Legacy

 If you have been watching the news or on any form of social media you are probably aware that Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle, were recently murdered. The presumed killer is, tragically, their own son who has long struggled with addiction and mental illness. There is no doubt that this is a horrific event that has been made very public due to the fame of the victims. Let me first state that addiction along with all other mental disorders are illnesses. Unfortunately mental disorders are misdiagnosed, misunderstood, and horrifically stigmatized by the general public.

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has written (and reiterated in interviews) that Rob Reiner was a horrible person that  deserved to be murdered because of his liberal views. 

 Since then there has been a tsunami of admonitions of Trump for his crass and insensitive remarks. Also, there has been an effusive outpouring of live for Rob and Michelle Reiner, who friends, neighbors, and acquaintances have described as kind, generous, and compassionate. Then there are the scores of people who laughed, cried, experienced every emotion from sadness to joy due to Reiner's art. 

Am I surprised that a despicable, narcissistic person said something ugly and hateful about someone who dared to criticize him? Absolutely not. If anything the last decade has proven that Trump is not only a racist, a pedophile, and a rapist he also has the emotional bandwidth of a toddler having a tantrum over not being given a second cookie. 

What truly matters right now, though, is legacy which Trump with his demolition  and renaming of buildings and covering everything in cheap gult seems overly concerned about. Rob Reiner is a beloved human being who will forever be remembered for the positive impact he had on individuals and the world. People will continue to watch The Princess Bride, A Few Good Men, Spinal Tap, old clips of All in the Family and they will laugh, cry, and ultimately feeling love for the artist and creator who made think and experience things outside of themselves. 

Trump will leave no such legacy. He is nothing but everything ugly in America scraped into a greasy wad and stuck to the bottom of someone's shoe. A century from now people will watch A Princess Bride and laugh and feel joy and Trump will just be a repulsive blot on American history that serves as a warning to future generations. 

It has been a while since I have posted on this blog or if I am honest written anything personal. Of course, I have excuses other than just being a horrible blogger. The library I work at is growing by leaps and bounds (suck on that every person who says libraries are obsolete). Also, I have been taking classes which has required a lot of academic writing (sometimes interesting, more often boring). The predominant reason I have not posted very often is that the presidential campaign, the election, and now the aftermath have left me depressed, angry, scared, and so bewildered I have not really known what to even say. I find myself identifying with Trudy the bag lady from The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life saying: "Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it." For those of you unfamiliar with that reference you absolutely must watch Lily Tomlin in the one woman performance. You can read the play by Jane Wagner , but the written word will not compare to seeing it and hearing it.

But sticking one's head in the sand and ignoring the ignorance, cruelty, and complete dismantling of our democracy and civil rights is also wrong and it is a privilege that many people do not have. Of course, there are horrible things happening right now that do personally affect me. The shuttering of the Institute for Library and Museums is terrible for my entire profession. It is an attack on education, literacy, freedom of information, and will definitely have a greater adverse impact on lower income and minority communities that desperately need services that public libraries provide. 

 

According to Kareem Weaver, a professional educator and the co-founder and executive director of

FULCRUM (Full and Complete Reading is a Universal Mandate), “Literacy is our greatest civil right.

If you can’t read you can’t access anything in our society” (The Right to Read). I know that my

profession (and love of books) makes me biased but I believe that public libraries are essential to

promoting literacy, love of reading, and learning by providing free access to books,

but also a multitude of free programs such as storytimes, book clubs, author visits, etc. 

 

I have already written profusely about book banning and the vilification of libraries and

librarians for supposedly peddling pornography i.e. anything that has LGBTQ characters. 

Not surprising that the persecution of LGBTQ individuals and the culture wars involving

"woke" or "pornographic" literature have worsened since November. You're shocked, right? 

I keep trying to channel the Lorax, but instead of saying "I speak for the trees" I am saying 

"I speak for the youth that need books that speak their truth". 

 

As important as libraries are to me personally, I know that they are not the most important issue (or 

travesty) even happening right now in our country.  There are human beings being deported to torture

prisons in another country, and for some unknown reason we as in American taxpayers are footing

the bill for this. Strange isn't it that the way to really get through to so many voters is to discuss 

the taxpayer cost rather than the complete disregard for civil rights and human life.

 

Of course, this go backs to why people voted the way they did in the first place. According to all of the 

polls the economy was the number one factor in this election. I really do not want to debate with

my neighbors, relatives, fellow Americans that decided that the price of eggs was more important than the

lives and rights of anyone that is different from them, or was not deterred by Trump being a convicted felon, 

a racist, a rapist, completely without any morals and willing to sell out our country for flattery and money.

 

It is difficult right now. I have family members that belong to a conservative church that is pro Trump, 

anti-vaccine (even though my own family member is going through chemo therapy), anti-LGBTQ, etc.

It is difficult to comprehend and it is even harder to play nice as in smile, be polite, make small talk, and 

all of those other social niceties that sometimes require us to completely ignore everything that we think,

believe. or have learned. 

I am exhausted. It has been not even been six months and I am tired of this administration and it's cruelty,

greed, and absolute incompetence and stupidity. I say this as a straight, white woman in a monogamous

marriage so I cannot even imagine the fear anyone who is not white or straight or already married with

children feels.

 

To all of those people that voted for Trump: prices and taxes will not go down (unless you are a billionaire),

someone that you know who relies on services will be hurt, someone that you know will suffer because 

critical research, grants, relief, etc. that may help them has been discontinued, and the rights of someone

that you know or care for will trampled upon and disregarded for profit or political gain.

