A Bit About Me
An Image is Worth 1000 Bios
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| [Personal Photo] |
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| [Created by author with imgflip.com] |
As algorithmic feeds have overtaken personal timelines, I've found decreasing personal value in using most popular social media sites. Nowadays, I rarely use social media besides YouTube, which I admittedly use every day as my main source of entertainment and background noise. I keep in touch with my family and friends via text, so I only open Facebook and Instagram every once in a while to check something specific or to look for local business pages. However, I have used discussion forums extensively throughout my life to communicate with other internet denizens.
I use the word denizen here deliberately -- just as I am a citizen of the USA, or a citizen of Colorado, I view myself as a citizen of the internet. The internet and social media in particular are non-physical spaces where communities form. I probably have had just as many formative experiences on the internet as I have off of it. The video embedded below shows a relevant portion of Hank Green talking about the internet as a place.
I've watched popular social media transform from more personal social networks where you recognize all the people who appear on your feed to a more corporatized algorithmic feed that pushes content to you whether it is wanted or not. These algorithms have vastly outpaced the average person's media literacy skills, and I am concerned about how algorithms dictate what content is served to the average consumer. I'm sure I'll be able to get on my soap box about this topic in the future.
So, what about me off the internet?
Touching Grass
I grew up in rural Kansas in a town of about 5,000 people as the youngest of five children. I attended the University of Kansas and graduated in 2019 with a General Studies Degree in History. I moved to Colorado the summer after I graduated. I started working as a pharmacy technician in the course of my undergraduate education. During my last three years in pharmacy I helped develop and lead a medication packaging program, eventually managing over 350 medication profiles.
In 2024 I decided to go back to school to earn my Masters in Library and Information Science at Dominican University. I decided to do this because I was tired of the punishing realities of independent pharmacy, and because I was already basically at the top of my career ladder as a pharmacy technician. I've always had a knack for organization and systems thinking, and LIS seemed like a perfect fit for my interests and skill set. So far this has proven to be correct. Good thing, since I'm set to graduate this spring!
Since returning to remote formal education I started volunteering at my local city archives. I've completed one significant archival project there, an inventory sheet for a 66-volume scrapbook collection. Lately I've been working with their DWI (Deal With It) boxes and PastPerfect, going through materials, checking for duplicates, and cataloging items that have accession sheets.
I have two cats (Celty and Georgie) and one dog (Lucy) who bring incalculable amounts of love and joy to my life. (I've attached their photos to the bottom of this post, because who doesn't love pet pictures?)
I have four nephews, three of whom live in Colorado and one in Kansas. I sing lead in a local barbershop chorus, and am also their historian/newsletter editor and general techy young person. Singing is one of my favorite pastimes, along with reading, walking in nature, and playing video games. I have a variety of craft hobbies as well -- knitting, embroidery, light woodworking, 3D printing, painting, and sewing -- that I rotate through regularly.
I hope to build this blog into a professional resource that will provide value to other LIS professionals and students. I also plan to intersperse significant personal experiences and insights related to LIS. Both of these broad types of posts will have the potential to inspire and inform.
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| Celty [Personal Photo] |
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| Georgie [Personal Photo] |
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| Lucy [Personal Photo] |
Fantastic critter pictures! My daughter lives in Denver- it's a wonderful place to visit. Thanks for sharing the clip of Hank Green, he's a rock star. I'm looking forward to learning with you this spring, Kate.
ReplyDeleteHey there Kate! I love you using the word "denizen". That is a very creative way of thinking.
ReplyDeleteYay for almost hitting the mark on graduation! I am hoping to aim for for graduation for next spring. Keep your fingers crossed.
Speaking of archives, the library I work at had a donation of an album and sadly no one was going to take it and I found it in the trash. I rescued it and carefully went through the album to figure out what was in it. I found images that were from MO, IL, CA and IN. So I ended up reaching out to a few historical societies by either email or instagram hoping they would take the images. Some did! What do you suggest to do with the ones where I cannot figure out where they are from? Any tips?
Anything interesting when you are working on your archives that you have come across?
Your animals are so cute. Do they all get along? Any funny stories about them?
Hi! That's awesome that you went through that album and found some homes for those photos. I've been using Google lens to reverse search images and artifacts I've been coming across, that's been helpful in identifying old objects and people in photos and finding locations.
DeleteOne interesting artifact I came across in going through old boxes of stuff at the archives was a little metal matchstick holder, like this: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/marbles-metal-matchstick-holder-206-c-ca240c0bda
It was described initially as just a "metal cylinder" so finding its true purpose was fun! It even still had matches in it!
My animals get along pretty well, they have very different personalities so it can be tough sometimes, haha. Georgie is such a cuddle bug and so since I got her she has very deliberately working with Lucy to being okay with laying together.
Best wishes with working toward graduation!
Okay, first off, I love the pictures of your pets. I am allergic and so must live vicariously through my friends with a quick pet or belly rub followed by immediate hand washing. I have dear friends that used to live in Boulder and we would go hiking quite a bit while visiting. I am imagining how fun it would be to enjoy the outdoors in your neck of the woods with Lucy - she looks like she would be all in!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your firm stance on denizen. Social media networks bring people together in community, and I wish some users were more "community minded" in what they post. I do see the internet as an actual space and try to hold space for all people. It gets hards when ugliness lands in that space. And sticks, unfortunately. Thats when you need to call in the troops! Did you hear that Celty and Georgie?
I have had friends who are also very allergic to pets - it definitely is no fun. I have a friend who, despite being quite allergic and having to take a high dose allergy pill every day, has three or four dogs and I think seven cats. The dogs are all hypoallergenic, and the cats are Siamese which produce fewer allergens than other cat breeds. She couldn't pet Lucy without having to wash her hands, either.
DeleteLucy does love to be outside! She gets overheated on long hikes though, so we don't go very often. She spends all day outside if its nice enough though.
It is difficult to maintain a community headspace when there are more bots in comment sections than ever. There are so many different numbers being thrown around that I don't want to link to any one source. One side effect of this I've seen other people mention is, if you read a nasty comment or see misinformation or propaganda in comment sections, you can perceive all those 'bad' comments as made by bots, and the 'good' comments as made by humans. It may not be super accurate, but it does help with my faith in general humanity.