Stacks & Facts: a Channel about Library and Information Science

Ok ok ok ok, so it's been a minute and I'm sorry about that but I have a good reason: I've been trying to save democracy or something, I guess!

If you haven't seen yet, I'm still alive and now employed at a nonprofit where I do library things in the education space to bring down barriers to quality educational resources. And lately, that's meant fighting what's effectively been government censorship. We've been hush hush about it because the LAST thing we need is a target on our back, but now we're ready to be a bit more

I'm not doing this work all by myself though -- our whole team is on it, and now that it's time for Project for Awesome, we'd love your help, too! So if it pleases the audience, we'd love your vote, which you can send our way here: https://projectforawesome.com/videos/project-for-awesome-2026-iskme

As a librarian and former intelligence analyst, one can imagine that I have an interesting relationship to/with information and misinformation. But at the end of the day, both jobs had the same goal: put people into meaningful and useful contact with information so that they can make informed decisions!

NEW VIDEO - Finding Library Jobs for Fun and (non)Profit!

Whether you’re already a librarian, soon graduating from library school, or still trying to decide if librarianship is for you, knowing where to find jobs in libraries is an important skill to have. 

If you think you want to become a librarian, watch this video first: there are a few hard pills you'll have to swallow, and it's up to you to decide whether it's worth it or not.

Let’s talk about libraries vs. COVID-19!

Hey y’all, so there’s a lot of info out there and not all of it is true, so I decided to put together a video that’s a rallying cry of sorts for libraries and librarians. 

Our communities are scared and vulnerable, and we’re in a good position to help fix both of those things -- but how do?!

Happy Holidays, y’all!

This one goes out to all the librarians who are working over the holidays, whether that’s Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, or any other day that other people usually get off. You’re doing good work.

NEW VIDEO: How I accidentally became a librarian and now will literally fight anyone who tries to take that away from me

I love being a librarian for literally infinite reasons, but in honor of Canadian Thanksgiving, here are 25 of them.

So you’re starting Grad School!

Congratulations, you've decided to pursue an advanced degree that has the capacity to impact hundreds of thousands of lives, and oh my god when I put it that way what did I sign myself up for, please send help -- 

I jest, of course. Getting your MLIS can be a super scary thing -- but you aren't doing it alone, and there’s lots of things you can do to make it more manageable & hit the ground running into your career. 

In this second part, Greg & Kyle tell us a bit about the motivations that led to the collection & exhibit, why this work even matters, and the invisible but essential work that librarians and library workers do. Thanks again, and a special thanks to Chelsea Shriver at UBC's Rare Books and Special Collections.

A Queer Century: a narrated tour of UBC's exhibit on LGBT history in print

So here in Vancouver it's Pride Month (because it's the month that Vancouver historically gets the least rain, and you know how us queers melt when exposed to water), so I wanted to share with you this awesome exhibit that's going on at UBC that looks at a century of LGBTQIA+ history in written form.

I was actually expecting to release this later, but in a stroke of luck I got the thumbs up from the curators of the exhibit (they're the narrators) early, and I figured that since it's Sunday some folks might like to lean back and watch it now. So, enjoy! 

(note: this is best viewed not on mobile, if only so that you can see so many artful butts & dicks, plus some beautiful printed artwork, in their full glory)

Part 2 I still have to edit -- in a stroke of bad luck, I recorded part 2 in 1080p, 4k, and 720p, so it's gonna come out a little bit less crisp than this one -- but it should also be a bit shorter (this one's a behemoth at ~37 minutes but it's all worth it).

Results of the inaugural EDU Creator Labor Survey are out!

FUN FACT: Aside from being able to find just about any kind of informational resource, librarians are also trained to do genuine, honest-to-goodness research. We don’t always get a chance to because budget cuts, but we can! 

And since I care about my community of fellow online educators, I wanted to help highlight what life’s actually like trying to make a living online by helping others get smarter.