I don’t have words. Or at least, I’ve used all my words up, and don’t have anything left to say that hasn’t already been said. None of this was a surprise, and yet I don’t know how we’re supposed to function under the crushing weight of everything. I’m so angry at politicians who fundraise on the fear of losing access to abortion, and yet do absolutely nothing to protect that access once they’re in office. I’m not going to lie — I cried at my desk on Friday. And I’m facing another long week of public service, with more desk shifts, more late nights, and more face time the public when I barely feel like I’m getting by. I’m alternating between rage and extreme sadness, and I’m trying to productively channel the rage when it comes, and ride out the sadness when I can’t avoid it. This Twitter thread has some really great scripts for contacting your representatives, so I’m passing it along for you all to use as well. Push. Yell. Call. Email. Send carrier pigeons. Do whatever you can to keep yourself above water.
Collection Development Corner
Publishing News
Publishers discriminate against women and Black authors — but readers don’t.
Dini and Gilbert are trying to tell you something. They’re trying to tell you it’s food time. Now, you may ask yourself, how are you supposed to know when it’s actually food time? Irrelevant. To these knuckleheads, all time is food time. And this is what they do to us when they’re done waiting. They stare at us, hoping that their adorable solidarity will convince us to feed them a little early.
Keep going, friends. We have to keep going. I’ll check in again on Friday.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. The return of in-person conferences means the return of conference FOMO, and even though the thought of spending time in a convention center with hundreds of other people doesn’t exactly do it for me right now, I’m always sad to miss big library gatherings. However, my shelves (and my shoulders) are glad I’m not carrying around four bulging tote bags filled with ARCs.
As state and local elections continue across the country, I wanted to share a link to the School Board Project, which is a volunteer-created searchable Excel spreadsheet of every school board and school board election in the country. States with upcoming school board elections are being prioritized, but the plan is to get through every state, and hopefully then move on to library board elections. The second round of updates has just been announced, so take a look for yourself.
In response to the Lafayette Public Library’s decision to remove books about specific “ethnic or social groups” from display areas, a local advocacy group responded, “The Library’s current policy of showcasing book displays organized around “classic” texts and traditional genres and themes claims to be neutral; yet, in reality, it privileges the stories of certain races, classes, ethnicities, genders, and cultures over others.” YUP. LIBRARIES ARE NOT NEUTRAL. Never have been, never will be.
Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville (IL) has discovered dozens of books pertaining to LGBTQ people or people of color have been hidden in the bookstore, most likely part of the recent “Hide the Pride” movement, or something similar.
A number of Gillette (WY) librarians protest the budget cuts made by Campbell County Commissioners. Specifically, the county is electing to eliminate the Optional 1-Percent Sales Tax funding that has annually been spent on children’s books and programs, believing that the library hasn’t been transparent in the way it purchases new books and discards old ones.
Upswell publisher Terri-ann White talks about how trust has been breached by the author John Hughes, whose novel The Dogs uses identical and nearly identical extracts from books such as The Great Gatsby, Anna Karenina, and The Unwomanly Face of War by Nobel laureate author Svetlana Alexievich.
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
Here’s a picture from Dini’s life this last week. If you look closely, you may notice that he’s chewing on a toy mouse, but you’ll definitely notice his claws caught in the blanket. He’s a very busy boy and needs to multitask with his playing!
It’s the weekend. Stay cool, stay hydrated, and take a nap. I’ll check in on Tuesday.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. It was an emotional weekend as I said goodbye to my sister-in-law, who is on the road to her new life in Los Angeles. Basically since I’ve known her, she’s lived within a 30 minute radius of Blaine and me, and she was often at our place to watch movies, play Mario Party, or do laundry. And when Covid hit, she and her husband joined forces with us to form our own little pod group, which was an honest-to-God sanity saver. She’s been a great friend, and although Blaine mumbles about her being his little sister, I know it’s like losing a best friend for him, too. Obviously there are holidays and texts and Face Time and online video games, but it’s going to be really sad not to have her around anymore.
So now I’m going to distract myself with books.
