Welcome to Check Your Shelf. The last week or so at work has been an exercise in “Fix this important problem that you only have the vaguest understanding of.” In other words, I have to troubleshoot an update to our online payment portal with not one but TWO different online help representatives, and the tech jargon is like a completely foreign language to me. I very much miss the days when I worked somewhere that had its own IT department staffed with trained professionals, but for right now, this problem has somehow ended up in my lap. I may yeet my computer through a window by week’s end.
Oy. Let’s talk about library stuff that I understand better.
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
For West Virginia’s libraries, a proposed constitutional amendment could mean yet another budget cut.
Pasadena Public Library officials say that without an extension of a special real estate tax that’s been in effect since 1993, the library system will have to cut its budget by about 20%.
Denver Public Library is looking for a $30 million tax increase to fund maintenance and better accessibility.
Residents of the San Francisco Castro District are petitioning the library to turn off Wi-Fi at night in order to discourage people experiencing homelessness from congregating around the building.
Cool Library Updates
San Joaquin County (CA) libraries have eliminated late fines for books and print materials.
Worth Reading
A groundbreaking study explores trauma and stress in frontline library workers.
ALA 2022: libraries are not neutral. Also, if you missed it (which I did), here is Nancy Pearl’s statement about her Holocaust-denial comments at ALA.
Public libraries are still about books.
Library Journal has published the results of their 2022 Materials Survey.
The problem with library discovery systems.
Book Adaptations in the News
Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio are returning as Daredevil and The Kingpin for the upcoming Marvel series, Echo.
Casting update for Black Cake.
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
Banned & Challenged Books
How to protect your privacy and social media activity. Take a close look at this…I’m probably going to start locking things down on my end.
How to contact your legislators about book bans (and why it matters).
The correlation between sundown towns and book bans: Forsyth County, Georgia.
For Pride Month, Penguin Random House installed billboards in book-banning states featuring quotes from LGBTQ books.
Signature-gathering will begin soon for the initiative to defund the Ketchikan (AK) Library over its Drag Queen Story Time event.
The Abilene, TX library board heard concerns from parents who wanted LGBTQ materials placed in a restricted area away from children. Meanwhile, a librarian presented a brief overview of a drafted policy that would inform parents and legal guardians of their responsibilities regarding their children’s use of the library.
Despite protests, the Red Bank Public Library (NJ) has hosted two successful Drag Queen Story Time programs.
The Forest Hills School District in Ohio is being sued by students and parents for banning anti-racism curriculum in schools, saying that the decision encroaches on the First and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the Civil Rights Act.
What Kansas City librarians have learned since 1995’s book-banning effort in Olathe.
The Three Rivers Library in Michigan is updating its controversial materials policy to include more specific language about the steps involved for a reconsideration of materials request.
Dickinson County (MI) Library elects to keep the graphic novel Patience & Esther in their collection, but the conversation has expanded as to whether or not LGBTQ materials are appropriate for children.
What Drag Queen Story Time is, and what it isn’t.
What should a queer children’s book do?
With rising book bans, librarians have come under attack.
Reuters reports an “overwhelming” demand for banned books.
When parents feel shut out of decision-making by school boards, petitions and lawsuits follow.
The Proud Boys are waging war on Pride Month, and Drag Queen Story Times are a primary target.
Summer reading as an act of resistance.
Books & Authors in the News
Ada Limón has been named the 24th US Poet Laureate. Plus, a guide to Ada Limón’s poetry.
The Atlantic reports on Delia Owens’s connection to the televised murder of an alleged poacher in 1996 Zambia.
Kwame Alexander is hosting a new reality show called America’s Next Great Author, where aspiring writers will pitch their book idea to a panel of judges, and then work to finish their books in a month while doing “live-wire challenges.”
Crime author Susie Steiner has died at 51 from a brain tumor.
George R.R. Martin says that the next Song of Ice and Fire novel will be quite different from the TV series. To which I say, “Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Ritaj Hussain Alhazmi from Saudi Arabia is the youngest female author to publish a book series at 12 years and 295 days old.
Numbers & Trends
A sad publishing trend: why are there so many children’s books being published about anxiety?
The best-selling books of 2022 so far.
Award News
The 2022 Emmy nominations have been announced, and I stand with all of the viewers who were outraged that Midnight Mass was almost completely snubbed.
Pop Cultured
Everything we know so far about the Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
14 ways to get out of a reading slump.
On the Riot
A book lover’s guide to Disability Pride Month.
Literary movements you’ve never heard of.
How many fictional languages are there?
Well, Dini decided to go all-out today…Blaine sent me so many cute photos while I was at work, I could barely decide which one to feature in the newsletter! And Dini was even kind enough to pause in his play time so that Blaine could get a non-blurry picture.
All right, that’s all I’ve got in me for this week. Peace out, stay away from the Covids, and stay hydrated. I’ll see you on Tuesday.
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.