librarian.net

When they came for my library

The interior of my public library which has a nice carpet, a leather couch. some stained glass windows, and some bookshelves and wooden columns which are all sort of glowing in the late afternoon sun.

Last week my town held the third vote on my municipal library’s budget. It passed, but it was touch and go there for a while. I got a big raise which I am grateful for but also won’t affect my life that much since I am a super part-timer and have been during my whole twenty years working here. The library director got a 40% raise which seems shockingly large but only because she was terribly underpaid before then. She has a Masters degree and nearly 25 years of experience running this particular library which includes managing a historical building as well as a staff of three and a few part-timers like myself. The story isn’t the usual “people don’t want to fund their library” but in some ways it is. Here are the larger points in the debate which has been going on since last November. Continue reading “When they came for my library”

Statement on AI

Posted on 07Jul2606Sep26 by jessamyn

photograph of some fabric showing people working with old time machines outdoors. — [*Living with Machines* exhibition photo from the British Library]

After Ethan wrote his statement about using AI I thought “Hey that is a good idea, I should do that.”

I don’t use AI on this blog (or any of my writing) to the best of my knowledge. I know other people use AI for various reasons and this is not me picking a fight with them; this is me talking about my process. I acknowledge that I probably don’t know every single AI-using aspect of the tools that I use. Continue reading “Statement on AI”

How to really figure something out, poetry in translation

Posted on 05May2606May26 by jessamyn

Sometimes the various parts of my life overlap. I have been reading Alix Harrow’s latest book The Everlasting, and enjoying it a lot. The book opens with a poem by Rilke which I liked. I had a “short and sweet, mostly just paperwork” wedding ceremony to perform this week and had an inkling that the person who asked me to do the ceremony would like the poem. I don’t read a lot of poetry, but I think poems are great for weddings.

Because it’s 2026 and I am a librarian, I checked to make sure it actually was a poem by Rilke. Harrow had listed the book and the translator. I found the book (by that translator) and checked the poem. And it was… different. Like mostly the same but a little different. This was odd. I do not speak German so couldn’t really get much deeper into which one was more accurate. Google Translate gave me a third possibility but I wasn’t interested in that. I was all set to ask my friend who is a poetry translator what her take was, but then I noticed that the translator was, himself, a poet and also that he was a working professor at a US university. Sticking to my general “Why suppose when you can just KNOW” motto, I dropped him an email. And I learned. Continue reading “How to really figure something out, poetry in translation”

Oral testimony for the Vermont data privacy and online surveillance bill

Posted on 01May2601May26 by jessamyn

I was invited to give testimony in front of this committee about S.71, An act relating to consumer data privacy and online surveillance.

Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development (Friday, May 1, 2026 – S.71 – Room 35 – 2:40-ish)

Jessamyn West – Library Technologist – Kimball Public Library

Thank you

In addition to my library work, I do public speaking at library conferences and have taught a workshop on Practical Internet Privacy all over the US for the past ten years. This is based on what I’ve learned in my 20+ year history of helping people with their technology problems and questions in a library setting. I can help anyone to use a computer better.

I’m here today to give you some background on what an average- or low-skills user experiences when they use technology. I am an aggressive supporter of increased privacy protection for all technology users and I think S.71 will help with that. Here is why. Continue reading “Oral testimony for the Vermont data privacy and online surveillance bill”