How to really figure something out, poetry in translation

Posted on by jessamyn

portrait drawing of Rainer Maria Rilke by Leonid Pasternak. It's a rough charcoal sketch with loose outlines and forms of everything which is not Rilke who is himself only a little more filled in in this drawing.

Sometimes the various parts of my life overlap. I have been reading Alix Harrow’s latest book The Everlasting, and enjoying it a lot. The book opens with a poem by Rilke which I liked. I had a “short and sweet, mostly just paperwork” wedding ceremony to perform this week and had an inkling that the person who asked me to do the ceremony would like the poem. I don’t read a lot of poetry, but I think poems are great for weddings.

Because it’s 2026 and I am a librarian, I checked to make sure it actually was a poem by Rilke. Harrow had listed the book and the translator. I found the book (by that translator) and checked the poem. And it was… different. Like mostly the same but a little different. This was odd. I do not speak German so couldn’t really get much deeper into which one was more accurate. Google Translate gave me a third possibility but I wasn’t interested in that. I was all set to ask my friend who is a poetry translator what her take was, but then I noticed that the translator was, himself, a poet and also that he was a working professor at a US university. Sticking to my general “Why suppose when you can just KNOW” motto, I dropped him an email. And I learned. Continue reading “How to really figure something out, poetry in translation”

Oral testimony for the Vermont data privacy and online surveillance bill

Posted on by jessamyn

a handwritten document with some red wax seals on top of it.

I was invited to give testimony in front of this committee about S.71, An act relating to consumer data privacy and online surveillance.

Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development (Friday, May 1, 2026 – S.71 – Room 35 – 2:40-ish)

Jessamyn West – Library Technologist – Kimball Public Library

Thank you

In addition to my library work, I do public speaking at library conferences and have taught a workshop on Practical Internet Privacy all over the US for the past ten years. This is based on what I’ve learned in my 20+ year history of helping people with their technology problems and questions in a library setting. I can help anyone to use a computer better.

I’m here today to give you some background on what an average- or low-skills user experiences when they use technology. I am an aggressive supporter of increased privacy protection for all technology users and I think S.71 will help with that. Here is why. Continue reading “Oral testimony for the Vermont data privacy and online surveillance bill”

social media is real life, make it accessible

Posted on by jessamyn

Happy National Library Week. I have spent the first day of this nominal holiday on a self-appointed task of telling library advocates on social media that if they’re not using alt text with their images, they’re not actually supporting the full mission of libraries which is to serve everyone. You can join me. For anyone who shares the ALA poster, here’s a Bluesky-length reply that you can just copy and paste.

Alt text: A colorful illustration of the front of a library with a librarian waving to community members outside. A banner over the library reads "FIND YOUR JOY!" Logos for ALA and Library Champions in top right. Text below the illustration reads "Celebrate NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK, April 19-25, 2026" Continue reading “social media is real life, make it accessible”

Finally got an Apple Watch, it’s okay

Posted on by jessamyn
an old fashioned alarm clock with an illustration on the face of people on the moon
Image from the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives, on Flickr Commons

I am late to every technology party, so let me talk about being late to this one. The Apple Watch came out in 2015 and I got mine (a used one, from someone local who had upgraded) for $75 a few months ago. The tipping point for me were two specific things. Continue reading “Finally got an Apple Watch, it’s okay”

2025 reading list and commentary

Posted on by jessamyn

a colorful "Diverse books open minds" sticker with the rainbow and trans flag colors notably in it
Image from Jonathan and you can buy a copy here (as well as many other places)

This is my twenty-first year of keeping these booklist entries. Here was the Mastodon thread of what I read last year and here’s my 2025 booklist. The thread of this year’s books will kick off once I’ve finished a book (update: it’s here). Will it be yet another Ruth Galloway novel, Tigers Between Empires, or the graphic novel adaptation of The Hidden Life of Trees? Stay tuned! You can see an approximation of this year’s reading over on LibraryThing. Another challenging year, for different reasons. I started 127 books and finished 123. Read on for more details…
Continue reading “2025 reading list and commentary”