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Libraries - Blog Posts
I don't have have any of the social media that would let me get this to him directly.
Can someone tell Matt Mercer that Candela Obscura has been haunting my library for the last three weeks? I think he'd think it's funny.
Someone, somewhere, who somehow has access to our closed wifi has been printing a copy of the quick guide at least once every day or every couple of days.
We have sixteen, now.
There will be a lull, we're sure it's finally over, and then boom -
Candela Obscura
Seeing a steady rise of people using the library as we carry through summer break, so here's a quick thread from a staff member on little things you can do (for free!) to make life easier on staff. Let's go!
If you want to put a book back, DON'T put it back on the shelf! Put it on the return cart or bin, or give it to a staff member. Not only does this make it MUCH easier to catch misfiles and gather abandoned books in one trip, our budget is literally based on returns. Putting it on a cart gives us more money!
(To expand on the above: not only do we get paid more based on more returns, our book-buying budget for next year is based on what titles seem popular. Even if you don't check out a stack of books, putting it on the cart lets us know there's an interest so we can order more in that genre and support that author.)
Conversely, if you see a cart already full of books being pushed around by staff, PLEASE don't yank books off it or loiter around it. Carts are unwieldy and returns can build up quick, so let a shelver have space to move around and do their job.
(Again expanding on the above, especially please don't yank books off a staff person's cart if you see them pulling books off the shelf instead of putting them back. Books are pulled for a reason--hold requests for another patron, damaged, need to be relabeled, etc--so taking one can really throw off our list.)
If you rent a DVD and notice it's scratched or doesn't play, please tell us! We don't have the time or resources to watch every returned DVD, so we rely on patron feedback. Even a note tucked inside the case helps it get flagged for damage inspection when we're processing returns.
Pay attention to news related to your local branch! The VAST majority of book-banning demands we get are bulk lists from only one or two people--which means contesting them (or requesting a challenged book) also only takes one person.
Remind your friends that most libraries don't do late fees anymore! We want to be a safe haven for low income and disabled/nd people, so don't let being late or disorganized or poor or anything else discourage you. Bring your books back whenever you can, or just mention to a librarian if you lose it, and you're always welcome to come back.
“Public libraries are such important, lovely places!” Yes but do you GO there. Do you STUDY there. Do you meet friends and get coffee there. Do you borrow the FREE, ZERO SUBSCRIPTION, ZERO TRACKING books, audiobooks, ebooks, and films. Have you checked out their events and schemes. Do you sign up for the low cost courses in ASL or knitting or programming or writing your CV that they probably run. Do you know they probably have myriad of schemes to help low income families. Do you hire their low cost rooms if you need them. Have you joined their social groups. Do you use the FREE COMPUTERS. Do you even know what your library is trying to offer you. Listen, the library shouldn’t just exist for you as a nice idea. That’s why more libraries shut every year
♡ Little Free Libraries ♡
My very last comic for The Nib! End of an era! Transcription below the cut. instagram / patreon / portfolio / etsy / my book / redbubble
The first event I went to with GENDER QUEER was in NYC in 2019 at the Javits Center.
So many of the people who came to my signing were librarians, and so many of them said the same thing: "I know exactly who I want to give this to!" Maia: "Thank you for helping readers find my book!" While working on the book, I was genuinely unsure if anyone outside of my family and close friends would read it. But the early support of librarians and two American Library Association awards helped sell two print runs in first year.
Since then, GENDER QUEER been published in 8 languages, with more on the way: Spanish, Czech, Polish, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portugese and Dutch.
