John Boggs
@subsublibrarian.bsky.social
Systems librarian. Learning the violin.
What a great example of how literature can literally save lives. The arts are so important.
I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.
December 3, 2025 at 4:48 PM
What a great example of how literature can literally save lives. The arts are so important.
Some Jazz in the library.
In The Stax with Connoisseur Rat - Black Power Is
YouTube video by Berkeley Public Library
www.youtube.com
November 30, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Some Jazz in the library.
I remember a conversation with my Dad about his new SUV over 20 years ago, when he said if he's in an accident he wants to win. I was disturbed that he didn't say survive, but win.
Car Size
xkcd.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:21 PM
I remember a conversation with my Dad about his new SUV over 20 years ago, when he said if he's in an accident he wants to win. I was disturbed that he didn't say survive, but win.
Are you there, God? It's me, Ahab.
November 7, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Are you there, God? It's me, Ahab.
Reposted by John Boggs
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity
Australia's extensive solar power penetration makes so much energy that the government wants to offer free electricity at peak hours.
electrek.co
November 6, 2025 at 2:08 PM
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
"The secret isn’t hidden policy genius or decades of cultural conditioning—it’s infrastructure."
When Bikes Outnumber Cars: What Scotland’s Cycling Surge Can Teach North America
Scotland’s largest city reached a milestone that would make any transportation planner in Portland, or Montreal do a double take.
momentummag.com
November 4, 2025 at 2:37 PM
"The secret isn’t hidden policy genius or decades of cultural conditioning—it’s infrastructure."
Is he going to stop with just the east wing? Or will we eventually have a brand new, shoddily-built, McMansion of a White House?
October 23, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Is he going to stop with just the east wing? Or will we eventually have a brand new, shoddily-built, McMansion of a White House?
The old man equivalent of stirring your hot cocoa with a candy cane is drinking coffee with a Ricola cough drop in your mouth.
September 18, 2025 at 3:01 PM
The old man equivalent of stirring your hot cocoa with a candy cane is drinking coffee with a Ricola cough drop in your mouth.
Just rage-cancelled Hulu / Disney+. We don't want to financially support media that bows down readily. You can't trust anything you're hearing from them if they kick people out as soon as the government expresses displeasure at what they're saying. They're clearly becoming just a mouthpiece.
September 18, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Just rage-cancelled Hulu / Disney+. We don't want to financially support media that bows down readily. You can't trust anything you're hearing from them if they kick people out as soon as the government expresses displeasure at what they're saying. They're clearly becoming just a mouthpiece.
Downtown Berkeley this morning. Oops.
September 5, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Downtown Berkeley this morning. Oops.
Hey, editor and writer types, shouldn't the construction be "both ... and ..." instead of "both ... as well as ..." As in, "I am both a librarian and a husband," rather than "I am both a librarian as well as a husband"? I see the latter a lot in newspapers, and it bugs me. But should it?
September 5, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Hey, editor and writer types, shouldn't the construction be "both ... and ..." instead of "both ... as well as ..." As in, "I am both a librarian and a husband," rather than "I am both a librarian as well as a husband"? I see the latter a lot in newspapers, and it bugs me. But should it?
Just cancelled one of my domains, and the Google business package that goes along with it (email, calendar, files, whatever). I had to say like six times in the process that yes I really want to do this. Yes, I've thought it through. No, a discount won't entice me to stay. I realize it's on my head.
September 2, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Just cancelled one of my domains, and the Google business package that goes along with it (email, calendar, files, whatever). I had to say like six times in the process that yes I really want to do this. Yes, I've thought it through. No, a discount won't entice me to stay. I realize it's on my head.
"There’s a pollution blanket around the planet, but it’s the result of a pollution blanket around our souls."
‘It’s a warning, set to a dance beat’: Jon Batiste on his new song urging climate action 20 years after Katrina
The global music star, whose home town of New Orleans was devastated by the hurricane in 2005, says ‘people power’ can change the world
www.theguardian.com
August 29, 2025 at 2:16 PM
"There’s a pollution blanket around the planet, but it’s the result of a pollution blanket around our souls."
Reposted by John Boggs
I don't fully trust anyone who doesn't adore libraries, especially haunted libraries. In terms of desired afterlife real estate, few places compare to library or bookshop. I am going to try hard to haunt my favourite one when the time comes. – #CJosiffe #Libraries #Ghosts
July 15, 2025 at 10:55 AM
I don't fully trust anyone who doesn't adore libraries, especially haunted libraries. In terms of desired afterlife real estate, few places compare to library or bookshop. I am going to try hard to haunt my favourite one when the time comes. – #CJosiffe #Libraries #Ghosts
Reposted by John Boggs
Excited to have our Berkeley Public Library Tool Lending Library mentioned in this New York Times article!
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/r...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/r...
