The Questioning Librarian

I left work early on Friday, a backlog of extra hours allowing me to cut my day short. I took a drive from my own small town in Central Pennsylvania to another small town about half an hour south immediately afterwards; whether going north or south, I always love the drive from where I am, and it was especially wonderful this time. As you leave the exit behind, the forests stand covering the hills in the distance. The leaves are finally starting to turn, and I found myself slowing a bit to get a better look at a few spectacularly brilliant pieces of foliage. Most of the trees are still green, the daytime temperatures enough to fool them into thinking that it is still summer. A small number are already bursting into brilliant reds, yellows and oranges, and even a few deep purples.  The beginning of autumn is one of my favorite times of the year. I do enjoy the other seasons, but autumn has its own special joys. The burning heat of summer is mostly gone, but it is still warm eno...

In the never-ending Whack-a-Mole of creationist attacks on education, it had apparently quieted down for a little. I hadn't been hearing much about creationist holy warriors, beyond the usual background noise of discontent from the likes of Answers in Genesis. Yet to think that they could be safely ignored would be a mistake, as they've now reared their ugly head in Texas, looking to grab a huge victory for their movement, and thus ensure yet another disaster for an educational system that has already been heavily battered and wounded.  The Texas State Board of Education is currently in the process of adopting new textbooks in line with the education standards that they pushed in 2009, standards designed specifically to allow creationism into the science classroom. Sensing this opportunity, creationist members of the Board are pushing for pro-creationist textbooks , or at the very least ones that are extraordinarily weak in presenting evolution, the central unifying theor...

A few days ago I had a distinct feeling of deja vu . Returning from giving a talk to a local organization, I walked towards the library where I currently work to help cover a shift in the evening. Night was coming on, and the warm yellow lights glowed from within the library piercing the oncoming dark. As I entered through the main door into the relative quiet, I felt the same feeling that I had so many times when I was still at Clarion, heading to the University Library after sunset. It's a feeling that is difficult to describe, a gentle warmth of the heart the moment you see the lights in the distance, acting as a beacon in the dark. It is the silent thrill of anticipation of what might await inside, for a good library is a magical place, a beacon in the darkness of the mind just as it is in the physical darkness. It was a moment that caused me a brief feeling of longing, of wishing that I could go back to Clarion's library not just today but as it exists in my mind, as it w...

Most of the images my mind conjures up when I think about India are drawn from things like Forster's A Passage to India  or, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel . I imagine the crowded streets, the river Ganges, or one of the Gandhi family. Of course, what little I've managed to pick up from scattered bits of literature, history, or film barely begins to scratch the surface of India. There is an India we may not think of, the India outside of the cities, and it is this India and the struggles of a group of women that Amana Fonanella-Khan depicts in her new book Pink Sari Revolution: A Tale of Women and Power in India.  The central focus of the work is the case of one Sheelu Nishad, a young women raped by a local legislator and then accused of theft and imprisoned by the local police. It is here that we first meet the formidable Sampat Pal, the woman who formed the "Pink Gang," a brave group of women who dress in pink saris and agitate against corruption and wrongdoing...

A few weeks ago, I decided to write about the "workforce plan" at my alma mater, Clarion University. Towards the end, I noted that the root of the problem came from the anti-education administration of Pennsylvania's current governor, Tom Corbett, who was happy to keep funding the state's jails but didn't feel nearly as kindly towards education in the state. This is but one facet of an administration that has an absolutely shameful record on many points. If the actions of this man and his administration haven't made you angry yet, you aren't paying attention. While Corbett continues to blame the President for the cuts to Pennsylvania education, he himself must bear the responsibility for $1 billion in cuts to K-12 education. I've seen widely varying figures as to just how many educators lost their jobs as a result, with numbers as high as 20,000 (though I suspect that those numbers include not just teachers, but also the numerous support staff wh...