It has also been the most banned book in the United States for the past two years. The American Library Association has tracked an astronomical increase in book challenges over the past few years. Most of these challenges are to books with diverse characters and LGBTQ themes. These challenges are coming unevenly across the US, in a pattern that mirrors the legislative attacks on LGBTQ people. The Brooklyn Public Library offered free eCards to anyone in the US aged 13-21, in an effort to make banned books more available to young readers. A teacher in Norman, Oklahoma gave her students the QR code for the free eCard and lost her job. Summer Boismeir is now working for the Brooklyn Public Library. Hoopla and Libby/Overdrive, apps used to access digital library books, are now banned in Mississippi to anyone under 18. Some libraries won’t allow anyone under 18 to get any kind of library card without parental permission. When librarians in Jamestown, Michigan refused to remove GENDER QUEER and several other books, the citizens of the town voted down the library’s funding in the fall 2022 election. Without funding, the library is due to close in mid-2024. My first event since covid hit was the American Library Association conference in June 2022 in Washington, DC. Once again, the librarians in my signing line all had similar stories for me: “Your book was challenged in our district" "It was returned to the shelf!" "It was removed from the shelf..." "It was moved to the adult section."
Over and over I said: "Thank you. Thank you for working so hard to keep my book in your library. I’m sorry you had to defend it, but thank you for trying, even if it didn't work." We are at a crossroads of freedom of speech and censorship. The future of libraries, both publicly funded and in schools, are at stake. This is massively impacting the daily lives of librarians, teachers, students, booksellers, and authors around the country. In May 2023, I read an article from the Washington Post analyzing nearly 1000 of the book challenges from the 2021-2022 school year. I was literally on route to a festival to talk about book bans when I read a startling statistic. 60% of the 1000 book challenges were submitted by just 11 people. One man alone was responsible for 92 challenges. These 11 people seem to have made submitting copy-cat book challenges their full-time hobby and their opinions are having an outsized ripple effect across the nation. WE NEED TO MAKE THE VOICES SUPPORTING DIVERSE BOOKS AND OPPOSING BOOK BANS EVEN LOUDER. If you are able too, show up for your library and school board meetings when book challenges are debated. Send supportive comments and emails about the Pride book display and Drag Queen story hours. If you see a display you like– for Banned Book Week, AAPI Month, Black History Month, Disability Awareness Month, Jewish holidays, Trans Day of Remembrance– compliment a librarian! Make sure they feel the love stronger than the hate <3
Maia Kobabe, 2023
The Nib
It's officially Banned Books Week, so now is as good a time as any to remind everyone that libraries still get frequent challenges to books on our shelves. Books continue to be challenged, banned, and even burned. I'm a librarian in a blue state, yet one of my neighboring libraries has recently been the target of book bannings and threats of violence (they had to shut down an all-ages LGBTQ event due to these threats too).
Please support your local libraries. If you want more books by queer and disabled authors and authors of color, TELL US. Give us recommendations. Check out books and ebooks when we get them in. Tell us when you write books too. We're here to make information and stories accessible.
P.S. And if you notice patrons or staff acting like assholes (particularly managers) please let someone know. Library government is weird, so a lot of libraries aren't union and also don't have any sort of HR. Trust me, if you frequently notice someone being a jerk, chances are good everyone else has to and has been stonewalled.
Did you know you can check out video games from the library? Did you know that you can check out dvds of shows that were released on streaming? Did you know that if the a library doesn’t have what you ask for, they’ll arrange to have it checked out from another library and brought to you at your library?? Did you know you can get all of this for free???
GET A LIBRARY CARD!!! FEAST ON FREE JOY
Read books guys
I'm telling you. Read books. There's an entire world of dead useful knowledge contained. There are so many books that have a TON of useful information while also being easier to read than textbooks.
Listen, I know the internet's gone to pieces. Misinformation is practically the only thing you can be certain of with any search engine.
But books.
I mean yeah, there are books that are inaccurate. Or outdated. But for the most part, if someone cares enough to compile so much information on a subject together into a book, they care enough to make sure it's right. After all, it's not so easy to edit it like a blog once it's published. They're not spending so much time and labor putting together random units of information they stumbled across on the internet. They're doing this with genuine research and careful time and knowledge.
Let me emphasize one more time that there are so many books with real information that are NOT COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS (though those can be incredible sources of information too!). There is real information out there in very easy to process formats if you're willing to open a book and thumb through the index, table of contents, or even just all the pages.
...I mean, it does require us to care a little bit. It's certainly not as fast and convenient as a quick internet search. But it is so much more reliable, and if you care to know more about a subject I think it's important to care enough to get some solid information about it and not just a once-and-done.