Need a Tool for a Home Project? Get Yourself a Library Card.
www.nytimes.com
July 14, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Excited to have our Berkeley Public Library Tool Lending Library mentioned in this New York Times article!
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/r...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/r...
Curious why papers aren't reporting that the cease fire never happened rather than reporting that Trump says the cease fire is in place, even though there's bombing going on.
Also disappointed the Guardian reports Rutte says Trump is bound for big success when the only source for that is Trump.
Also disappointed the Guardian reports Rutte says Trump is bound for big success when the only source for that is Trump.
June 24, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Curious why papers aren't reporting that the cease fire never happened rather than reporting that Trump says the cease fire is in place, even though there's bombing going on.
Also disappointed the Guardian reports Rutte says Trump is bound for big success when the only source for that is Trump.
Also disappointed the Guardian reports Rutte says Trump is bound for big success when the only source for that is Trump.
A lovely day to work on the roof.
May 29, 2025 at 5:16 PM
A lovely day to work on the roof.
Mom died in fall of 2005. Today I have outlived her. Damn.
This is her at my wedding just 3 months before she died.
This is her at my wedding just 3 months before she died.
May 12, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Mom died in fall of 2005. Today I have outlived her. Damn.
This is her at my wedding just 3 months before she died.
This is her at my wedding just 3 months before she died.
At North Berkeley BART yesterday with several thousand others. Nearly every car that went by was honking & had smiling people in it.
April 6, 2025 at 6:15 PM
At North Berkeley BART yesterday with several thousand others. Nearly every car that went by was honking & had smiling people in it.
Shit, man. My sister-in-law teaches here.
Duke Center for International Development pauses activity due to USAID cuts, accelerating University’s cost reduction efforts
According to Edmund Malesky, DCID director and professor of political science, Sanford leadership paused the center’s activities “because [DCID] did not have an alternative funding model in place.”
www.dukechronicle.com
March 30, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Shit, man. My sister-in-law teaches here.
I didn't have a key to give to some contractors to get into our network room yesterday, so they taped the latch in so the door wouldn't catch. I said, "Just like Watergate!" and they both said, "What's Watergate?"
March 27, 2025 at 2:27 PM
I didn't have a key to give to some contractors to get into our network room yesterday, so they taped the latch in so the door wouldn't catch. I said, "Just like Watergate!" and they both said, "What's Watergate?"
"[W]hen you memorise a poem, that’s the whole poem. You learn ‘The Fall of Rome’, and you’ve stolen it as cleanly as if you’d walked out the Louvre with the Mona Lisa."
Just posted a not *entirely serious thing on poetry and public health messaging over at the northseapoets substack
open.substack.com/pub/northsea...
open.substack.com/pub/northsea...
The Poem as Public Health Message: on Mnemonics, Kelpies and the Banned Word List
Don Paterson’s alter ego sounds off on bad acronyms
open.substack.com
March 22, 2025 at 4:56 PM
"[W]hen you memorise a poem, that’s the whole poem. You learn ‘The Fall of Rome’, and you’ve stolen it as cleanly as if you’d walked out the Louvre with the Mona Lisa."
They're coming for all of us, eventually. So many people I know work in libraries, public education, higher education, and are all being attacked at the federal level. I think the goal is a bunch of uneducated cogs working in factories, breathing air that'll lower life expectancy back to 35 or so.
Call to Action to Protect Libraries
Email from Berkeley Public Library Foundation Dear Reader, By now, you may have heard that President Trump issued an Executive Order that calls for eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library
myemail.constantcontact.com
March 19, 2025 at 4:21 PM
They're coming for all of us, eventually. So many people I know work in libraries, public education, higher education, and are all being attacked at the federal level. I think the goal is a bunch of uneducated cogs working in factories, breathing air that'll lower life expectancy back to 35 or so.
Reposted by John Boggs
Clear, concise, accurate. Must read. ⬇️
"No matter how deeply avant-garde art has engaged in shock and putative nihilism, no artist, to my knowledge, has ever made art with the sole aim of harming the already vulnerable...Those are the goals of AI art, and that is why it resonates with the right."
"No matter how deeply avant-garde art has engaged in shock and putative nihilism, no artist, to my knowledge, has ever made art with the sole aim of harming the already vulnerable...Those are the goals of AI art, and that is why it resonates with the right."
AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism
It's embarrassing, destructive, and looks like shit: AI-generated art is the perfect aesthetic form for the far right.
newsocialist.org.uk
March 18, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Clear, concise, accurate. Must read. ⬇️
"No matter how deeply avant-garde art has engaged in shock and putative nihilism, no artist, to my knowledge, has ever made art with the sole aim of harming the already vulnerable...Those are the goals of AI art, and that is why it resonates with the right."
"No matter how deeply avant-garde art has engaged in shock and putative nihilism, no artist, to my knowledge, has ever made art with the sole aim of harming the already vulnerable...Those are the goals of AI art, and that is why it resonates with the right."