 

I honestly do not know what else to say about what is happening right now. I highly doubt that anyone's

minds will be changed by this post. More than likely no one will even read it. But I know that I 

will have expressed what I feel and believe. In conversations with other librarians I have said that I will

always do my best to be polite, kind, and professional, but that does not mean that I owe people respect,

deference, or false equivalence for their completely idiotic opinions. 

That is it. I cannot currently say any more about what is going on with this administration without

resorting to four letter words. Also, anything I post will also lead to me being investigated by the 

DOJ. Haha, you think that I am joking but that is probably true right now.

Anyways, peace out. Please, keep reading all of the books. I do not care if it is smut, nonfiction, 

fantasy, graphic novels, whatever. Just keep reading.

 

No Place Like Wichita-ARSL 2023

Last week I had the privilege of attending the annual conference of the Association for Rural & Small Libraries in Wichita, Kansas. Now, Kansas may not seem like the most exciting location for a national conference. Especially, if like me, you assume that all of Kansas resembles the sepia-toned portions of The Wizard of Oz. Of course, Wichita is the capital city of Kansas, so logically I knew that it was not going to look like the Gale's neighborhood. However, I am from near Lansing, the capital of Michigan, and you can be in the middle of the city and see corn fields within a ten to fifteen minute drive.

All joking aside, I had a fantastic week in Wichita, Kansas. The conference had inspiring speakers, educational, beneficial break out sessions, and I got to network with other rural librarians from around the nation. I even managed to see some interesting things in the city such as the Wichita Advanced Learning Library which was pretty phenomenal (of course, librarians like to visit other libraries wherever they go).

The theme for ARSL 2023 was Unite & Ignite, which may sound hokey (but that is true of most slogans). Despite the cheese factor, I found the slogan to be particularly relevant to the present standing of small public libraries and how we attain future success in our communities.

Libraries, especially in rural areas, have long struggled with securing funding, justifying their presence, and raising awareness about their services. Even when people have not been regular users or supporters of their local libraries, though, they still have positive feelings about libraries as a whole. Sure, they may not be big readers or they prefer to buy books, or, maybe, they assume libraries are the stereotypical old buildings filled with dusty books and women in glasses who shush people. Whatever their reason for not being library patrons, they are also not actively against libraries. That has begun to change in recent years as libraries have suddenly found themselves at the center of controversy. Let's be honest, attempts to ban books have occurred since people invented writing, but there is no denying that there has been a significant  increase in book banning since the American Library Association first began tracking censorship in libraries 20 years ago. Of course , many of these bans are focused on school libraries (which is a whole different can of worms) but in 2023 49% of challenges were focused on public libraries compared to only 16% in 2022. 

Now, I am not going to go into the whole book banning issue in this post. I have written about it before, and, to be clear, I am against book banning and censorship and am a firm proponent of the ALA's stance on intellectual freedom. So, what does this have anything to do with ARSL or Unite & Ignite? Well, libraries are suddenly facing actual opposition rather than just indifference. In order to resist acrimonious campaigns against libraries we need to prove our worth and establish ourselves as a necessity. In other words we need to "unite" our communities and "ignite" people's enthusiasm and support for libraries. 

How do we do this? Former librarian turned educational speaker, Will Stuck,  really summed it up with this statement: "Make the library a part of the community, not just a place in the community."

One of the ways small libraries can do this is with our customer service, which can be even more important than a library's collection. Librarians in small communities are in a unique position because we can get to know the majority of people who come into our libraries. We know their names, their kids' names, what they like to read, what they are probably going to ask for help with, etc. Small and rural libraries may not have huge collections or massive buildings with tons of cool stuff, but we can be more personable, positive, and helpful. I know that having good customer service seems obvious and easy to do. Just smile and say thank you, right? There are definitely ways that the staff at my library (myself included) can improve on customer service, though, and we need to incorporate concrete policies, strategies, and expectations that help us to do this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to having more patron friendly service, small and rural libraries can build community relationships with our programs and community outreach. My library already has the regular story times, book clubs, arts and crafts, a summer reading program, etc. and we go to schools, local festivals, farmer's markets, and participate in parades. The ARSL conference gave me some new ideas for ways to connect with current patrons and hopefully gain some new ones. 

I found it particularly interesting that some librarians are getting grants from the AARP to help fund telehealth booths in rural libraries. As we know, since covid zoom meetings and telehealth sessions have become the norm and "Shush booths" are a wonderful new service that could be a huge benefit to people in my community. Not to mention they look really cool, like something out of Star Trek. 

All of our programming, outreach, and daily interactions with people in our community lead to personal relationships and wonderful stories that we can use to build trust and goodwill. Librarians need to share those stories, and we need to get our patrons and supporters to share them too. Who helps the senior citizen learn how to use their new iPhone, where do teens go after school, where can you get free winter hats from a crocheting club, who is hosting a parent play group at the park over the summer? That is how we will stay relevant and be part of the community not just a place.

Just as important as listening to speakers and attending break out sessions was the opportunity to connect with other librarians from around the nation. There were many other programs, books, events, etc. that I am now looking into adding or implementing at my library because of simple conversations I had over lunch. "Uniting" with fellow librarians "ignited" my passion for this career that I have chosen or chose me (honestly I am in my forties and have no idea). All I do know is that ARSL 2023 gave me a much needed boost and I feel excited and reinvigorated about moving my little library into 2024.

As you can see, I also managed to have a little bit of fun in Wichita with my fellow librarians! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I got to meet Adib Khorram, the author behind Darius the Great is Not Okay, which was a huge honor! If you have not read the book you are missing out. And did I mention that the Khorram is a huge Star Trek nerd and his book's main character speaks Klingon? Swoon!