Side note, did you know the Dewey Decimal System has a number for everything? Actually everything? Want to pick up a book on crochet or leatherworking? Dewey's got you. Learn about moths? Yup. Politics? Public speaking? Languages? Writing? Architecture? Librarians have master's degrees specifically so they can help you find things in the DDS (and also for other reasons but ya know).
Lovely people of tumblr, if I may speak with my librarian hat* on for a moment:
If you are in the US, you may be aware that librarians are Going Through It because some malicious people believe in fascism and have decided to make that our problem. Whether you are in the US or not, there is something you can do to help your local librarians out:**
Say something nice to us.
You can post on social media and tag your library, you can find the library’s main phone number and call, you can go in person, you can send a card (we display cards in our break room)! I guarantee you that you will make the day of the person you talk to, we will immediately go tell all our colleagues how lovely you were, and you will help us live to love and fight another day.
*it is a fetching piece of millinery in purple silk
**I propose we make this an international group project. Whether your librarians are going through it or not, we all appreciate a kind word.
End Banned Books Fundraiser
Hello there,
I could use some support to the following online fundraiser. The nonprofit has been approved by Instagram and you will find the link to donate anything from the amount of $3.00-20.00. This is a cause that is very important and the nonprofit would so appreciate it so much. Any donation ,,I will match it. Remember there is a time limit on how long a fundraiser stays open before it expires.
I am also on www.ko-fi.com/Gigigisele
Or see the link on my Ko-fi .com account in the first post . My Fundraiser's are ongoing until the end of May 2024 .
My Instagram account-->>
http://www.instagram.com/adventureskhri1
"Alex queria transar no piano mais era uma relíquia inestimável e tals"
Poems for a summer day:
Emily Dickinson
(my favourite poet)
A something In a summer's day
Summer shower
Further In summer than the birds
As sleigh bells seem In summer
It can't be "Summer"!
Summer for thee, grant I maybe
It will be Summer - eventually
I taste a liquor never brewed (the best poem ever)
The one who could repeat the summer day
What shall I do when the summer troubles
Ourselves were wed one summer - dear
So much summer
I know a place were summer strives
Would you like summer? Taste of ours.
There came a day at summer's full
Her final summer was it
Twice had summer her fair verdure
The trees like tassel - hit and swung by
John Keats
The Human Seasons
On the grasshopper and cricket
Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a Summer's Day
Over hill, over dale - from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
William Wordsworth
Book Fourth [Summer Vacation]
Daffodils (not about summer, but gives me summer vibes)
The Solitary Reaper (again, not about summer, but gives me summer vibes)
Langston Hughes
Summer Night (not about summer, but brilliant poem)
Pablo Neruda
100 Love Sonnets
Poem XVI
Poem LI
Poem XCII
Charles Baudelaire
L’invitation au voyage
Amalgamation of Poems
(these poems are grouped in amalgamation not because they are in anyway less relevant than the others above, the poems below have not been read by me or had been read long ago.)
Moonlight, Summer Moonlight by Emily Jane Brontë
June by John Updike
Love Song, 31st July by Richard Osmond
Apples by Laurie Lee
Warm Summer Sun by Mark Twain
A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky by Lewis Carroll
Fireflies in the Garden by Robert Frost
Midsummer, Tobago by Derek Walcott
A Green Thought by Katharine Towers
Adlestrop by Edward Thomas
When we got to the beach by Hollie McNish
Summer Stars by Carl Sandburg
Before Summer Rain by Rainer Maria Rilke
Morningside Heights, July by William Matthews
Miracles by Walt Whitman
Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson
Summer night, riverside by Sara Teasdale
The Idea of Order at Key West by Wallace Stevens
In Summer by Paul Laurence Dunbar
For once, then, something by Robert Frost
Summer Holiday by Robinson Jeffers
A boy and his dad by Edgar Guest
Long Island Sound by Emma Lazarus
Bath by Amy Lowell
Summer Morn in New Hampshire by Claude McKay
In the Mountains on a Summer day by Li Bai (personal favourite)
Backyard by Carl Sandburg
Idyll by Siegfried Sassoon
If you get there Before I do by Dick Allen
Fishing on the Susquehanna in July by Billy Collins
Indian Summer by Dorothy Parker
Fragment 31 (Jealousy) by Sappho (brilliant poem)
Constantinople by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Green by Paul Verlaine
From the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám, quatrain IX
To Natasha by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin
[These poems have an aspect of summer and definitely, most of them have addressed deeper issues through the appearance of a beautiful imagery of summer. This has been created from my own reading experience, google websites and recommendations from friends and professors. If you want me to add anything more, leave an ask or comment. Enjoy these beautiful poems and no hate please.]
