I liiiiiive! I have been ignoring this blog for….over a month my post history tells me. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, it’s just that life has been pretty crazy over the past month and I’ve been struggling a bit to get everything done, nevermind extras like blogging. You see, last month I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, stage 1, and at the end of August I had surgery to remove my thyroid entirely. Everything since then has been…a lot. My bosses have been understanding, especially considering I started a new job a week before having to go out on medical leave. But it’s been a struggle to recover fully and get my work done. Not to mention all the extra doctor’s appointments, and side effects of the new medication, and other personal issues cropping up.
I’ve been really enjoying my new position though, and I am hoping I get to move into another Librarian position after this temporary position is over. I’ve been able to do a lot of outreach things, and some instruction sessions, and start collection development. The most exciting part is that I get to select and order a large number of children’s and young adult books for our grant, the Diverse BookFinder, that will fill out our children’s book collection. I’ve already started researching recent racially diverse children’s literature, and I’m so excited to get to build our collection like this.
This weekend, I’m also flying out, fleeing in the face of Hurricane Ian, to a Queer Archives conference, Queer History South, put on by the Invisible Histories Project. I learned about the conference while I was interning in the archives, and I’m really excited to get to connect to other folks with an interest in queer history. Unfortunately, the conference is around the same time as my son’s birthday, so it has been a bit stressful there too. I’m so looking forward to the conference and the great slate of sessions they have, as well as the opportunity to explore a little bit of Dallas’s gay scene. I haven’t been to Dallas (aside from the airport) since I was 10 years old, so this will truly be an adventure. I promise to provide pictures and a conference report when I return though!
I have several posts planned upcoming, including some thoughts on the cost of ebooks to libraries, that I hope to start putting out regularly again. In the meantime, stay safe from Hurricane Ian if you’re in the SouthEast, and if you’re going to QHS, gimme a shout out and lets meet up for a drink or something!