Ink Paper Words' Profile

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Pacific Northwest, United States
In elementary school, I desperately wanted my mother to order books for me from those flyers Scholastic hands out to kids. She refused, citing the "perfectly good library down the street." I exacted revenge by becoming a card-carrying ALA accredited reference librarian. Ha! Take that!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Obama administration apologizes for firing Shirley Sherrod

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/21/97918/obama-administration-apologizes.html

Of course, the bigger question is why Sherrod would want to work for an employer that has proven itself to have an administration that is populated with jerks.

Any employer willing to fire you without knowing the facts of the situation or bothering to investigate clearly does not deserve competent employees. Any employer who acts on the obviously tainted "reporting" of Fox (rather like Food Network in that it's an "entertainment" channel; decidedly not an "information" channel) is not an employer who has any right making hiring decisions.

Furthermore, in the now infamous video clip of Sherrod speaking at the NAACP conference, she clearly did NOT state that she refused to give a white client the full extent of services possible because of his skin color. It was because of his attitude. You know, the same thing that makes a traffic cop decide whether he's going to let you go with a warning or give you a speeding ticket with a hefty fine.

And Obama is for the "working American" ...how,. exactly?

I really don't get how the right is against Obama. He's one of them, doncha know. Man up, Barack. Do what you know is right, not what the rabid right wants you to do. When you cave, they win.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Fantastic Book Sculptures

I mentioned Heather's book sculptures to an email loop I'm part of. Then I took another look at her blog and her Etsy store and marveled all over again at the sheer amount of creativity and originality it took to create these things. Then I decided that perhaps the American Library Association would be interested in highlighting her work to show what could be made of  "de-selected" library books.

Here is the letter I sent to ALA:


I wanted ALA to know about my friend Heather, who is both a skilled librarian and fantastic book artist. By “book artist” I mean that she uses discarded library books and transforms them into the most amazing sculptures.
I first met Heather in 2001 when I had been hired at the reference department at Stanislaus County Library in Modesto, California. She was then a library assistant and part-time MLIS student at San Jose State University. Since she completed her MLIS, she became a branch manager at one of the Stanislaus County branch libraries, then eventually married and moved to Bakersfield, where she is now a librarian with Kern County Library.
Frankly, between her full-time job and full-time family responsibilities, I have no idea how she has either the time or energy to devote to her craft. Her book sculptures are decidedly entrancing. And as if that weren't enough, she also developed the idea of making beads out of strips of paper and then creating jewelry from those beads. I was astounded the day I opened a package from her that contained a pair of earrings made from those beads. One earring had beads that said “Book Slut.” The other said “I'll Read Anything.” I was so touched that she remembered me saying that about myself and was thoughtful enough to send me this gift.
I thought that since Heather is a librarian and her craft involves a clever way to re-purpose something that would otherwise probably just end up in the recycling bin, ALA might possibly consider doing a story on her.
Heather's magnificent book sculptures may be viewed at her blog:
and her paper bead jewelry here:
Thank you very much for your consideration.