Multimedia Överlöde
Librarianship is a lot like Alice in Wonderland. I start out with one task and inevitably go down a rabbit hole. For example, I’ve been furiously ordering books to make a solid dent in the budget by March (ahh… the use-it-or-lose-it budgets of public schools) and ran a report of lost books to figure out what’s worth replacing. Our collection is missing a couple books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and when I searched the series in our catalog to look at all the titles, I snorted (immature, I know, but this is why I work in a middle school) when I saw the title Diper Överlöde.
But to be real honest, my brain feels like a Diper Överlöde right now. The shit-storm of executive orders, media coverage about disasters, reels and posts telling us what to do about the state of the world, not to mention the content I consume outside of politics and the content I consume for grad school and my job has left my head buzzing and my focus fragmented.
I’ve noticed a shift in my ability to focus on long-form content, which is why I’ve pushed myself to write on Substack and maintain my sacred weekend mornings curled up on the couch with breakfast and a book, phone somewhere far away. That being said, short-form content (aka the media överlöde) is where our kids are at right now. For better or for worse, it’s up to us as school librarians to engage with multimedia at some level so we can build connections with our students.
