You may have noticed the “Justice for Aaron Swartz” badge added to the sidebar.  I’ve added it to support the campaign by Demand Progress and the Internet Defense League that is trying to reform the CFAA.

From Demand Progress:

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is the law under which Aaron Swartz and other innovators and activists have been threatened with decades in prison. The CFAA is so broad that law enforcement says it criminalizes all sorts of mundane Internet use: Potentially even breaking a website’s fine print terms of service agreement. Don’t set up a Myspace page for your cat. Don’t fudge your height on a dating site. Don’t share your Facebook password with anybody: You could be committing a federal crime.

It’s the vagueness and over breadth of this law that allows prosecutors to go after people like Aaron Swartz, who tragically committed suicide earlier this year. The government threatened to jail him for decades for downloading academic articles from the website JSTOR.
Since Aaron’s death, activists have cried out for reform of the CFAA. But members of the House Judiciary Committee are actually floating a proposal to expand and strengthen it — that could come up for a vote as soon as April 10th!

The changes proposed by the House Judiciary committee (as outlined by TechDirt) are disturbing, and I strongly recommend that you click on the photo of Aaron and use Demand Progress’s tools to let your legislators know that these changes are unacceptable.  The Electronic Frontier Foundation has outlined their recommended changes to the CFAA as well, and Representative Zoe Lofgren seems to be taking notice.  Let’s help the Internet Defense League and Demand Progress to support these reforms and remind Congress that the internet is watching.

Eleven years ago today, I was a junior in college. I was sitting in my class that morning, when the professor’s daughter put her head in and said “a plane hit the World Trade Center”. It was a computer class, so immediately we all started trying to log on to our favorite news sites to see what was going on. None of us could get more than the most basic headline to load. We left class (maybe early, I don’t remember) and I remember joining a crowd of students standing in the university center, staring up at a small television that was showing the footage. We still weren’t sure what had happened exactly. I went on to my next class, where the professor proceeded to inform us that, despite the morning’s events, we were having class as normal. I was grateful for that – it helped keep me for freaking out about it.

I don’t really remember much of the rest of that day. I remember bits and pieces of the weeks and months after… I remember standing again in the university center sometime after and watching President Bush speak, again in a crowd of people. I remember many conversations with my roommates about the state of things, and politics and what we would do if Oak Ridge was attacked (I was in Chattanooga at the time).

I also remember how much I missed having those roommates around when I was in grad school and one of the anniversaries came around. I missed the shared experience of watching the news and talking about it, and of simply having someone there.

I struggle with these kinds of anniversaries. I always have. I can’t bring myself to watch all the dozens of documentaries that have been on television over the last week – it’s too intense and too much voyeurism for me to watch the something like the special made up of the phone calls of those who were on the planes and in the towers. Those conversations were meant for their loved ones, not me. The same with the other specials. I still remember and see the footage clearly in my mind. I don’t need to relive those moments.

So, today I will be scarce on social media and try not to listen too closely to NPR on my commute and I will think especially of those who lost a loved one today and honor this day in my own quiet way.

How to get involved, networking and other related topics have been on my mind lately.  Getting involved in library associations can seem intimidating, difficult and confusing, but it’s not as hard as it might appear.  If you look around this site, you might notice that under Professional Activities I’ve had a pretty busy couple of years.  I’ve been heavily involved in my state library organizations and also in ALA committee work.  If you’re like me, you look at people who are so involved and go “How do they do that?” or “How can I get involved?”.  I want to tell you how I got here.

In 2006, just before I started at my current job, I made a few professional resolutions.  These were the result of a conversation with a friend of mine who is perpetually challenging me (and others, I’m sure) to do better and do more.  One of those resolutions led me to this position!  Another one led to my increased activity in library related organizations.   Of course, that’s not to say it was an immediate thing (see my post about “stupid conferences” and my lack of networking skills).  One of the first steps I made was to start submitting program proposals to my state library association.  That helped to get my name out there and to encourage other people to approach me (the Speaker ribbon is a great conversation starter at a conference!).  (Want to see my follow-up resolutions? They’re here)

Another thing I did that helped with the national conferences was to get involved with the Library Society of the World.  This group of librarians from around the world (literally) gave me a great group of people to look for at national conferences and helped ease my “networking” pain.  By allowing us to meet virtually and communicate nearly every day, the LSW allows librarians to get to know one another and “meat” each other at conferences.  That means that we already know each other and can pick up where we left off when we see one another in person!  The person I don’t recognize isn’t really a stranger!  This group has been an amazing help to me at conferences – it’s a good sized group, which also means that there’s nearly always someone to hang out with, talk to, or go to dinner with.

So after I started meeting people at the state and national conferences, I started getting asked to do things!  Since many of our organizations are volunteer-run, they’re desperate for people to do things.  So, many times, all you have to do is show up and say yes!  So I did.  Now, I’m trying to learn to say No!

Just because an organization is run by volunteers doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have to be run well.  Just because you’ve said “yes” doesn’t mean that your commitment has ended there.  Volunteer organizations need quality work, just like your place of work.  So…say “yes’ and do your best work!  (you can see how it’s easy to get over-extended, right?)

After such a busy couple of years, I’ve decided to practice saying “No” for a little while. I ‘m starting to feel the pain of burn-out, and that’s not where I want to be.  So I’m scaling back on new commitments and trying to focus on balancing my life a little better.  I’m going to stay involved, but I’m also going to work on my hobbies – sewing, gardening, etc.  I’m also going to try to increase my involvement in my community.   I’d like to pick up my Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity volunteering and maybe meet some new people who aren’t librarians!

I saw this over on my friend Anna’s blog and thought it was pretty neat, so here’s mine!