Hey folks.
I'm interested in getting by financially until I have a chance to enter into my new profession officially. Of course I am, who isn't? Anyway, I thought I'd share some services here in case anyone needs or wants or knows anyone who needs or wants anything I can offer at the moment. Unfortunately, all of our resources currently are tied up in our search for a new car (something reliable under $2K, nothing fancy), and we are seeking additional resources for my wife's health, the babies' needs, and the occasional new acquisition for my library so that I may continue to better understand my role as a white male ally to marginalized people in librarianship. First, my research and proofreading gigs are up on Fiverr. I've recently reworked the research gig a little to reflect how it worked during my first two jobs. Examples of final results are posted, if you want to get an idea of what I can do for you. It's $45 for a final product of up to 3,000 words of source summary and evaluation, which encompasses as few as three sources (if all complex academic journal articles) and as many as twelve (if social media profiles or simple Web pages). Any topic. Just no students wanting someone else to do their schoolwork. Also, if you like music, you can check out my performances on YouTube and leave a tip through PayPal, if you feel so moved. Also, I can help any student at any level with the process of researching and writing for school. I am very ethical and will not do for the student what the student needs to do for themselves, but I understand that brainstorming, organizing, searching and evaluating sources of information, extracting that information, analyzing and synthesizing that information, and communicating the information in a coherent way are baffling mysteries to many students that require a little one-on-one time to unravel. It's all strategy and encouragement, with a little example thrown in, taking great care not to cross any ethical boundaries or violate any rules about academic honesty. I do this work over Google Meet and am happy to talk with you to see if I'm a good fit for you, your child, or whomever. Just contact me here.
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Wayne State University, School of Information Sciences, awarded me its Master of Library and Information Science degree the other day. So, I'm officially a librarian. Without a library (other than my own private library).
I'm all for moving on, except for the circumstances of my life requiring my presence at home, and except for the comfort I feel in being a student, and the sadness and trepidation at leaving school behind to pursue whatever happens next. All too eager to involve myself in new intellectual pursuits, I have set myself lofty goals in terms of pages read and written ... and I'm way behind. Sick babies and lots of appointments for them and other sick family members have a lot to do with that. Parenting is not one of my stronger suits, and neither is being supportive when problems resist solution. I don't like powerlessness. I don't like unpredictability. But I'm learning to deal with it. Graduation is, as always, a time of transition and an opportunity to grow into new aspects, new responsibilities. Even outside of the job-search-to-come, that is an apt description for what is happening now. I have much work to do if I want to make the most of it. I am really looking forward to bringing my talents, training, and passion to some organization and community where I can make a difference. Unfortunately, the time for that to happen turns out to be ... not now. Although I will finish my MLIS next month, I will not be seeking a professional position, or indeed any work outside the home, for the foreseeable future. My partner has developed a serious health condition and I need to focus on taking care of her and the children. When life gets a little more stable and predictable, I will pursue my career. In the meantime, I will continue to offer professional research and tutoring services from home and develop some creative and academic projects, hopefully for publication.
Toward a Plan to Take Lit Crit, YA Lit (& Teens) Seriously, with some autobiographical extrania3/13/2021 Notes toward a new project
OK. There's a new bug in my brain. There's a new stumbling block. I'm obsessing a bit on having lost A.S. King as a Twitter follower. We had gone back and forth a bit about the need for serious critical treatment of YA literature--like (in my head) examining YA fiction through the lenses of not only pedagogy (what is its educational value? how do I best teach YA lit?) and politics (Marxist, feminist, & postcolonial theories), but psychoanalytical, deconstructionist, and postmodernist theory. I had brainstormed a grand project investigating the meanings of surrealism, the connection between surrealism and adolescence, and King's surrealist novels. However, I blew it. I said something offensive or was just plain irrelevant and uninteresting on Twitter, or she didn't like the four-star review I gave Still Life with Tornado (which I may change, just because on rereading it for a paper, it gets better and better), and she left, just before her birthday. Or maybe it was just time for her to cut back on the number of people she was following, and I didn't make the cut. I don't know. All I know is three things: (1) That I'm bored with YA lit crit and want to inject something new into it, (2) I have difficulty restraining impulses to say things on social media (was it my comments about my past behavior with women that I regret, or the somewhat mean things I said about Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, or ...?), and (3) I have a tendency to get really excited about connections and overstep boundaries. Anyway, she no longer follows me. Regardless, she seems like a stellar human being, and she's been through some rough stuff and come through the other side. I admire her, and my interest in her writing continues. Consider this a list of works to examine as a preliminary for a series of articles, and please suggest more if you know of anything, especially anything more recent: I haven't been here in a while (not that anyone asked). My youngest daughter (Calliope) was born February 5, two days before Ellowyn's first birthday. I'm in my final semester at Wayne State. Life is chaos with a thin veneer of order, full of cracks that make the chaos visible.
Still, I'm enjoying my classes. In YA Lit, I'm writing two papers on A. S. King, and in the course of that, I've had the good fortune to talk (virtually) with the author herself. In Creative Writing (which won't count toward the MLIS), I am currently writing a scene from a play in which Body and Soul (specifically mandated for this assignment, but I call them Mr. Corpus and Mr. Specter) have a wedding planning business and have a conversation about the floral arrangements for a wedding. It's fun, and creatively satisfying. I've made a start in seeking employment. Had a really good interview with an admirable system, but it was part-time and nonprofessional and over an hour commute. I will get back to that when my head is reasonably well above water. I would love to start the Disrupting Whiteness project, but I don't see that happening for a while. I can't pretend I'm anything but barely holding on, though. I will keep patching over the cracks so the chaos doesn't overwhelm me. Dear mostly fictitious reader, I'm tired. In March 2021, I will turn 50 years old, which is enough to make anyone feel exhausted. Also in March, we are expecting another baby, barely a year since Ellowyn--the infant girl sitting on my lap as I type this, one-handed--was born. That's about halfway through my long-awaited final semester of library school. If I can get through it all, I will hold a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science in May. Around that time, I hope to start a new, full-time, salaried job.
So much riding on it. But in addition to being tired at the moment, I am also excited. The surprises in store for me raising two infant girls will certainly keep me on my toes. The classes I am taking in the Winter will be thoroughly enjoyable (Young Adult Literature and an undergrad creative writing class as a bonus). And the opportunity to get back into the public library and provide service and programming and materials to patrons once more will be deeply satisfying, quarantine or no. For me, 2021 has the potential to be a culmination of years of wandering, working, studying, creating. A new beginning. Yet another, but one in a class by itself. Banned Books Week announced several days ago that George by Alex Gino—a middle-grade book about a trans-girl who, though she is known as a boy, wants to play the female lead in the play Charlotte’s Web—was the #1 banned or challenged book in 2019. There are many cogent criticisms of Banned Books Week as a library event and plenty of analyses of particular banned books, including George. But I want to focus on one issue in particular.
On the website Common Sense Media, George has its defenders, including the official reviewer for the site. Of course, it has its detractors too, most of whom worry about young children being exposed to sex. I agree that early exposure to sex can be detrimental to a child’s development and lead to all kinds of problems. In fact, I have personal experience in support of that fear. |
AuthorJeffrey Babbitt, MLIS, is a graduate of the School of Library and Information Science at Wayne State University who is pursuing a career as a librarian in Michigan. Subject Headings
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June 2021
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