Collection Development Corner
Publishing News
One of the country’s oldest Black-owned bookstores, Eso Won Books, is closing.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I’m beginning this newsletter with a PSA of sorts. If you weren’t already aware, the Proud Boys disrupted a Drag Queen Story Time event at the San Lorenzo Public Library last Saturday. This is bad enough on its own, but some believe this may have been related to a recent post by the far-right, anti-LGBTQIA+ Twitter account, Libs of TikTok, which posted about the event on Twitter the week prior. If your library isn’t aware of this account, please take note. “Libs of TikTok” has been going after schools and public libraries that are offering LGBTQ+ programming, and even posted false information about a couple libraries very near where I work (including my former workplace) for their involvement with local Pride celebrations. Their goal appears to be to incite people to contact or otherwise protest these organizations, and some may choose to protest more violently and disruptively than others. So, please be aware and consider talking with your library about security measures your library can take preemptively.
Nearly 100 people attended the Vinton (IA) Library meeting to discuss the director’s recent resignation. One member of the public said “This community has now run out two highly qualified highly credentialed library directors in one year. This library is indeed going to suffer but not because of diverse books or staff members that identify as LGBTQ+.”
After emotional testimony, Carroll County (MD) school board bans Pride flags. (Not a book ban, but very much related in terms of harming the LGBTQIA community.)
Here’s Dini telling me how snuggle-deprived he’s been. My husband is staying at his parents’ house this week while his older sister and his nephew are in town, so it’s been quieter than usual in the Horner household. This also means that the cats aren’t getting their usual snuggles while I’m at work, so now when I get home, they fling themselves into my lap and tell me just how neglected and deprived they’ve been.
Hopefully everyone gets a chance to enjoy some nice weather this weekend. I’ll check in again on Tuesday.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I was able to have a bit of a productive Saturday, where I paid some bills, mailed a few overdue packages, and started writing postcards that will eventually be mailed out to voters in key swing states in November. A very, very small action, but it made me feel less like a sedentary potato.
A simple cat photo to finish off this newsletter — it’s just Dini, showing off his magnificent whiskers. He hopes all of you have a good week this week.
And I hope you all have a good week as well. Catch you on Friday!
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. We put up our Pride display last week, and not to use a terrible pun, but I’m pretty proud of it. We were able to decorate the display to reflect Pride Month and our gardening-themed summer reading club at the same time, and my coworkers put in a lot of time to make the display look as inviting as it does. Thankfully we haven’t received any negative pushback thus far, but we’re keeping an eagle eye on things. I’ve got a couple pics below to show off what our little library is doing:
So now let’s talk about what other libraries are doing.
Roanoke County (VA) schools are proposing an enormously wasteful policy that would require three librarians to read and review all media before adding it to the catalog, and if all librarians approve, the item would then be added to the library database for parents to review for 2 weeks before being officially added to the catalog. For EVERY ITEM PURCHASED FOR EVERY SCHOOL LIBRARY. Look, I work at a very small public library, and the number of books ordered each month for the children’s department is absolutely bonkers. This is a ridiculous waste of time, money, and expertise to appease a small group of angry people.
A California parent alleges that St. Mary’s public schools are “sexualizing” children with LGBTQ propaganda. (This article is bonkers. It claims the book The Thing About Jellyfish sexualizes children because it refers to a homosexual relationship, and that teachers are “sexually grooming” students by wearing rainbow bracelets.)
First editions of books annotated by authors such as Hilary Mantel, Margaret Atwood, and Bernardine Evaristo are being auctioned off to raise funds for English PEN, a human rights organization that supports freedom of expression.
You didn’t think I’d end the newsletter without a cat photo, did you? Blaine got this impossibly precious photo of Dini and Gilbert snuggling together the other night, so I’m adding it to a collection of photos I’m titling “ADMIT IT, YOU LOVE EACH OTHER!”
Okay, that’s a wrap for me. Don’t forget to contact your elected representatives. Keep the pressure on them. Don’t let them forget the events of the last few weeks.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I was a #SaturdayLibrarian this last weekend, but I was able to take Monday off, and now I have absolutely no idea what day it is or what I’m supposed to be doing, but the lingering sense of anxiety tells me I’m probably forgetting to do a bunch of stuff.
This newsletter’s cat photo is a throwback to about three years ago, when Gilbert decided he was going to help me read a book on my iPad. As you can see, he was extremely helpful.
