The Information Detective

40 Mile Town - Eric Johnson from Ah Via Musicom.

Tim Walz: “If you say you love freedom but you don't believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love is not freedom, it is privilege.”

My research project ‘Racism Resides Here: StoryMapping Housing Injustice Across Rhode Island’ was awarded private funding for our initial phase today!

I’m so excited to work with my research partners and our students to tell these critical , often hidden, stories.

#LibSky #AcademicSky

It’s an International Festival that libraries all over the world host, so no need to credit, but please do try this with your students. It’s a lot of fun!

Already dreaming up next year’s edible entry. Got a favorite punny book title? Let me know—I might just bake it!

(6/6)

A display of student graphic design projects titled “FYRE MODI: Eat Your Words! Edible Typography.” Posters and book cover designs use food to create stylized letters and visuals, including designs made from pasta, chocolate, cereal, and other edible materials.

A digital screen reads “Welcome to RWU’s 2025 Edible Books Festival” with a vintage-style graphic of a woman holding a cake. Below the screen is a row of printed student-designed book covers inspired by food, including Animal Farm, The Crucible, and The Silence of the Lambs.

We partnered with a first-year Graphic Design class, who made food-inspired typography and then interpreted that into fresh book covers for beloved classics. Their work turned the event into a full-on art show!

(5/6)

#CreativeSky #ArtSky

Close up of the Critic’s Choice, People’s Choice, and Punniest Entry awards

We had so much fun—and I somehow took home:
• Critic’s Choice
• People’s Choice
• Punniest Entry
Huge thanks to everyone who participated + voted!

(4/6)

#awards

A close up of the white chocolate baby head

The baby head + mouse were solid white chocolate. I molded them using food-safe rubber from a doll + a real mouse (the computer kind!). Fondant + edible ink for the rest.

(3/6)

A loaf of Dutch oven bread on a silver bakery board with a sun carved into the top and a tag explaining it was baked at 451 degrees Fahrenheit in reference to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

A double layer yellow cake with chocolate frosting and a solid white chocolate baby head with a fondant sign that reads Eat the Babies! In red edible ink as a nod to Swift’s A Modest Proposal.

A Strawberry pie topped with three fondant hats and a sign that reads Nolite te Bastardes Carborundorum in red edible ink, as a nod to the Handmaid’s Tale.

A tray of chocolate chip and M&M cookies on a silver bakery board with a solid white chocolate computer mouse and graham cracker covered in fondant signed scattered throughout that read: If you give a computer mouse a cookie, it’ll ask to collect your data to “improve your experience.” Then it’ll track your clicks, your habits, your location, and your late-night cravings. Soon, your cookie becomes its key to knowing everything about you. And once it knows everything, it won’t stop at just one cookie.

My entries:
• Ray Breadbury (Fahrenheit 451)
• Blessed Be the Fruit Pie (The Handmaid’s Tale)
• A Modest Confection (A Modest Proposal)
• This Cookie Knows Too Much (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie)

(2/6)

#baking

Event Set up with our FYRE Methods of Design Inquiry Class.

The set space with all of the entries scattered around the table.

I hosted my first Edible Books Festival today! The first year for an event is always a bit of a gamble, so I brought four entries just in case.

(1/6)

#RWU #LibSky #AcademicSky #BookSky #NationalLibraryWeek #EdibleBooksFestival #RhodeIsland

I can’t wait to watch the recording — my research partners and I are doing the same type of project in Rhode Island, so I’m looking forward to hear more about it from the library prospective.

The National Covenants Research Coalition is a great resource!

When we avoid talking about and using AI in our classes, we send a signal that these tools are shameful and we graduate students without empathy for others who, without access to education, may be using AI to learn, grow, and get ahead.

That’s something we need to do a better job of addressing. We need stronger partnerships between librarians, instructional designers, and teaching faculty.

If students see their classes as individual learning experiences instead of part of the whole or when they fail to see the connection between the assignment, the learning outcomes, and their futures, they may be more inclined to take shortcuts.

Yes, they are concerned about finding jobs that pay living wages upon graduation but I have never met a student uninterested in learning during their college experience.

When students take shortcuts, we need to consider why.

I choose not to believe that students are coming to our institutions, paying an increasingly alarming number of dollars in tuition, and holding off on starting their lives for no reason.

Students at my institution have written me to say they have felt shamed by certain faculty for having an interest in or having had explored AI. I cannot believe that was the intention of the professors, but that was the take away.

Thinking a lot about shame as it relates to discussions of AI on our campuses at #ACRL2025. There are certainly a lot of reasons to be cautious about AI, but I don’t ever want to approach conversations about AI from a deficit viewpoint.

Perhaps ACRL 2027 could have a rage room? I could get behind some cathartic demolition mid-day.

Thanks to @ezerrenner.bsky.social for the visual reminder of our work. I don’t knit, but may have to teach myself how to do something similar as a visualization of my instruction assessment to visualize student learning. #ACRL2025

This is such a good idea!

I took a stab at creating a custom feed for #ACRL2025 conference chatter to make it easier to follow.

bsky.app/profile/did:...

There’s a focus group for revisions to the ACRL Framework that I’m looking forward to participating in!

I already broke my first rules of conferencing — bring your business cards and plan ahead for weather, but I did check ahead for the walking distance from hotel to snacks, so I still think I’m on track for a great #ACRL2025.

What is that and where can I get one?

Oh - and because in times like these, it will be viewed as a form of censorship and an attack on intellectual freedom.

Because other Academic libraries are growing their fiction sections and seeing more engagement.

Because we are a residential campus and need to better model work/life balance for our students. Because if we can have familiar materials on the shelf, someone with library anxiety is more likely to feel welcome in the space. Because it’s cheaper than filling the ILL.

Reading from diverse sources is a skill tied to critical thinking and that’s the point of college. Because we teach with fiction in our courses. We have classes reading Lessons in Chemistry in STEM classes and others reading Barbara Kingsolver in a class literally called Why read?

A bouquet of flowers with a Thank You card displayed on a desk.

A librarian with dark hair, glasses, and a lilac blazer posing with a vase of cut flowers including roses and Calla lillies.

It’s always a surprise when something like this is delivered to my office as a thank you for visiting a class. It’s never expected but always appreciated. Thanks, Beth!

#LibSky