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Rachel Borchardt

@butternutsquash.bsky.social
313 followers 308 following 175 posts

Scholarly communication librarian, mom, lurker. Researching publishing and researcher evaluation equity models, OA and societal impact. Views are my own.

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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Volunteering on our campus' absentee ballot initiative in a bit - stay tuned to see how ridiculous some states make it to successfully vote via absentee ballot.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
"You look like a librarian trying to be cool." Character in Sarah Adam's The Rule Book reacting to an outfit of yellow and white herringbone 3/4 sleeve blazer, baby blue skirt, Rolling Stones t-shirt and yellow sneakers. Made me LOL this morning.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Precocious/ferocious and crow blush is one of the more humorous song rhymes out there. (Not as great as stupid, Cupid, and loopid!)
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Gabrielle A. Perry, MPH @geauxgabrielle.blacksky.app · 08/06/2026
This is the purpose of data centers. Not ChatGPT that yall keep screaming about. Nobody needs 40,000 acres for a search engine The future of mass surveillance & neo-feudalism (where we are headed) depends on the government AND corporations maintaining a permanent underclass using mass surveillance
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
There are zero Krogers in DC - closest one is hours away in VA.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
AU is hiring two Resident Librarians with interest in reference and instruction for 2-3 year term faculty positions - must be a recent graduate. I'm not on the search committee, happy to answer questions: american.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/AU/job...
american.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
Resident Librarian
American University is a student-centered research institution located in Washington, DC, with highly-ranked schools and colleges, internationally-renowned faculty, and a reputation for creating meani...
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Willow @rockshrimp.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Every time I see someone talk about Claude I think about how they switched from female to male names as soon as they wanted the robots to seem like experts vs personal assistants.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
CA delivered some magical ones - Sequoia Natl Park, Yosemite, Catalina Island, Hershey factory. Sadly, it was cold and snowy in Yosemite and the cabins were unheated, but still magical.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
This plus whatever technology enables a taco stand on every corner, please and thank you
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Kate McKean @katemckean.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Catherine O'Hara performing Kidnap Sandy Claws with Danny Elfman and Paul Reuben. I love it so much, and hope it can bring a smile to those mourning her loss. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yHQ... (song starts at 1:49)
youtube.com
Danny Elfman, Catherine O'Hara, & Paul Reubens - Kidnap the Sandy Claws -Live - 10/31/15
YouTube video by draw den
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MinnMax @minnmax.com · 23/01/2026
In solidarity with today's ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA blackout, MinnMax is donating $1 to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota for every share of this Bluesky post for the next hour.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Just called my senators urging them to oppose the DHS funding bill, and encourage folks to do likewise! (still HATE HATE HATE phone calls, but both of mine had the option to leave a voicemail, which is a little less awful IMO)
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
I remember words in songs better than ordinary words, including random songs from music class in elementary schools and many songs from the 50's and 60's.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
I believe that there are only two fates for photos taken of slides at a conference: 1) Posted online 2) Literally never looked at again
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
"Good and Cheap: Eating well on $4 a day" is a wonderful, free cookbook. It has lots of good ideas for making money and food stretch farther. dhs.saccounty.gov/PUB/WIC/Docu...
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🎃 Imani Gandy Corn 🎃 @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 15/10/2025
250 years of slavery. 88 years of Jim Crow. But somehow we're all supposed to succeed by pretending we started on equal footing beginning in the mid 1960s. Come the fuck on.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Now there are 51 ways to leave your lover.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Trying to teach children that the world is good and people can be trusted (so they can sleep at night knowing they're protected) is REALLY HARD in this stupid-ass scam culture that is the US now.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Shout out to Fairfax County Public Schools for continuing to prioritize students' safety! Much gratitude from this FCPS parent as well.
