Support Your Local Library - Tumblr Posts
Librarians rock!
I just realized today that librarians have saved the day at least 4 times in kingdoms and empires so far, here is how:
The librarian on Lantern Island (who is unnamed) encourages Bronte while she researches a way to clear her Aunt Emma from jail just as Bronte is about to give up by giving her a plate of cookies :) letting Bronte find a key piece of evidence!
The librarian on Lantern Island later finds Bronte the contact information for Ronaldo C. Torrington, leading to the reunion of Bronte's Aunt Carrie and her long-lost lover, who she marries!
Carlos, the librarian at Katherine Valley Middle School, helps Esther find the books about magic that she eventually uses to defend her school against Shadow Mages even without Spellbinding (because she is very smart, brave, and practical).
Carlos later gives Esther a stack of books about Horseshoe Island Ogres, giving her information that exposes her teacher, the malicious Mrs. Pollock, as an evil ogre and saves Esther's class from Mrs. Pollock's insidious manipulation!
There is no way this guy managed to get a mascot worthy animal on accident.
Hello! I run the social media for my local library and I was just wondering what sort of plant or creature might emerge if I talk about books here. Just a lil guy perhaps, to encourage public library use. A new library mascot to say "Books are cool! Reading is fun!" etc. Thank you for your time and efforts. 📚
String identified: ! t ca a ca a a a t g at t at cat gt g ta at . t a g a, t cag c a . A a act t a " a c! ag !" tc. Ta t a t. 📚
Closest match: Lutra lutra genome assembly, chromosome: 14 Common name: Eurasian Otter
Guys GUYS
BIG NEWS
You’ll never believe what I shelved last night at the library!!!
I couldn’t believe we had this! It’s not even that big of a library but one of the librarians must really know their stuff!!!
Spooky season is upon us! To celebrate I put together a few designs promoting books and libraries. If you like them, feel free to use them! These are four of my poster designs! Again, these posters are absolutely free for you to print and use!
Schools and public libraries are under attack and need your support. They are facing quiet defunding, book bans, and acts of hate. Please consider contacting your local representative to ask that these institutions remain funded and protected, and show your support by stopping by your local library.
For additional Halloween freebies celebrating libraries and reading, click the link here!
If you would like to see more of my library/activism designs or would like to get these designs on a T-shirt, book bag, or sticker, you can visit my shop here.
in honour of me getting a new library card today, taking my total of free library cards to 5:
i love you local library <3
i love you small library in my hometown <3
i love you nsw state library <3
i love you australian national library <3
i love you local library in the uk <3
i love you university library which is open to everyone <3
And if your library does not have what you want, ask a librarian if they can get it! Or check their website for pages marked "inter-library loan," "ILL," or "suggest a title."
Often they can get things from a different library (e.g. all public libraries in the state of Maryland borrow from each other via Marina, and colleges might borrow from other college libraries).
Libraries may also purchase specific titles if you ask them to (and if they can't get them through ILL). If you're trying to avoid giving money to the author, this may not be preferable, though it could reduce the total number of purchases of the thing - because now others can get it from the library too. But this is a good resource in general.
If you can't get it through libraries or piracy, you can also try secondhand sales (garage sales, ebay) or sharing with a friend.
I believe in separating the art from the artist. Publically and loudly condemning the terrible actions of an artist is helpful for holding them accountable and discouraging the terrible behavior. Financially boycotting them may help too. But depriving myself of the art doesn't help the cause. It doesn't generally help me, either - it usually hurts like the dickens. It's just misplaced energy.
But also, make your own decisions.
And support your libraries.
I saw some people struggle with this, so just putting this out there:
For those of us wanting to separate the art from the artist by pirating shows/movies/books, but are unfamiliar with pirating: Let me know what piece of media you want and I'll find a link for you and help out on how to do it. Don't know if Tumblr has any rules about sharing links like that, so to be safe I'll send them via DM
...I had a guy come in today asking about how to get his kids library cards. I told him. He asked me how hard it would be for them to get them, and I said that all it took was their presence and his government ID.
He told me about how nice the system was here, where it was so easy to get a card; he said that there was a beautiful public library in Beijing that was top of the line and everything, but that the only way to access it was if you were a high ranking government official or a top professor or something. Instead, our library "serves the reader." His kids will be able to take chapter books home at no cost. He'll even be able to get books in Chinese here so that his native language skills don't atrophy.
I didn't even really know what to say, so I told him how to ask us to buy books for him that we don't already have so that he can still read them at no extra cost. I don't know how to shore up what it must feel like to know that there are books out there you can't read; I've always grown up with a good library nearby. It reminded me of working in my old library, though, where families who spoke Spanish were startled to find out we took any government ID with a formal address in town— even foreign IDs— so that their kids could get access to all of our titles in all the languages we offered.
Ah. Anyway, I hope you check out a library book with this thought in mind. I checked out the first volume of YJ98 today with that thought in mind. I didn't have to pay anything. I put it on hold, and there it was.
Edit: for those who struggle with reading comprehension; no, this patron interaction is not meant to represent the status of the Chinese public library system at large nor the country of China itself; this was my response to a random Chinese immigrant dad's anecdotal concerns as he expressed them to me, because the whole breadth of concern I'm responsible for while on desk starts and ends at recommending which library services would fulfill his needs. If you think he misunderstood or was lying about the status of public libraries in China, that isn't something I'm charged to verify before writing my thoughts and feelings about the patron interactions I was exposed through throughout my day. Expecting anything else is absurd.
Edit edit: Also, your library may not actually use Libby as the distribution method for their ebook collection. The best way to find out about how to access your library's ebook collection is to call them directly.
Or just go to browse and hang out! I promise it will be inspiring :)
Another perk of libraries is that when I check out an audiobook and predictably fail to listen to it, it gets returned and I can rest easy knowing that checking it out at all has already benefited my local library. I can even do it again later and it will only bring further good things, for free, forever
VS buying an audiobook, failing to listen to it, and having to stare at it in my audible collection knowing I spent $10 on something I never used. And then imagine doing that again. Hellish. Get a library card and download the libby app
Fun hang out idea!
We go to our local library and I read the DSM 5 while you play on your phone and I occasionally tell you fun facts. :3
"Don't use Libby because it costs libraries too much, pirate instead" is such a weird, anti-patron, anti-author take that somehow manages to also be anti-library, in my professional librarian-ass opinion.
It's well documented that pirating books negatively affects authors directly* in a way that pirating movies or TV shows doesn't affect actors or writers, so I will likely always be anti-book piracy unless there's absolutely, positively no other option (i.e. the book simply doesn't exist outside of online archives at all, or in a particular language).
Also, yeah, Libby and Hoopla licenses are really expensive, but libraries buy them SO THAT PATRONS CAN USE THEM. If you're gonna be pissed at anybody about this shitty state of affairs, be pissed at publishing companies and continue to use Libby or Hoopla at your library so we can continue to justify having it to our funding bodies.
One of the best ways to support your library having services you like is to USE THOSE SERVICES. Yes, even if they are expensive.
*Yes, this is a blog post, but it's a blog post filled with links to news articles. If you can click one link, you can click another.