bewarethevalkyries:After months of conversations and planning, the Valkyries admin team is overjoyed
bewarethevalkyries:After months of conversations and planning, the Valkyries admin team is overjoyed to open Valhalla to librarians, bookstore employees, museum workers, and other amazing women who make comics the focus of their career. Valhalla had previously served as a place for post-retail Valkyries to keep the sense of community they had enjoyed in the main group without violating the retailer-exclusive nature of the previews the Valkyries receive. This new Valhalla will serve as a valuable complement to the Valkyries and encourage conversations, networking, and collaboration between Valkyries, former Valkyries, and these new recruits from the world of libraries, museums, and more.My own story as a former comic retailer that moved into full-time librarianship is the best example I can provide for why I am so excited for this new direction for Valhalla. When I was working part-time in a comic shop and a library, my jobs began to blend together and feed off of each other. My library work was informing my job at the shop, and my involvement in the world of comics was inspiring new ideas for my programming and collection at the library. By the time I was made a full-time librarian and left my job in retail, my work with comics had taken on a life of its own; and it’s something I’m honored to be providing to my local community, and to a community of librarians nationwide as I travel and offer guidance on how to incorporate comics into their libraries, colleges, and schools.Having a network to bounce ideas off of is integral to creating innovation. My time in the Valkyries was hugely important in developing my ideas for librarianship, and the connections I’ve made since, in organizations like the ALA, have developed those ideas even further. My own personal goal, working alongside our founder Kate Leth and my Valhalla co-admin Christina Steenz Stewart (a librarian herself), as well as the main Valkyries admin team of Juliette Capra, Danni Button, and Annie Bulloch, is to foster a collaborative and supportive network of women across the world. We invite them to use their enthusiasm for comics and their various backgrounds to have discussions with each other, and with former and current Valkyries, and to help our existing members explore new aspects of their own work through recommendations, event co-planning, creating local conventions, and a fresh perspective on the day-to-day grind of getting comics to the people.We’ve long wanted to invite new perspectives into Valhalla, and to see it happening is beyond exciting. We can’t wait to explore the ideas these new Valhallans bring to the table.If you are (or if you know) a librarian, bookstore employee, museum educator, or other woman (of any age, background and orientation, including LGBTQ+ folks) who would be a good fit for Valkyries Valhalla, apply for Valhalla at this link. You are awaited!See you in Valhalla,Ivy Noelle Weir (@ivynoelle)Valkyries Valhalla Co-Administrator & Librarian -- source link