S.S. Librarianship

(Bonus audio: "Glasses", by Jonathan Coulton, the S.S. Librarianship theme song. Used by permission). Back in the heyday of Television Without Pity, when a show went off the air, they would often assign it the status of "Indefinite Hiatus." In some ways this was a brilliant flash of foresight about the future of TV - they were anticipating that some beloved shows would never be over for good in the age of Netflix and crowdfunding. But it always seemed, too, like a rather poetic nod to the fact that the media we love never really ends, because we can always return to it again and again, often discovering it anew as we continue to grow and change beyond the era it was made and the perspectives we held. You've probably noticed that S.S. Librarianship has been quiet for a while. We've decided that, for the foreseeable future, this project is over for us. We've loved the ride, and we've so appreciated the responses we've gotten and the opportunities the show has given us to engage in conversation with each other and with so many brilliant and fascinating friends and colleagues. We're very proud of this podcast as a body of work and a testament to our passion for our profession and all our other favourite things. We'll keep the site up and running for the time being, which means you can return to this feed or to this page to access the archives. We hope the show continues to be discovered by new librarians and new nerds, and continues to provide something useful, or at least entertaining, to all who listen. We're also not shutting the door completely on podcasting in general. Right now we're both pretty busy with work and life, but we see each other often, and we've never stopped enjoying talking to each other and everyone else about the things we love and the issues we care about. So we may very well be back before you know it, in some form or another. In the meantime you can find us on Twitter individually: Alli is @navillusnosilla and Sam is @dothenextthing. And we still get emails at sslibrarianship@gmail.com. That's all there is for now, friends. We'll catch you on the proverbial flipside. -Sam and Alli

Mind Grapes: We get after those early December blockbusters! Doctor Strange, Arrival, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are all discussed. We also talk some books with The Expanse series, wildly popular television with The Great British Bake Off, and some real culture with the Star Trek Exhibit at the EMP in Seattle. Class Z(ed): Michael returns to the podcast to tell us about the continuation of his career. In his first appearance in Episode 11, Michael told us all about his work at the Xwi7xwa Library at UBC. His work in this regard has continued as he is now a Digital Applications Librarian at Washington State University working with ethical curation, the Plateau Peoples Web Portal, and the Tribal Stewardship program.

SPOILER WARNINGS FOR WESTWORLD, THE FLASH, LEGENDS OF TOMORROW AND SUPERGIRL. Mind Grapes: Sam is super up-to-date and tells us about her latest TV obsession, Westworld. Mary has been getting into the DC Television family of products, especially Supergirl and The Flash. And medieval musicals? That's pretty much right up Alli's street with Galavant. Class Z(ed): In another edition of let's ask our friends about their cool jobs, Mary shares here experience working at Equinox Software who offer support for the open source integrated library systems softwares Koha and Evergreen. We hear about her job, her travel, and how much fun she's having teaching software up and down the East Coast.

Mind Grapes: Matthew is on again, so that means comics! Lots of comic and manga suggestions from both Matthew and Melanie. Also a few additional podcasts - one new and one previously mentioned, but it has gotten super super good. Class Z(ed): The Comic Conference for Educators and Librarians was a tagged on event at San Diego Comic Con this year and was lovingly organized in no small part by our own Matthew Murray. He tells us all about the events, their goals, and some of the generally awesome stuff he got to do at SDCC.

BiblioFiles: We got to talking and just couldn't stop! Christing Neigel, amazing librarian, teacher, and now PhD student, talks to us about her research project that examines librarian stereotypes from the last couple of decades. This fascinating discussion weaves its way around trashy detective novels, terrible TV shows, and why the media may view librarians the way it does.

Mind Grapes: An idle question of "Hey, have you heard of this Stranger Things show?" turns into an internet sensation. Of course we saw it. It is fantastic (with reservations from Sam). But perhaps more shockingly - Sam's childhood remains in tact after she did not hate Star Trek: Beyond. Class Z(ed): We return to this year's eBook Summit, where Sam was a presenter! We talk about the latest and greatest in library related ebook technology and initiatives. And so can you! Most things available online.

Mind Grapes: You get comic recommendations! And YOU get comic recommendations! But first, Alli talks about her latest podcast binge, the wonderful 2 Dope Queens (showing especial appreciation for Hari Kondabolu’s story). Sara shares some of her latest comic loves in Fresh Romance, Girl Over Paris (a comic spun off from the novel Girl on a Wire), and Southern Cross. In a shocking change of pace, Matthew offers more comic suggestions in the form of the feminist works Chainmail Bikini and Vixen’s Keep, but then tells us a little about Rat Queens Vol. 3, which was slightly disappointing for totally understandable reasons. Sam wraps up with the Netflix Series Cooked, which is Michael Pollen’s latest docuseries looking at the concept of cooking and how it has shaped what we are. Nerd Alert! Sam and Alli both strive to be renaissance nerds that dabble in all forms of nerdery, but comics remain elusive – the entry bar seems high and unforgiving. Matthew has been reading X-Men comics all his life. Sara got super deep into comics in the last few years. And Alli has had an enduring love of the X-Men movies and television series. So how to we enter into a world so deep? Where do we start if we want to learn more about Professor Xavier and his rag-tag group of super-powered children? Sara and Matthew give us some good suggestions and talk about what X-Men Comic Fandom in particular means to them.

