic.”
December 19, 2024 at 8:54 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
Ummmm.... no thanks.
Screenshot from my follower page showing that RELX Group and LexisNexis are following me. I will not be reciprocating.
November 22, 2024 at 5:42 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
What's a single frame from a film that could hang in an art gallery?
Days of Heaven Terrance Malick, 1978 (one of my faves)
Image of a large victorian house surrounded by wheat fields at sunset with a woman and man silhouetted in the foreground but at a distance from one another. Also some geese standing between them.
November 22, 2024 at 4:36 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
Seeing the cake has not cleared this up this mystery. 😉
Round chocolate cake with a lit candles on top that say 20.
November 17, 2024 at 2:17 AM
librarianmer.bsky.social
If you see this, post a bird 🐦

(My kayaking buddy!)
Photo of a great blue heron, a large grey seabird with a long neck, standing on rocks next to a river with trees and a house in the background.
September 3, 2024 at 1:50 AM
librarianmer.bsky.social
My conversation with Michael Kirby about community college librarianship, as part of the Academic Library Workers in Conversation series, is in the latest issue of College & Research Libraries! "Leading and Locked Out" crln.acrl.org/index.php/cr...
Your phrase “locked out of the official narrative” is so insightful. When I was in library school, I certainly never heard or thought about community college librarianship. What I learned about academic librarianship looked like university library work. Certainly community college library workers are not the only ones left out of the narrative in our profession, but that narrative shapes our views of what is possible and what is valued in our field. It creates the petty hierarchies that devalue the work of so many in libraries. It encourages people to pursue certain types of work in certain settings because it appears most valued in the story of our profession. And it discourages others from even going to library school because they don’t see a place for themselves. I think interrogating and changing the narrative of academic library work and how it is communicated throughout our profession is a good place to start.
May 7, 2024 at 6:53 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
Yesterday's Break the Dam rally for a fair contract for our union was so inspiring! Great turnout, great solidarity from sibling unions, and so much optimism that together, we can win a fair contract! ✊ I took my son and spouse and was so glad my son could witness what true solidarity looks like.
Union members and supporters at the Break the Dam rally for PCC faculty and academic professionals Union members and supporters at the Break the Dam rally for PCC faculty and academic professionals Union members and supporters at the Break the Dam rally for PCC faculty and academic professionals
January 29, 2024 at 4:37 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
Would love feedback on this book proposal chapter on time in LIS that I'm submitting soon. Does it make sense? Does it sound interesting? Will post text of the proposal in next few posts here because it's too long for ALT text. Thanks in advance!
January 4, 2024 at 6:21 PM
librarianmer.bsky.social
I've seen first-hand at my job the toxic impacts of poor communication from leadership. Even when it's uncomfortable, the best thing you can do as a leader is be clear and transparent in your communication. crln.acrl.org/index.php/cr...
Throughout my 25-year career in academic libraries, I have experienced very strong and very poor leadership and have learned lessons from both. Building trust and fostering a culture of respect is paramount and nothing builds trust and earns respect more than engaging in clear, consistent communication around processes, expectations, changes, and strategic planning. In the absence of communication, we fill in the gaps with speculation and gossip, inferring whatever we can from what little we can glean. This can create a demoralizing and discouraging workplace, resulting in high staff turnover, siloing of departments, diminished productivity, and overall creates a harmful, unsafe, and needlessly exhausting environment. Healthy leaders provide opportunities for feedback on how they can improve, how they can create a more equitable and supportive workplace, and how that feedback will translate into tangible change.
November 6, 2023 at 6:16 PM