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
Reading this book requires rotating it around, holding it upside down and paging through countless footnotes of fictional references. I'm really enjoying it so far and I strongly reccomend it if you love horror!
collection of stolen books
When I stole my first book, I was still a stubborn, puffy-haired little girl with knobbly knees and a deadened stare. It wasn't difficult or particularly dangerous, as I simply borrowed it from the library one day, with the intent to never return it.
I relished the buzz of peeling the transparent tape down the spine, flicking off the bar code on the right-hand corner. I recall pulling out the slip of paper pocketed inside to skim through the stack of names, as I pictured who had once borrowed it. How they'd sat spraying ketchup on its pages, maybe wiping a stray booger on there as well. Something waxy was stuck between page forty-four and forty-five, that red stuff wrapped around cheese wheel snacks packed in children's school lunches. I remember it all so well.
I hate consumerism, in fact it’s my reasoning for stealing as often as I do, so one might question why I once stole from a library. There is no excusable answer, it’s simply what my roots are. The book in question still remains on my shelf, crouched between hardcovers wearing crisp, matte jackets, like an abused child. It smells of sweat, love and apples; a distinct, addictive scent that will draw you to it and make you feel like some sort of pervert. The rest of my collection, still ‘hot off the press’, reflective headers blaring, New York Times Bestseller, have no such detail of warm, of endearment.
Note: something fictional I wrote tonight while bored. :p
The Librarian of Congress
Trump fires Librarian of Congress Hayden, the first woman and first African-American to hold the post
"And when you have a free public library in particular," she said, it was an "opportunity center for people all walks of life, and you are giving them the opportunity to make choices on which information, entertainment and inspiration means the most to them".
Choosing what to read in a library that offers the full range of human experience, writing and expression opens up the world to everyone and opens the way to empathy and to each other. Of course, that's not what the current administration in the United States wants.
The group, American Accountability Foundation, accused Hayden and other library leaders of promoting children’s books with "radical" content and literary material authored by Trump opponents.
We know what the political systems are called that ban democratic opponents and what they have to say.
Associated Press. (2025, Mai 9). Trump abruptly fires librarian of Congress in latest purge of government. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/09/trump-congress-librarian-fired
Online-Veranstaltung zu Banned Books am Welttag des Buches
Gemeinsam mit der Kommission für Queere Hochschulpolitik der bukof (Bundeskonferenz der Frauen- und Gleichstellungsbeauftragten an Hochschulen) organisieren die Queerbrarians (eine Netzwerk queerer Librarians) ein queeres Online-Event zum World Book Day.
Nach einem einführenden Vortrag auf Deutsch von mir sprechen Eve & Lucie auf Englisch. Sie kämpfen gegen die Book Bans in ihrem County in Tennessee.
Das Event ist kostenfrei und braucht keine Anmeldung. Alle Interessierten sind herzlich willkommen.
Titel: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
Datum: 23. April 2025
Uhrzeit: 16:30 bis 18:00 Uhr
Flyer & Infos
Librarians
As a librarian working to preserve and disseminate knowledge and books, I hope that in the future people will enjoy finding everything we've saved and learning about all the people who didn't obey in advance and how.
Very grateful for the librarians.
