The Contrary Librarian

WARNING ABOUT A REALLY NASTY NEW VIRUS.

Meet CryptoLocker. It’s your worst nightmare. A lot of antivirus software, including the big names, cannot yet detect or stop it. If your computer gets it, CryptoLocker takes all your files hostage by encrypting them and giving you a certain amount of time to send a certain amount of money to the man behind the virus.

The encryption is very tidy, and so far seems uncrackable (well, crackable, but it might take a couple centuries). If you tamper with the virus itself, it will pretty much self-destruct and take everything with it. And the way the money is transferred, the dick programmer behind it all for the moment is pretty much uncatchable.

YOU CANNOT GET RID OF THIS VIRUS WITHOUT COMPLETELY WIPING YOUR COMPUTER. YOUR ONLY CHANCE IS PREVENTION AND PREPARATION.

Back up your computer to something like an external hard-drive, or even an internal hard-drive that you just take out and stuff away somewhere for safe keeping. Make sure your antivirus is up to date, avoid skeevy sites, and don’t open random emails. DO NOT download email attachments unless you know exactly what it is, because that seems to be how this is primarily being transmitted.

Literally fuck this guy with a cactus. Like, if you see him, offer to introduce him to your little cactus friend in a quite personal and intimate manner. This shit is FUCKING INEXCUSABLE.

Also, bulk up on your virus protection, limit your porn and illegal cartoon-watching and torrents to safe sites, DO NOT OPEN EMAIL ATTACHMENTS UNLESS YOU’RE EXPECTING THEM, and just be careful in general, cause this one is one of the nastiest viruses around.

Here is a short list of things that are sometimes trained out of people at all costs.

Some are good, some are bad, some are neutral. All of them are better than not communicating:

Yelling

Screaming

Being rude

Speaking with odd syntax

Depending on technology

Using technology even when you’re somewhat capable of using your mouth to make words

Speaking in broken words one syllable at a time

Speaking without eye contact

Waving your hands while you talk

Misusing pronouns

Sitting with an odd posture

Making sounds and pointing

Repeating phrases from TV

Repeating the same answer over and over

Having exaggerated facial expressions

Having facial expressions that don’t match the words you’re saying

Saying a lot of nonsense words before you get to the meaningful words

I’m talking about something else.

Some people have very limited expressive communication. Like, for instance, can only say a few words or phrases. Some people don’t have a reliable way, aside from yelling, to tell people that something is wrong or that they’re not ok with something.

Sometimes, often, people with this kind of disability are trained not to yell ever, even if this costs them a large part of their communication, even if this training leaves them with no reliable way to say no.

and my personal favorite:

and finally, a summary of all of history:

Conflict within a group can create dialogue and help people better understand each other… but it can also become counter-productive.

Here are some tips for dealing with difficult people in radical spaces:

Make safer spaces guidelines for the space, that everyone can agree on. Make them explicit, make sure they cover the main bases, but also make sure they don’t devolve into a long unnecessary list of all the things you’re against.

Communicate the guidelines well. If it’s an online space, post them front and centre, and share them regularly. If it’s a physical space, put up a big poster and explain it to newcomers.

If people are disrupting the space, don’t feel bad about throwing them out. Make sure it’s a community decision to do so, and not one made lightly. Make it clear that it’s not a discussion: they are leaving.

Also, try to acknowledge why you find a person difficult - could it because of mental health issues? Is there a language barrier? Is there a way they can be engaged and keep the space safe?

Don’t over-hype infiltration. The aim of infiltration is (a) information gathering (b) disrupting groups. As hopefully you’re not sharing sensitive information in semi-public places, disruption is what you should try to avoid. Don’t accuse people of being police, and don’t  enter into disagreements and arguments for the sake of it.

There are a few places left, book here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/radical-librarians-collective-2016-tickets-25481052514

It’s free to attend, although we are asking for donations to cover costs such as venue hire and refreshments.

Take a look at the pitches page to see which sessions have already been suggested, and feel free to add any of your own: https://rlc.radicallibrarianship.org/brighton/pitches/

Electronic books can be an important disability accommodation for a lot of people, including some people with normal vision. If you’re having a lot of trouble reading, or not reading as much as you’d like to, it might help to use electronic books.

There are a lot of steps involved in reading a print book. Some of these steps can be difficult or impossible for people with impaired executive function, autistic inertia, fatigue, chronic pain, or other conditions. Some difficult steps can be eliminated with electronic books.

In order to start reading a print book, you have to be able to do all of these things:

Have the book in a place where it’s available to you when you have time to read.

(Which can involve remembering to bring with you somewhere.)

(And keeping track of the book and not losing it.)

Decide to stop what you’re doing and do a different kind of task.

Figure out where the book is.

Go get the book.

Avoid getting distracted by other things as you find the book or get the book.

Figure out where you are in the book.

(Which can involve things like remembering the place.) 

(Or using a bookmark, which comes with its own multi-step challenges like remembering that bookmarks exist and having one available.)

Open the book to the right page.

Avoid getting distracted by other parts of the book.

Get into a position in which you can read, which you can also sustain long enough to read for a significant among of time.

