Kimberly Hirsh logo Kimberly Hirsh

A white woman with dark hair and glasses stands in front of a wall with several words in 3d on it. The word 'BOOK' is centered over her head.
Kimberly Hirsh in front of the wall of words at
Planet Word Museum in Washington, DC

Hi there! I'm Kimberly Hirsh. My pronouns are she/ her/hers. I'm somebody's mom. I work as a school librarian. I have a PhD in information and library science. I love to read, play tabletop and video games, and make things. I used to perform in theater and improv comedy and I may one day again. I have been extremely online since 1993 and still enjoy tinkering on the web. I manage multiple chronic illnesses. I'm married to my kid's dad. We have a cat.

Want to get in touch? You can reach me by email.

Recent posts

How Facebook Is Killing Comedy

I happened across this piece in Austin Kleon’s newsletter. It beautifully expresses a sentiment that I’ve heard from many of us who were around when the web was first becoming widely available: a desire to return to a time when individuals could publish things and you found them by searching or by word of mouth, not because an algorithm pushed them into a feed. This is not not about comedy, but it’s about a lot more than comedy. It seems more social media sites are adopting algorithms like Facebook’s all the time.

Here’s how I’m responding:

1. Publishing primarily here at KimberlyHirsh.com. Several months ago now I began to explore the IndieWeb movement. I’m still not really doing it fully - not using replies or events yet, for example. But I’ve gotten started and finally found my groove with long posts, status updates, and link-sharing, at least.

2. Using Facebook almost exclusively for its group functionality. Sadly nobody else is doing this with as widespread adoption as Facebook. This is where most of my communities are congregating. But I’ve unfollowed all of my friends and liked pages. If I want to know how a friend who internets mainly via Facebook is doing, I go directly to their timeline.

3. Subscribing directly to content providers in other ways. If I want to see everything, I go with RSS for a full blog feed. If I want more curated content, I go with a newsletter. I use Gmail labels to keep all my newsletters together and deliberately choose when to review them.

4. Observing my own response as I browse social media. If I’m scrolling Twitter or Instagram and I start to feel sad, angry, or bored, I step away. This is more about self-care than defeating algorithms, but it feels related, somehow.

There are scholars doing interesting and important work on this. Here are a few to check out:

Zeynep Tufecki

Safiya Noble

Anna Lauren Hoffman

Starting #lettermo with a bang. I'll reveal the contents of this package once I'm sure it's reached its destination. Not everyone will be getting something this fancy. Sorry!

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It feels like providence that this ran across my Instagram feed the morning after I decided to lean into the sea witchiness I've unconsciously been cultivating my whole life.

#Repost @entertheearth (@get_repost) ・・・ Thank you to everyone who has stopped by our tent at the Tucson gem show! We’re still unpacking even more new material. We have a limited number of these expertly prepared fossil crabs. They are Macrophthalmus sp. from the former province of Majunga, Madagascar and date from the Pliocene Epoch (5-2.5 million years ago). (Because we can not ship at trade shows, they are currently only available in person. However we hope to carry some online and in our retail store soon.) The wholesale division of Enter the Earth is at the Kino Sports Complex gem show in Tucson, formerly known as Electric Park. We’re tent #23. The show is open from January 26th, 2018 until February 11th, 2018. While the Kino show is open to both wholesale and retail customers, a physical copy of your tax identification is required for wholesale pricing, preferably a state resale license. We hope to see you there! #entertheearth #tucsongemshow #tucsongemshow2018 #kinosportscomplex #kinogemshow #gemshow #rockshop #crystalshop #rocks #minerals #fossils #fossilcrab #crab

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Today's #lettermo release: the first of my Buffy stationery goes out into the world with an Evil Queen stamp! I'll show you *which* Buffy note card it is in a couple of days. Don't worry: if you're a Buffy person and you're on my #lettermo list, I will do my best to ensure you get a Buffy note card.

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Sleepy mama mermaid #seawitchvibes.

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Now that I know it's been received and opened, here are the contents of that mysterious package from #lettermo Day 1! Three Amiibos (part of an SNES Classic bundle we received, but passed on to a home that will appreciate them), an art print by @thelatestkate, Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, and a birthday card designed by @emilymcdowell_. Picture two shows them in the box (grocery plastic bags actually make a decent packing material), and picture three is a repost of the sealed package. Again, most folks will be getting letters and postcards... But this was really fun to put together.

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Today's #lettermo is an Emm Roy postcard, but I forgot to take a picture before dropping it in the mailbox. I won't tell you what it said, but it had a (different) lion illustration on it!

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I have been keeping up with #lettermo, even though I haven't been documenting it. This is the first of my Buffy stationery to go out. It went out on 2/2. On 2/3, 2/5, and 2/6, I sent out Emm Roy postcards. On 2/7 I sent another Buffy card, and another will go out today. PLEASE NOTE: If you get mail from me in February and you respond, I have to reply. It's part of the rules! (It's also fun.)

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Flat surface space is at a premium with a toddler running around, but I turned my dresser top into an altar focused on being the kind of mother I want to be. The cloth is a hand-crocheted nursing wrap that I never used for nursing, but stitched during the long wait for M., years before he was conceived. My desire for him and for motherhood are channeled into every stitch. There’s @bakaraw’s #wtfistarot, of course, and my Tarot of Cats deck. The cats help me feel closer to the memory of W’s cat, who left us in June. The mermaid and baby picture was in the delivery room as I went through my long cave-labor with M. The cards tucked into the mirror are Bast and Aphrodite, fierce and soft moms. (Venus Genetrix has been my favorite aspect of Aphrodite since I played her in the 10 Minute Aeneid my sophomore year of high school.) There’s a stuffed manatee, bringing in my patronus and the nature of manatee moms, and a pomegranate candle, as a reminder of my maiden season, which stretched longer than I ever expected it would but gave me many gifts. ******* This space is sure to be covered in dirty tissues, hair elastics, and half-empty seltzer cans in a matter of days, but for now it’s #magiceverydamnday.

Fairy lights under the snow last night. This image is rife with symbolism, right down to the protective mesh that keeps our parkour acrobat dance-baby from climbing off the deck. I’m probably going to use it as the featured image for a blog post soon.