So last week I claimed I was going to reset/restart my writing here with a format of 3 interesting things I discovered during the week, plus a question. I’ve always noticed that if/when I start looking for things, I inevitably find more. That’s what happened this week. I’ve got 5 – 5 fun and interesting things from the week to share. Here goes:
The Noun Project’s Free 2023 Marketing and Social Media Content Calendar
If you’re unfamiliar with the Noun Project, I highly recommend the site. Even more, if you afford it, I recommend an annual subscription (around $40). This gives you not only unlimited downloads of high quality icons and photos to use in presentations, handouts, social media posts, etc., but it also helps support the site and all of the graphic artists who contribute to it. The free calendar suggests icons and images throughout the year, relating to holidays and other observances. I’m one of the social media posters for my library and I’m always looking for ideas of things to post that coincide with whichever days I’m assigned. I’ve bookmarked the calendar site for future reference.
Massachusetts Center for the Book Tour Series, aka Book Trails
Break out your state map (or GPS) and plan some trips to visit places around Massachusetts related to literature. You can use the resource to plan visits to museums like the home of Louisa May Alcott (Concord) or the House of Seven Gables (Salem) or The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home in Lenox. You can also explore the deep and rich history of African American authors in the state, from the Underground Railroad site in New Bedford, where Frederick Douglass settled for awhile, to Malcom X’s Roxbury home, to the home site of W.E.B. DuBois in Great Barrington, as well as his residence on Flagg St in Cambridge. He lived in the latter while attending Harvard, as he was not permitted a dormitory space on campus. While this resource is targeted at sites in Massachusetts, check out your own state’s Center for the Book to see if they have something similar.
Created by the Townsend Lab at Yale University’s School of Public Health, this is another tool to help authors find the most appropriate journals to submit manuscripts for publication. Users enter the title, abstract, and references for their paper into the service and it generates a list of matches to pursue. This isn’t an uncommon question in my library, so tools like this are always helpful to recommend.
The American Chemical Society’s Guide to Scholarly Communication
This resource from the ACS is filled with great information on scientific communication, scientific writing and publishing, peer review, data management, style conventions, graphics (many towards chemistry, of course), and an important chapter on inclusivity. This most recent chapter presents guidelines on writing and presenting related to age, disabilities and health conditions, gender and sexuality, diversity and inclusion, accessibility, socioeconomic status, and more. Another one I’ve bookmarked for easy reference in the future.
Cookie Monster’s Real Name is Sid
Not that you want to skip any of this, but if you scroll to the 7 minute mark, you’ll see!
A Question
What does anyone ever really get out of denying people the opportunity to read?
A Librarian by Any Other Name 