That’s all I’ve got for today. I’ll check in again on Friday (provided I can remember what day it is).
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I’m sorry to say that most of this newsletter is banned book news, because of course books are the problem in schools. Compiling these news items weighs heavier than ever, because it feels like I’m putting together a week-by-week snapshot of the collective effort to erode our rights and terrorize non-white cishet people into submission and non-existance, while nearly two dozen children were murdered at their school a week and a half ago. I’m so tired and so angry.
What undermines workplace wellness. (Good suggestions that put the onus on leadership to make positive changes on their teams, but lack of pay and benefits somehow didn’t make the list.)
Virginia Beach City Public Schools are in the process of revamping their library policies in light of “controversial” materials. Specifically, the district is in the process of creating a form linked to the school website, which will allow parents to choose which books their children have access to.
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
Time for a cat photo break. This is how Gilbert likes to snuggle with my husband: curled up with all four of his paws touching Blaine’s stomach, and Blaine having to hold him like a baby so that he doesn’t roll backwards onto the floor. This goober turned 16 in May, but you wouldn’t know it from the way he demands full-contact snuggles on an hourly basis.
The worst thing that can happen is if we collectively throw up our hands under this relentless attack. To quote Kate McKinnon, “I’m not giving up, and neither should you.” Rest this weekend, and send an elected representative an email. I’ll see you on Tuesday.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I’m writing this newsletter before Memorial Day weekend, so I don’t know how everyone’s weekend was, or how my weekend was. I am, however, planning to contact my Senators to ask them how they spent their own Memorial Day recess, because it clearly was more important than the aftermath of the Uvalde shooting.
I don’t have a funny or pithy intro for this newsletter because I am so fucking angry. Once again, innocent children have paid the ultimate price for our elected officials’ negligence. I am not exaggerating to say that I’m so angry that I’m shaking. I’ve contacted my representatives. I’ve donated. I’ve signed up for a postcard mailing campaign for swing states for November. But it’s not enough. And the fact that this newsletter is once again packed with links about people continuing to ban LGBTQ books and books about racism, as if that’s the real danger in these children’s lives, is almost unbearable.
If you haven’t contacted your representatives, do so now. Phone, email, mail them a letter…doesn’t matter. Contact them directly and ask them what they are planning to do to keep our kids safe at school. Keep contacting them. Ask them why protecting guns is more important than protecting children. Ask the pro-life people why it’s more important to legislate a person’s uterus than it is to protect children who have already been born. Don’t let up.
I feel like I’m overstepping an enormous professional boundary right now to be so openly political, but fuck that. We’re going to talk about libraries now because that’s what this newsletter is supposed to do, but do not let your elected officials off the hook. Let them know how badly they’ve failed us.
State Farm has dropped its support of the GenderCool Project, which provides LGBTQ-themed children’s books to teachers and libraries. State Farm now says that “Conversations about gender and identity should happen at home with parents.” How much do you want to bet they’re still going to have some sort of Pride presence on social media next month?
Florida high school activist Jack Petocz has been awarded a PEN award in recognition of his efforts to organize a statewide student walkout in protest of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The overwhelming majority of textbook reviewers in Florida found no evidence of objectionable content. Three reviewers did, however, and one of the reviewers has ties to Moms for Liberty, while the other two have ties to Hillsdale College in Michigan, which has become influential in conservative politics.
Newtown (PA) students, parents, and members of the public spoke out against proposed policy changes that would ban certain books from school libraries and classrooms.
Two Vinton (IA) residents attended a library board meeting to ask the library to a) reconsider the books being put on display and b) publish a list of the books being used at future storytime events. The board denied both of these requests.
I’m still ending on a cat photo, because sometimes the only things that keep me from screaming into the void are these fuzzy babies. These photos come courtesy of Blaine, who wasn’t feeling well earlier this week, and Dini decided that the best thing to do was flop on Blaine’s stomach like a fish. It didn’t…not…help Blaine feel better, so…success?
If you’re feeling the same rage as I am, try to channel it into something productive this weekend, whether that’s cleaning out a closet or contacting your Senators. Rest. And then come back to fight. I’ll see you on Tuesday.