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Fobazi M. Ettarh @fobettarh.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Fobazi is currently in the ICU and could use your support. Apologies to those I haven’t been able to reach out to yet. You can message me for more info and I will be posting updates to GoFundMe. Please share, send healing thoughts, prayers, etc. ❤️ -Elena gofund.me/c8485b58
gofund.me
Donate to Fobazi’s road to recovery: Kidney and liver transplant, organized by Ysabel Gerrard
Hello all, my name is Ysabel and I’m fundraising for my friends … Ysabel Gerrard needs your support for Fobazi’s road to recovery: Kidney and liver transplant
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
"Research, valuable not in itself but for some ulterior purpose, will be of little import except in so far as it is transmuted into common knowledge. The history that lies inert in unread books does no work in the world." -- Carl Becker, American Historical Association presidential address, 1931
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Michaels' Halloween decor is absolutely rising to meet the national moment
Wall hanging depicting a pink and black skeleton with a black hair bow holds sign saying "Dead inside but cute" in Gothic script
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
For anyone else at AU wondering what the heck all the alerts are about..
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
So excited to see this work finally published!
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Hilary J. Allen @profhilaryallen.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
I have been working on stablecoin policy for five years. Every word Sen Warren says here is spot on. With this bill advancing, I feel like I’m watching a car crash in slow motion and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. It’s devastating
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acabforcutie @ahemnason.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
It brings me no joy to share this, but here's an open letter to the leadership of the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) on what is to me a very serious issue with it's autonomy and political scope. (Note: I've worked for and with PKP for decades). ahemnason.notion.site/open-letter-...
ahemnason.notion.site
An Open Letter to the Leadership of the Public Knowledge Project | Notion
Hey. My name is Mike Nason, Open Scholarship & Publishing Librarian at the University of New Brunswick and the Open Scholarly Infrastructure Advisor with the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). I owe a si...
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Will Cross @willcross.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Excited to launch our new SPARC OA 101 series, featuring presentations from @butternutsquash.bsky.social on measuring impact, Teresa Schultz & Matt Ruen on problematizing "predatory" publishing, and @davehansen.bsky.social on copyright, authors rights, and AI. sparcopen.org/news/2025/oa...
sparcopen.org
OA 101 Round 2: Visibility & Impact, Problematizing “Predatory” Publishing, and Authors Rights - SPARC
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Me every time I start a peer review: I'm sure I don't have much to contribute - it seems like a well-constructed and interesting article! Me several paragraphs into a peer review: Oh I've got some things to SAY!!!!
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SPARC @sparcopen.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Project MUSE announced that its Subscribe to Open (S2O) initiative has reached its sustainability goal for 2025. This means that 2025 content for 100 journals from 27 publishers will be openly accessible on the MUSE platform. Kudos on the accomplishment! about.muse.jhu.edu/subscribe-to...
about.muse.jhu.edu
Project MUSE
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Danny Cherry Jr (twitter/Insta/tiktok: @Deecherrywriter) @deecherrywriter.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
OH FUCK NO. I'm sending an email, but white women, this is y'all's moment to shine. I can't think of a better reason to need to a speak to a manager. Inside every white woman reading this is a Karen waiting to be called into action. Lock-in, dig deep, and be a Karen for democracy!
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Maxwell Frost @maxwellfrost.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
They’ve called armed federal officers to the scene. We aren’t dangerous. We are here to represent our people. To defend public education. This is an authoritarian regime. You cannot block members of Congress from entering the Department of Education.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
This all feels like a fucked up Prisoner's Dilemma where one side stopped voting to share a long time ago and the other side just keeps mashing that share button over and over.
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Fátima @fatusn.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
🧪Here's the script for your senators. If you're in WI, like I am, that's Johnson www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/office_locat... and Baldwin www.baldwin.senate.gov Data by state on NIH impact: www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...