This fortnight... Mind Grapes: Alli has been having less than perfect media experiences and complains bitterly about Ernest Cline's second novel, Armada, and the mostly disappointing latest handheld Mario title, Mario and Luigi Paper Jam. Sam also has complaints, but this time about the U.S. political docuseries, The Circus. We do, however, finish with some good reading - Lawrence Hill's The Illegal. ReRoll: Harkening back to episode 59 of the show ("We don't want to throw any babies out with any bathwater, here."), Alli continues to be in a bad mood because 1) The ACRL has officially recisinded the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, clearly not listening to our podcast or the salient advice it gave and 2) everyone needs to calm down about it. Like, for serious.

Mind Grapes: Sam is inspired by a recent episode of This American Life and Lindy West's new book Shrill to pick up Jes Baker's Things No One Tells Fat Girls. Alli was dragged to the Jane Austen adaptation Love and Friendship, but LOVED IT. But this weekend has been devoted to playing Blizzard's latest Overwatch. Speaking of games, Sam also plugs her latest podcast binge Cool Games Inc. Class Z(ed): It's been about a month, but this year's BC Library Conference was a super cool time. We talk about volunteering, Corey Doctorow's firebrand keynote, and an amazing presentation on privacy, and a number of other conference bits and bobs. Also check our article in BCLA Perspectives: "Democracy in Your Earbuds: The Freedom of Podcasting."

Mind Grapes: The Vancouver Public Library has been challenging its staff to read diverse books, and Sam is endeavoring to win the challenge! While she's won a few points with Ms. Marvel, she's hoping to get a few more with Erika Johansen's The Queen of the Tearling. To add to this, Alli recommends The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisen, but doesn't want to spoil anything because it's too good. Instead, Alli offers a review of the second season of Daredevil, the second season of Broadchurch, and listening to the audiobook of Alan Cumming's memoir Not My Father's Son. NERD ALERT!: Sam got to go to Emerald City Comicon, but this year, wearing her librarian hat/flag. She along with friends of the show Erin Fields, Melanie Cassidy, and Anne Gaines gave a panel discussion titled "Research for Writers, World Builders, and Other Types of Nerds" that showed people the power of library-related research. It was a hit - full house, lots of great questions, and the chance to show the power of libraries in a new light.

Mind Grapes: We get through our post-vacation blues by talking about some new stuff, re-reading some old stuff, and talking about reading very old stuff for the first time. Alli saw Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the new Tina Fey vehicle about a war correspondent in Afghanistan. It was amazing. Jon has been re-reading an old favourite, Perdido Street Station by China Miéville, and talks about how it screws with the norms of Tolkienian fantasy. Sam decided her next comic project will be X-Men, and so she started with the original run back from 1963. NERD ALERT: We all went on the nerd boat. But first, we spent nerd time in Orlando, so we cover the Universal Parks and our incredible visit to Kennedy Space Center. The nerd boat meant different things to all of us, and so we talk about the community, the events, and the boat experience.

We're Alli & Sam. We met in a pub the night before our first day of library school, and since then we've been through a lot together - classes, jobs, weddings, D&D campaigns - always finding ourselves engrossed in wide-ranging conversations about television, film, books, technology, and what it means to be a young, nerdy, lady librarian in the 21st century. This podcast is our invitation to you to join our conversation. We hope you'll join us by sending in a question, comment, or topic for us to discuss on the show!

* SPOILER WARNING FOR SCREAM QUEENS AND CRIMSON PEAK * On a slightly overdue Halloween episode, we watch one of Fox's new fall lineup from the brains of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. In a collision of their other projects (American Horror Story and Glee), we watch the pilot episode of the super campy horror comedy show Scream Queens. We also launch into a surprisingly deep conversation with our resident horror expert Jon Newell and explore what it is that make horror comedy such a fruitful and enjoyable genre.

We're Alli & Sam. We met in a pub the night before our first day of library school, and since then we've been through a lot together - classes, jobs, weddings, D&D campaigns - always finding ourselves engrossed in wide-ranging conversations about television, film, books, technology, and what it means to be a young, nerdy, lady librarian in the 21st century. This podcast is our invitation to you to join our conversation. We hope you'll join us by sending in a question, comment, or topic for us to discuss on the show!

