libraria miscellanea

Leaving the library to realize potential   Working in a small library is a unique and special experience.   Our community is small, but nestled between two larger towns, and an interstate jaunt of less than 50 miles to Charlotte, a large metropolitan area.   We are near Lake Norman and the State Park, and some of our patrons are quite wealthy; however many of the residents are in the lower middle and poorer income brackets.   There are business people, some of whom commute to work, and some farmers and teachers.   Some of our patrons are elderly, quite a few school aged children frequent the library, some teens, and some young adults; their needs range from readers’ advisory for fiction series, troubleshooting school laptops, job and resume help, basic computer skills, storytime and most important of all, the need for a third place to enjoy and interact with others. My previous library experience had been both in a rural, empoverished village in South Africa, and in a medi

It’s weird to grow up “white” but be part-Native American.   I always longed for a rich, fully involved cultural heritage and known family lineage.   Some of my girlfriends went to frequent pow-wows, had grandmothers with homemade frybread recipes, and who won Indian Princess contests with their beads and homemade dresses year after year.   By contrast, my grandfather’s father, who was a full-blood Cherokee, converted to become a Southern Baptist at some point in his young life.   He was awarded a scholarship to study seminary at Haskell College (now Haskell Indian Nations University), and proceeded to convert Cherokees on the Reservation to become Baptist Christians, too.   He did not teach his children anything of their native customs, heritage or language, but showed them how to assimilate, as best they could, into small town, white Oklahoman culture.   My grandfather was in the Army Reserve and married a white woman (my grandmother).   What is assimilation?   Part of assi