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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.

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A jewel box of a book ✨ This 19th century French sales sample book contains very thin metal ornaments, made of foil over card. These would have been used like fancy sequins, and adorned everything from cards to clothes! They’re sometimes called Dresdens after the town in Germany where many were made. I know I say this a lot, but this book really floored me 🤩 Part of col. 838 in the Winterthur Library 📚

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"She's so beautiful! I bet she goes to the library."

- my 7 year old daughter

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Cantoras by Caro De Robertis

"She looked out at the landscape, now cloaked in the last dregs of twilight. A beauty she could never get used to, never wanted to get used to, though she longed to know it in every light and mood."

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Immediate 5⭐️ - one of the best books I read this year

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SPOILERS FOR “THE FAMILIAR”- GO READ IT

There are many “sins” presented in The Familiar, which makes sense for a book that’s intertwined with religion and how it dictates society. But it’s fascinating how Leigh Bardugo expresses the morality of sinning.

Luiza wants for so much. One could condemn her as greedy, envious, lustful, prideful, wrathful, gluttonous, even slothful at times.

But she does not “sin” from a place of malice, from a place that would see others harmed for her own gain.

Luiza wants for so much. And the writing tells us that it isn’t wrong for her to want for attention, love, comfort, and a fulfilling life.

Luiza, of Jewish decent, is a walking “sin” in the eyes of the Spanish empire.

But her faith and her fight for love is so much stronger than the true sins of empire, bigotry, and persecution.

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the thing about the familiar that’s so fascinating so painful so aching is that it is in every way a post apocalyptic novel. It’s not about what the Jews suffered in 1492, it’s about the great grandchild of those who converted to save their lives, the ones in the last grasps of being able to hold on to their tradition, who they are as jews, those who know what hamotzi is but can no longer say the words. There’s a ticking time bomb on the story - luzia, whose great grandfather saw the Talmud burned, will need to hide who she is entirely if she wants to marry or have children; in so many practical ways, she is the last Jew standing

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Leigh Bardugo said today at an event that all the diverse characters she portrays come naturally at her because the world is diverse. She's not looking for a black character, a disabled one nor a queer one, they are just part of the world so they are part of the worlds she creates. She also said that what is not normal is having a story full of white hetero and abled people, reality is diverse and so are her stories.

When she was explaining this she had to stop a few times because the auditorium kept cheering at her. Hope she felt all the love the audience was trying to show.

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Percy age 12: And if the mission required someone to push me down a flight of stairs for it to succeed… you’d want someone who won’t hesitate when they do it

Percy age 17:

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i think there is some connection between this post and this post

the increasing tendency to treat flaws as justification to declare something wholly “problematic” is a big piece of the anti-intellectualism on the left

the entire point of criticism in academia is to refine & improve understanding in your field. when you level criticism, you are seeking to create dialogue, not shut it down—you engage in criticism to understand not just that a thing has problems, but to seek to understand those problems so you can contribute to a solution

it’s for that reason that the once valid image of a bunch of rich white dudes sitting around smoking cigars in a white tower isn’t accurate anymore. by no means does that mean all problems of systemic inequality are fully “solved”, but we live in a world where academia can and does adjust to criticism, and is now full of diverse perspectives from all intersections of minority voices

but when your approach to criticism is just finding any flaws to declare something wholly “problematic” and the only solution you have is “throw it all out!” “burn it all down!” the fact that institutions of higher learning are flawed and can be criticized leads you to embracing anti-intellectualism. rather than seeing the limitations of privileged perspectives as just that—limitations, which need to be filled out by combining them with perspectives that historically were overlooked—any perspective that may have been privileged in the past becomes trash that needs to be thrown out entirely

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i'm always a bit unsettled by disdain for intellectual or creative labor in leftist spaces. there's this commonly held belief that academics are a bunch of rich old white men, rather than a wide variety of people who are barely getting by. most lecturers in universities are adjuncts living paycheck to paycheck. authors make very little money as a general rule. most researchers are overworked and underpaid. and yet there's still this idea that academics are overcompensated to sit around and smoke cigars together while making shit up

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it's true and you should say it.

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a cartoon for the guardian

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Or just go to browse and hang out! I promise it will be inspiring :)