Actually start reading the book.

If you want to take notes or highlight, you also have to gather all your note-taking tools.

And not get distracted and forget what you’re doing.

And not forget where you put the book in the process.

That’s a lot of steps, any one of which can sometimes be difficult or impossible.

Using electronic copies can eliminate some of these steps, or make them easier.

This can be game-changing.

Some ways in which electronic copies can eliminate steps:

You can store your entire electronic library on one device (or synced to multiple devices). 

If you know where your device is, then you know where all of your electronic books are.

This can mean you don’t have to physically search for anything.

(Electronically searching to remember where you put something can be much easier.)

You also don’t have to remember to bring a specific book. You just have to remember to bring one device.

(Which can be a device like your laptop, phone, or iPad which you’re in the habit of carrying with you anyway).

If you’re already using your computer, you don’t have to get up to go get your book.

You also don’t have to change positions.

Being able to stay in the same position and location can make it much easier to start reading.

It can also be easier to remember your place. A lot of software will leave the book open to the same place as when you were last reading it.

Searching can be easier, faster, and less distracting than flipping through a print book. (This isn’t true for everyone, but it’s true for some people).

Electronic bookmarks may also be easier to use than physical ones.

You don’t have to look for highlighters, pens, pencils or notebooks, all of that is right there in the book-reading software.

Eliminating these steps can make reading a lot easier. 

Making it easier can make it possible.

This isn’t the right strategy for everyone; computers, phones and other devices have their own executive dysfunction pitfalls. But for some people, it makes reading much more possible.

Yes, that’s a huge problem.

Another problem is that disability-specific attempts at addressing this inevitably leave people out.

(For instance: BookShare has ebooks that aren’t available anywhere else, but only some disabled people who need ebooks in order to read qualify for a BookShare account.)

Censorship of sexuality, especially while simultaneously violence, particularly sexual violence, is left uncensored, and the harmful implication this juxtaposition has on our collective sexual wellness, is something I’ve written a lot about, like here and here. Hell, I’ve even written a book about it.

So when I found out there is a new “kid safe” search engine called Kiddle designed to block adult search returns for children, I feared it had sex-is-bad-and-violence-is-normal disaster written all over it. When I learned the results are handpicked by humans and not a computer broadly banning based on keywords, I was extra curious to see if I was still right. I was.

I typed in a bunch of different searches that a child might reasonably want or *need* to anonymously ask the Internet. Well, I’ll let you see the results for yourself:

My girlfriend hits me” is also a bad word.

Inquiries about vaginal discharge are, you guessed it, also bad words.

Related bad words: menstrual care, menstrual pads, menstruation, and uterus.

When avoiding a gay dating website in the search results is considered a higher priority of “safety” for children than their homelessness, and you recommend confronting their abusive parents, we have a tish bit of a problem.

If I was 12, typed this into a search engine, and instead of results got a “bad word” finger wagging, I would take the answer to the “is it ok to be bisexual” question as a big fat NO it’s not OK :(

But the human censors apparently allows kids to search for this one under their “kid safe” censorship policies.

Stevie Wonder on accessibility for people with all kinds of bodies and abilities.

Usborne releases free PDFs of its classic 1980s computer programming books

Jindo Fox writes, “A few years ago, Cory linked to some wonderful pictures in Usborne’s 1983 classic Introduction to Machine Code for Beginners. Usborne has made PDF copies available of their whole line, with the only restriction that you link to their page, not to copy and redistribute the files themselves. Very cool. I have fond memories of wasting my childhood typing these listings into the mainframe terminal at my local university, and later on my Timex Sinclair 1000, which I somehow knew was the American version of the ZX-81 that was featured in these pages.”

Usborne’s done it to promote some great-looking new books on learning to program: Lift-the-Flap Computers and Coding is a board-book for small children, covering “principles of coding, from simple commands to algorithms, are explained with a treasure hunt game and puzzles, and there are examples of simple programs in the coding language Scratch.”

Coding for Beginners - Using Scratch is “an introduction to coding for complete beginners,” with “step-by-step instructions showing children how to use code to create games and animations.”

Included in the retro collection are:

* Programming Tricks and Skills [1984, PDF]

* Machine Code for Beginners [1983, PDF]

* Introduction to Computer Programming [1982, PDF]

* Practical Things to Do With a Microcomputer [1983, PDF]

The University of Oxford’s famous Bodleian Library has just released a free coloring book featuring images from their collection. You can download a PDF of the coloring book here.

Source of image

“An opportunity to join in with the current colouring trend and apply your colouring skills to images from our collections. We’ve provided a colouring book to get you started, but feel free to use our online resources to find your own. Don’t forget to share your final product on social media with the hashtag #ColorOurCollections! “

Marley Dias is frustrated with the lack of diversity in her reading curriculum. That’s why the 11-year-old started a campaign called #1000BlackGirlBooks, which collects and donates books in which black girls are the main characters.

“I was sick of reading about white boys and dogs,” Dias said. “And I told [my mom] I was going to start a book drive, and a specific book drive, where black girls are the main characters in the book and not background characters or minor characters.”