When I teach my library and information science students, that's the kind of library I envision, and I hope to inspire them to create it.
people talking about "lesbian rights" going "U CAN'T BE A TRANSMASC/TRANS MEN LESBIAN THAT'S LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE YOU ARE THREATENING ALL OF THE LESBIANS AROUND U!!!!!!!" meanwhile i was at the library earlier and saw one of the staff members with a shaved head had a water bottle with a sticker saying "cultivate lesbian JOY!" and so i decided to go "hey nice i'm a lesbian too!" and that person & the transfem next to them both erupted with joy. nobody got mad about my beard. nobody got mad about how deep my voice is. those two, who are very used to seeing me there as that's where i print labels for my job, were overjoyed to see another lesbian.
i didn't get 20 questions. i didn't get "your voice is deep are you a MAN????" nobody bitched about my facial hair. nobody got mad that a person passing for a cis man at the time said it was a lesbian. instead i received nothing but joy, the others giggling and saying that we were the Lesbian Corner. nobody got mad, there was nothing but joy. a transmasc lesbian & a transfem lesbian shared the exact same joy it it bothered no one. no fighting. NONE. no being mad about my appearance or my voice. this is what lesbian community is REALLY about. diversity among lesbians. accepting lesbians no matter how they look, sound, or what their gender is.
this is the spirit of lesbianism, not getting angry when someone is a lesbian "wrong".
Queering Libraries
While libraries have always been queer, libraries have not always been openly queer. And they still aren’t, although we’ve made some small strides.
What do you think it is that makes libraries (openly) queer?
[...] the white cishetallopatriarchy that continues to be the accepted norm in libraries, despite the harm it causes.
What are your thoughts on how we can change this?
Smith-Cruz, S., & Howard, S. A. (Hrsg.). (2024). Grabbing Tea: Queer Conversations on Identity and Libraries. Volume One. Library Juice Press.
My thoughts
What is it that makes libraries (openly) queer?
It's the diversity of collections, the tags and classifications used to make collections accessible, the way collections are presented, the way libraries present themselves, the way libraries and librarians engage in reflection on societal norms as well as their own, and the way they speak out to support and care for the most vulnerable communities they serve. The line between being queer and being openly queer seems to be blurred. For some it's already being open to actively use queer tags. For others, it starts with reflection and open engagement. I certainly lean towards the latter. It's about self-reflection, engagement and using their institutional voices.
How can we change this?
Firstly, you cannot do it alone. Not as a single library, not as a single person. You need a community. You need communities. Not just to make change happen, but to understand what needs to change and how. Secondly, you need to listen to those who raise their voices on issues and aspects where your first reflex is to say that cannot be considered at the moment, or not until other issues or aspects have been addressed. It's not about doing everything at once, it's about adjusting plans, taking into account multi-faceted and multi-layered perspectives, planning ahead together and giving everyone a say. Third, don't let differences of opinion divide your community. Don't let differences of opinion divide your communities. Look at the bigger picture together. Care for all vulnerable communities. We are all human beings.
Protecting Libraries as Safe(r) Spaces
What Not to Do
- Do not remain neutral when a hate group attempts to infiltrate the library. [...]
Hopefully an uncontroversial opinion: In these situations, "remaining neutral" isn't "neutral" at all.
Western States Center (2022). Confronting White Nationalism in Libraries: A Toolkit. https://www.westernstatescenter.org/libraries
From personal experience, I can tell you that libraries are very useful for the poor.
If you would like to help us continue to support libraries in the United States, please consider starting a monthly contribution of $1, $3, $5, or $10. With your contributions we are able to rally more support for libraries at action.everylibrary.org, provide the tools that libraries need to fight against threats to funding and closures, and help libraries grow through funding initiatives so that they can better serve their communities. In fact, for every dollar we raise, we are able to return over $1,600 in stable yearly funding to libraries. That means that your small monthly donation can help us secure almost $200,000 for libraries!
You can easily make a donation at action.everylibrary.org/lessthancoffee
Your library card is your ticket to anywhere!
Fun ADHD hack is that you're allowed to just go to the library and reserve a study room for a couple of hours and make all your phone calls or whatever adult shit you need to do but can't because your house is for House Stuff and for some reason your brain has designated "phone calls for doctors and other such things" as School Adjacent and therefore refuses to do it in an insufficently academic environment. Like it's free. You can just do that.