#sometimes the hardest thing about being a library worker in a conservative town

[magpiemood]

We had so many homeless regulars at the libraries I worked at. A lot of them were very nice folks who just wanted some place with climate control where they could relax and use the restroom without having to buy an overpriced latte. They would read the paper, use the computers, look at magazines, use the printer or copier or fax, browse our books. Same as any other customer. Sometimes I would help connect them to resources for places to stay or eat or even find work.

Sometimes we'd get someone having a real bad day and they would make trouble. Sometimes that might be our homeless patrons. But it was just as often any of our other patrons.

To me, keeping the library open and available to everyone, making resources and information available to those that needed them most, was and remains one of the most important functions of a library. That means letting homeless people hang out there so long as they follow the same library rules of behavior as everyone else.

I grew up and worked in a conservative area where we didn't have drag queen story times or pride month displays. But we had stern notes in some customers' files to remind staff about the correct pronouns to use.

And, yes, I would give kids books that they asked for, no matter what those books were. Because kids are also people and equal to our other patrons. Plus, it was not my job to make judgements on which books other people's kid were allowed to read. We were happy to work with parents/guardians who had restrictions on what their kids could read, but if you're not there giving us those restrictions, we were not responsible for guessing. I wasn't allowed to read scary books as a kid. But my best friend could, and did, frequently read horror novels from the general fiction area of the library. One of us had conservative, religious parents and the other didn't. Can you guess which one? (answer: not me!) So, yeah, I'm just gonna hand your kids the books they ask for without trying to guess which books their parents might get mad about. If you're going to get mad about the books your kids pick, you need to supervise them yourself.

Not all libraries can be open bastions of progressive values, but many of the staff were doing their best to treat every patron as if they had every right to be there. And we fought hard to keep "banned" books on the shelves.

The library in my hometown is funded by local taxes that come up for a vote every few years. Usually this is well-supported by much of the community. In the current political climate? I'm worried about it.

Libraries are one of the few "third places" folks can go to without having to pay for anything. And most librarians are advocates of freedom of access of information and vital resources to the whole community. If you can, please call or email your local library and ask them if they're facing any trouble because of outrageous claims about libraries and if there's something you can do to help.

Please also use your library. As said above, libraries have books and movies and more! Many things are available via digital services now so you can do most of your browsing from the comfort of your home, with things automatically returned so you never have to worry about late fees! Check out queer books and weird books and "banned" books. Request things you want your library to have. Believe me, our conservative customers sure put in requests for the books ghostwritten for Trump. And for every other shitty book you can imagine.

Shape the library by using it and requesting the books, resources, and programs you want to see available in your community. Protect it by voting for it and voting for local politicians who value its freedom, too.

So Fox News ran a story about how they think libraries are turning into drug-infested sex dens and I am shocked, shocked that I was never offered any drugs during my 15+ years working in libraries.