What should I do, and how do I do it without getting fired
I'm gonna order copies of A People's History of the United States, but what else?
A People’s History of the United States
There is a children's version of this. "Young People's History of the United States."
But also Ursula K. Le Guin. Anything she wrote, but Earthsea is a YA novel.
Haven't actually read Red Rising, but it's supposed to be good and should be accessible to kids.
This isn't leftist at all, but I also really enjoyed that my school library had the original Spider-Man omnibus.
Spiderman isn't leftist? Shit, I've been wasting my time trying to get bitten by a radioactive Lenin.
I actually haven't read it so I'm a big fat phony, but it's on my shelf and I'm told she's cool.
Strong support for Earthsea. It's a wonderful rebuttal to the cynical cruelty of Harry Potter, and it features a non-white cast.
I discovered LeGuin through Tombs of Atuan, which is just an incredible YA appropriate novel.
Kurt Vonnegut was critical to my early move away from liberalism towards socialism.
Everyone's suggesting books to get, which is fine, but I had something else in mind:
I have a friend who teaches library science and has worked in libraries. One of the libraries she worked in gets donations of books from people. Sometimes donated books are... not great, but for whatever reason they have to catalogue the book and put it on the shelf. One of the books that came in was a terrible abstinence-only sex-ed book, which she really didn't want the students to find in the sexual health section of the library. So, she looked through the book and found one page with a Bible verse. Since the page had a Bible verse, she could justify putting the book in the "Religion" section -- a section that students were far less likely to look at than the sexual health section. I'm not sure how much power you have over how books are catalogued in your library, but if you have any choice in the matter, I guess that's the sort of strategy you could consider -- trying to make sure the good books are easier to find than the bad ones.
They labeled library administration as “library science” because they could, didn’t they?
There is an documentary on subject classification—though it focuses more on the subject term than the content therein—called "Change the Subject". It was about an effort to pressure the Library of Congress to change the subject heading "illegal alien" to "undocumented immigrant". A good watch for all but you might recommend it to your friend.
I work at a library, as well, but as a staff member. I do a lot of the same things a librarian does and understand to a degree the various roles and operations of the library where I work. It depends on your circumstance and what the needs of the population you serve are, i.e. is it academic, high school etc. Where I am at, one of the main issues we are working on is outreach. Letting patrons know we exist and the services we offer. This can take the form of social media advertising special displays or events (staff collaboration on book displays can be a lot of fun, and I recommend getting as many recs from staff for books as you can. People like to share what they read). Connect with teachers, and ask them to set time at the start of semesters to give library instruction to students. Get a sense of the research or course work, including and especially intensive or special assignments students will be working on so that you might craft libguides where necessary to aid them along the way. In terms of resources, if there are common queries you might consider making quick guides as aids (for printing, accessing computers, citation, etc.). There is always collections management, and ongoing deselection and weeding is recommended to avoid the need of emergency deselection hatchet jobs. It also makes room for the other necessary component which is collections development, where you get to select the cool new shit to populate the stacks. This all mandates effective management of the catalog, metadata retrieval and input, scanning labeling, etc. If academic, there is likely a greater need for database competency, being aware of the products to which the library subscribes and how to use them. This is all very broad and if you have any specific questions related to your role or anything I've suggested, please let me know.
When in doubt, or honestly just for due diligence and fun, look at what other libraries are doing, both nearby and all over. Visit their sites to get ideas, use their resources where applicable (librarians like to share and why reinvent the wheel? we've had other librarians reach out and ask to use a libguide in its entirety, and of course it was cool with us). Consider getting in the loop of ALA and regional library newsletters to stay up to date on trends etc. and get access to timely or relevant webinars.
And when at work, do not break copyright law. It would be a lame reason to lose your job and there are plenty of ways to skirt around shit and get what people need. If you absolutely need to suggest libgen or sci-hub, make sure you think they are cool and try to find a way to say it without saying it. Do not write it in email.
Just some thoughts. Congratulations on your new position, and best of luck in your endeavors, comrade! Wage labor sucks, but there are worse places to spend your hours than working at a library . Noble mission at its best, and still a magical space to me
*If you're not union, organize
Inter-library loan is one of the greatest technologies available for the betterment of humanity.
There’s lots of theory on here, but representation in fiction is important too. Copypasting my response to this thread here:
I’m a literacy specialist whose focus for nearly a decade has been on exposing kids to diverse representation through YA lit. There are certain awards which specifically track high-quality YA and are run by the demographics being represented in the recommended books. So as much as possible you’ll avoid the
10 Most Diverse YA Novelslisticles written by cishet white dudesSome awards to start with:
- Stonewall Book Award (LGBTQ+)
- Coretta Scott King Award (African American)
- Pura Belpré Award (Hispanic/Latinx)
- Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature
- Michael L Printz award (best annual books in YA)
- LAMBDA Literary Award (LGBTQ+)
- Jane Addams Children's Book Award (social justice and peace in YA)
- Schneider Family Book Award (disability)
- Sydney Taylor Award (Jewish books)
- Walter Award (recognizes diversity in YA lit)
And then since that’s literally hundreds of books, here’s a few personal recommendations:
- Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevado
- CW Familial Death
- With The Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevado
- CW poverty, teen pregnancy
- Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
- CW racism, slut shaming
- Speak by Laurie Halse-Anderson
- CW sexual assault
- Monster by Walter D Meyers
- CW violence, incarceration
- Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
- CW homophobia
- Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Marcelo In The Real World by Francisco X. Stork
- CW ableism
- All-American Boys by Brendan Killy and Jason Reynolds
- CW police brutality, racism
- Brooklyn Burning by Steve Brezenoff
- CW homophobia
- There There by Tommy Orange
- CW racism, ableism, colonialism, gun violence, sexual assault
- More appropriate for seniors than for freshman, for example
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- CW racism, police brutality, murder
- On The Comeup by Angie Thomas
- Haven’t actually read this one but have a colleague who raves about it
- Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
- CW racism, drug use, teen pregnancy, gang violence
- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
- CW racism, heavy visual stereotyping
- Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
- CW homophobia
- Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
- CW wartime depictions, family separation, racism
- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
- CW racism
- All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
- CW suicidal ideation, trauma, death, ableism
Step 1: Buy the complete Marx/Engels Collected Works
Step 2: Put them on a shelf
Step 3: idk im not a librarian
My brainworms made me read the title as "I'm a school libertarian now". Was totally prepared to tell you not to touch any kids, but instead found a thread full of good reads instead.
My contribution is Xi Jinping's reading list: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202204/1260108.shtml
"Know your enemy and know yourself", and all that.
Just think how much more dangerous opponents of communism would be if they took the time to just read the Manifesto.
I don't have any advice but I think your job is one of the most socially important roles in society. :fidel-salute:
Lies My Teacher Told Me is just okay, but its title is provocative enough that some kid will pick it up.
You could be like the one in "The Girl Who Cried Monster" and just start eating bugs on the job in the hopes that a kid will eventually see you doing so, thus initiating a fun mystery/adventure for them where they try to figure out if you're a monster or not.