I am calling due to grave concerns with the freezing of communications at Federal agencies. Specifically, I am calling regarding HHS and the National Institutes of Health, including the indefinite suspension of council review meetings, review section, and travel. Currently, our state of [insert state here] benefits from over $654 million [WI data; insert data from your state here] in biomedical research funding from the NIH with a significant portion of that going to support jobs, innovation, and education, translating to $1.64 Billion in economic activity [WI data; insert data from your state here]. As a concerned local [citizen/resident/scientist/researcher/educator], I urge you to make sure that the money that has already been allocated for NIH extramural funding, including all training and workforce development grants remain committed. Having this funding removed would be disastrous for our local economy, important university biomedical research, and would lead to the loss of thousands of research training positions at the staff, postdoctoral, and graduate student level. NIH has always benefited from Congressional support across political ideologies, and continuing to commit to its funding and extramural projects ensures our country remains at the forefront of biomedical research efforts and innovations.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
We turned on the Ravens game, and the 4 year old was not happy. She tried to advocate unsuccessfully to watch Nightmare before Xmas. When that didn't work, she asked what my favorite movies are.. and that's how she talked me into switching to UHF. Clever girl.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Status report: snow day #3 for the kids just announced, kids are climbing the walls, I'm stress-eating bacon.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
Jimmy Carter was someone we should all strive to be more like. I got to interact with him in 2008 during a Habitat for Humanity build. He asked where the group was from and I shouted out "Emory!" since I worked there at the time and he was affiliated with them and he responded. An amazing person.
Jimmy and Roselynn Carter pose with a Habitat for Humanity build group of 10-15 people in 2008.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
Visiting my home town in CA. I've felt like a stranger visiting for many years, but this time around recognizing how many of my dreams take place here, and parts of me that fit better here. A bit bittersweet, but for this trip, hoping to go hike some hills!
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Sooo is this the worst time or the best time to start wearing my guillotine earrings more often? (for those interested, it's these: davidhowell.com/products/sil...)
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. 1/20 @nicholsonbaker.bsky.social #Libraries #BookSky 💙📚
Book cover Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Not my most mind-blowing creation, but one I'm proud of: Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich (turkey, stuffing, gravy, mayo on sourdough) with the special addition of my Mom's red wine vinaigrette. Could use some cranberry sauce, but it's pretty great!
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
okay, we're starting with this Step 1. call your own rep if you haven't already! Step 2. sign this (cis women only please! cis guys, you can help by boosting) Step 3. much depends on the success and reach of step 2; lots of options if this blows up actionnetwork.org/petitions/no...
actionnetwork.org
Not In Our Name: Cisgender Women Against Trans Bathroom Bans
House Representative Nancy Mace and the Congressional GOP have launched a campaign of harassment not just against newly-elected trans Democrat Rep Sarah McBride of Delaware, but against all trans and ...
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Hi, I'm Rachel and I was given the Prickly Cactus award (an actual small cactus) by my 10th grade English teacher for making "pointed remarks at the teacher" all year. He was of the belief that he was the only one in the class with any knowledge, and I liked to prove him wrong.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
A local library system (Arlington, VA, I hope they move to Bluesky soon) is giving away a FREE LIBRARY WEDDING for an engaged couple in 2025. Is it too late to get divorced and re-engaged? library.arlingtonva.us/2024/11/01/e...
library.arlingtonva.us
Enter to Win a Wedding at the Library!
One very special couple will win a free wedding hosted by Arlington Public Library.
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Once again begging people to stop playing into parents rights by saying parents have the right to decide what their children get to read. Children have rights, and "parents rights" is a backdoor to book banning.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 08/11/2024
Reading grant proposals for research translation funding, and it is helping soothe my soul a bit hearing about the amazing research and connections my university is engaging with and wants to expand.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 14/03/2024
I've been attending a multipart training, and not only am I learning a lot, the moderators are not shy about muting in the 100ish-person Zoom meetings. So grateful.
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 08/03/2024
Last night in traffic, my 7 year old asked me what jazz hands were. After a tutorial, I realized a man in another car was watching us! We (the man and I) both laughed - it was such a delightful moment, even though my son refused to do jazz hands for him. It's still making me chuckle!
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Rachel Borchardt @butternutsquash.bsky.social · 17/11/2023
Hey @matthartings.bsky.social, your library SciPop presentation got a write-up in The Eagle! I wish I could have attended, but it looks like a great article. :) www.theeagleonline.com/article/2023...
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