Today's library adventure is handing the central circ desk a library book from an incoming estate gift that had never been returned from an interlibrary loan in 1990.
😲
Lynne M. Thomas 🏳🌈🦄🚀
Lynne M. Thomas 🏳🌈🦄🚀
npub10rpr...hy7k
Rare Books #Librarian, 12x Hugo Award winning #SFF #editor & podcaster. #DoctorWho fan. Grieving Caitlin. She/Her. #Queer /bi/ pan. UncannyMagazine, VerityPodcast. University of Illinois RBML. Opinions mine. I don't auto-follow back.
Lynne M. Thomas: https://lynnemthomas.com/
Illinois RBML: https://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/
This is NOT GOOD. #archives "
Restricted-Access Federal Facility, Effective July 7, 2025
Effective July 7, 2025, the National Archives at College Park, MD, will become a restricted-access federal facility with access only for visitors with a legitimate business need. It will no longer be open to the general public." 
National Archives
The National Archives at College Park, Maryland
We hold permanent records created by Federal agencies that include: Textual records from civilian agencies Army unit records dating from WW1 Navy ...
TFW you are about 1/3 of the way through Loretta Chase’s Mr. Impossible and it’s now clearly time to re-watch The Mummy.
:rubs hands together in disaster bisexual:
Can’t decide between period costumes and explosions?
The Mummy.
Want to look at LOTS of pretty people?
The Mummy.
Need to see a smart librarian?
The Mummy.
SUCH a comfort watch at this point.
Have reached the "knock as many things off my list as I can stand to try to make January suck less for future me" portion of the festivities...
Dear Commercial and Academic Publishers: when a scholar is using images drawn from library collections that are clearly in the public domain, the holding library CANNOT complete a "permission to publish" form, because the holding library DOESN'T HOLD THE COPYRIGHT.
:headdesk:
Dear Lynne: while it’s great that you managed to add coffee and water to the coffee maker, you do indeed ALSO have to PRESS the BUTTON to make coffee happen.
They done fucked up fair use for libraries and other legit uses for at least the next couple of decades. :headdesk: 5/5
Having an actual plan for building something better when you "disrupt" entire fields is key, and if you are fucking creators over, guess what? NOT ACTUALLY BETTER. 4/5
There was a world where they advocated for creators to be paid AND for access to materials that otherwise wouldn’t be available. They chose not to work towards that. 3/5
Yes, much of the digital preservation work they do is absolutely KEY. That said, I would much rather they had put their weight towards FIXING COPYRIGHT AND IP LAWS rather than breaking them to see if that would shove things the way they wanted them to go. 2/5