I saw a leashed dog in the library and saw no obvious identifiers that it was a service animal. I approached the patron and told him that pets were not allowed in the library. He told me that if I looked down, I could see it was a service animal. In fact, I could not. He then turned the animal around and pointed at the collar, which had "service animal" embroidered in it. Upon turning around to face me, the dog licked both of my hands. The owner ignored this behavior and went back to looking for books.

I wanted to host a fanfiction writing contest for my teen department, as we have a lot of teens who enjoy writing fanfiction about their favorite characters and fandom. However, I know fanfiction is always a little tricky.

The idea was to set rules and guidelines, such as:

“Respect for Source Material: If using established characters or settings, submissions should honor the original creator’s vision, themes, and tone.

Our Library has a CSEA Collective Bargaining Agreement with Employees, and individual employment contracts with administrators. All documents codify how many accrued vacation days and sick days an individual employee can “sell back” or be reimbursed for upon separation from service (resignation or retirement). The documents do not address remaining accrued time that employees have earned during their years of service. In NYS labor law are there any regulations stipulating how the employer must handle the balance of accrued time? Does it have a monetary value?

I’m part of a professional library association that is a 501(c)(3), like the American Library Association, Association for College and Research Libraries, and the Society for American Archivists. Occasionally, the group issues statements in solidarity with various groups, for instance, in protest of police violence against Black people and against Anti-Asian violence.