This week... Mind Grapes: Very librarian. Much books. Wow. Literacy. Both Sam and Alli were feeling very bookish, so we share our thoughts on The Family Trade by Charles Stross, Redshirts by John Scalzi, The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber, and The Farm by Tom Rob Smith. We also talk about how we probably will go see The Martian, even though Matt Damon has been talking out of his butt lately. However, we also discuss some frustration with the idea that ALL BOOKS ARE NOW BECOMING MOVIES. Watch us turn into cranky old women before your very eyes! Class Z(ed): We've both been lucky (mostly) to be attending some recent professional development workshops meant to help us out with our teaching. Alli discusses the Instructional Skills Workshop, a 3-day whirlwind meant to hone teaching skills, learn new techniques, and test out new ideas. Sam has been partnering with the UBC Learning Exchange to get some tips and tricks about teaching adult communities. Bonus: hear a rant about a not so great workshop about intercultural communication.

Mind Grapes: Alli finally saw Spy, so she and Sam are able to have some conversations around how it feels to have a woman of size who looks like us play a real spy movie hero person. Not going to lie, it's pretty cool. We then seque into another spy with Marvel's Agent Carter, which we are thrilled has been renewed for a second season. Yet amid all this good stuff, we are also frustrated by some of Marvel's choices with Ant Man when canonically, Wasp has been a much more important character. Where Do We Put This? Teaching. Technology. It's a big, big part of what we do whether we are teaching WITH it or teaching how to use it. We discuss some of our strategies when teaching people who are terrified of it and also dealing with fellow librarians who seem terrified of it. And of course, we would love to hear your thoughts.

This week, with very special guests Matthew Murray, Anna Ferri, and Meghan Whyte... Mind Grapes: Our guests this week are founders of The Book Club for Masochists, which every month is dealt a random genre for the members to try to read. This month, they have psychological thrillers, which is, apparently, a challenge. Meghan, however, has enjoyed the thriller Dare Me by Megan Abbot. She's also been enjoying the different takes on feminism in Roxanne Gay's Bad Feminist and ... Anna's been trying to get into the thrillers, but has only been able to finish Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer, which she thinks might have been cheating. She's also loved The Library at Mount Char lately, but suggests going into the book blind to get the best reading experience. Matthew is slightly dissappointed by our first female Thor in Thor: Goddess of Thunder, but is even more dissappointed by Fearless Defenders: Volume One. Starting to play Mass Effect 3 seems to be making up for it, though. Alli and Sam gush over the McElroy brother's recent visit to the Great White North in their first international live episode of My Brother, My Brother, and Me. Class Z(ed): We're a bit late this time around, but we talk to Matthew, Anna, and Meghan about their experiences at the ALA conference this summer in San Francisco. Since it's difficult to remember details this far along, we instead discuss why we decide to go to these conferences, what we hope to get from them, and how we are using the lessons we learn when we get home. But of course, we also discuss what went on and their favourite parts of the conference. Much time is spend on the awesomeness of the Zine Pavilion, of which Matthew is a primary organizer and contributor.

We're Alli & Sam. We met in a pub the night before our first day of library school, and since then we've been through a lot together - classes, jobs, weddings, D&D campaigns - always finding ourselves engrossed in wide-ranging conversations about television, film, books, technology, and what it means to be a young, nerdy, lady librarian in the 21st century. This podcast is our invitation to you to join our conversation. We hope you'll join us by sending in a question, comment, or topic for us to discuss on the show!

Mind Grapes: It's hot, so thinking deeply is not really a priority right now. Alli has four words for you: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Also a brief foray in to the film The Sapphires in a display of Australian media love. Sam talks about a new podcast that we have both been enjoying with Brent Black and Travis McElroy in Trends Like These - a discussion of issues, events, or various other things that are trending on the internet. Where Do We Put This?: Sam is in the research hot seat this week with a bit of a (wonderful, informative) lecture about net neutrality. What is it? Why has it been in the news so much in the past year? What is Canada doing right (again)? Why should librarians give a hoot? And what still needs to be examined and helped? We scratch the surface here, but we would love to hear your thoughts.

Mind Grapes: Alli had one of those "buy a book" feelings and so picked up the Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang graphic novel In Real Life. We talk about the impulses we have to use art for messages or have art for art's sake. Sam gave up on The Paradise due to unfortunate love story interference, so instead we talk about Pixar's latest masterpiece Inside Out. The movie is simply beautiful, brilliant, and gives us (children and adults alike) a great new vocabulary around our emotions. BiblioFiles: We did some real live (internet) research to talk about the idea of the Rockstar Librarian. What does it mean? What do they do? Why are we made so very uncomfortable by them? And what does it mean that so many Rockstar Librarians are male in a female dominated profession? We'd love to hear your thoughts.