like, u know there is a degree of moderation there, right? someone has to order the books to stock in the library. a library that lets any old creep stash their hastily scribbled shota pwp in between the shelves is a library that’s going to be shut down p quick. by the police. for providing ppl with child porn. (and yes if a picture of a tree or a description of a tree can make someone experience a tree, then the same can be said about a picture or description of a child in a sexual situation ffs)
I mean there’s like a million other logistical differences, and idk who checks erotica out of a library, but hey ppl can be wild abt these things
Hooboy. Well, as a librarian who has worked in many varieties of libraries, let me… try to… respond to this from a library and librarian perspective.
1) It is true that libraries have a process to go through for accepting materials, and that there is a degree of selectivity involved–this is because libraries have limited budgets, limited physical space, and limited staff to process and manage materials.
So, yes, any random junk written and left in the library would be thrown out. Not because the library would be concerned about its liability if anyone should see it; because we like to keep the library clean and organized, and leaving stuff on the shelf is not how we add things to the collection (how would they get CATALOGUED and LABELED???) And, of course, any adult attempting to show pornography (or, say, themselves) to actual children would be Removed From The Library because this would involve actual children being harmed by an actual adult in direct contact with them. Police do not shut down the libraries where this happens. They arrest the people harming the children.
Meanwhile, libraries spend VAST SUMS OF MONEY and ENDLESS STAFF HOURS to keep copies of Fifty Shades of Gray on the shelves where children actually can find them quite readily (and have them checked out on their library cards if mom’s has too many fines). Same with Last Tango in Paris and Flowers in the Attic and Year’s Best Erotica collections. (And Bibles, which get stolen at a ridiculous pace. I don’t know why, we were just forever having to order more of them.)
In an online space, which has effectively unlimited space, where adding new material costs nothing, and where the process of organizing that material and making it available is fully automated and what labor is involved is taken on by the contributing author, literally none of those constraints apply, so more content is more content! It’s catalogued and labeled as soon as it’s posted! It cannot be misshelved. Perfect!
2) This is not to say that no physical library has handwritten erotica in its collection somewhere. Many, many libraries collect rare local works such as self-published zines, and unique items like the personal papers of notable people (San Jose State University, for instance, holds the papers of the Kensington Ladies’ Erotica Society; The University of Iowa Zine Collection includes fanfic zines with erotic content; UCLA has the personal papers of Anais Nin), and doubtless some of these zines and personal papers include erotica. Because this handwritten material would be unique and its value would be presumed to lie mainly in the fact of its authorship, it would be properly collected, not in a library, but in an archive or special collection, where some archivist would dutifully folder it and make a note of what it was so future visitors to the collection could readily access it.
The main goal there would be to protect the material, not the person who might potentially view the material.
I worked in a public library which had an extensive collection of Playboy on microfilm, for instance. We kept it behind a desk where it had to be requested and checked out with a library card before it could be viewed. This was partly to prevent children viewing material inappropriate for their age–just as, say, the AO3 clearly marks adult material as such–but mainly to prevent vandalism of the material by people who disapproved of it. Several of the images on the film had been damaged by people trying to scratch them out; for the safety of the microfilm, we restricted access to it. This is also why the AO3 doesn’t allow people who dislike a fic to force it to be taken down.
This is also why most libraries celebrate Banned Books Week by eagerly higlighting works which people have ATTEMPTED to force to be removed from libraries–including work like Lolita, which is read by many as a titillating pedophile love affair. Librarians are not celebrating Lolita. They are celebrating the principle that they will not be stopped from collecting materials of interest and making them available to readers.
3) From your description of a library where children can freely access anything on the shelves, you seem to have only one conception of a library–a public library with open stacks, or perhaps a school library. There are, in fact, many kinds of libraries, with academic libraries being the most obvious foil to your description.
In an academic or university library, all authorized users of the library are adults who take adult responsibility for what they find in the library, much like when adult internet users indicate on a website that they are choosing to view adult content.
When I worked in a university library, I asked one of the librarians what do when a guy was sitting at a computer very obviously watching porn while a young woman, sitting next to him doing something text-based, seemed like she might be uncomfortable. I was told in no uncertain terms that the library’s policy was to relocate the person who was uncomfortable. The library was a repository of information and a place to access information: any kind of information, including the erotic. Under no circumstances would we curtail a library user’s access to that information.
(Unless he got his own actual dick out where people could see it, then we could call the campus police. Because, again: actual humans directly involved.)
Duke University Library Erotica Collection, 1940s-1960s (”An archive of original illustrations, sketchbooks, and erotic stories, depicting transgressive sex acts including (but not limited to) lesbian and heterosexual sex, incest, pedophilia, sadomassochistic behavior, and copulation with objects as varied as sex toys, produce, and household appliances. The stories and illustrations appear to be the work of a single individual, with nearly all narrative told from a female’s point of view. Also includes some amateur pornographic photography and magazine clippings.”)
Why I never mock or even bring attention to mispronunciation in a conversation, and will snap down anyone who tries to
Besides poverty, for many peoplevEnglish is a second (or third+) language and has weird rules too.
Most of the time, even when words are mispronounced, they’re still understandable if you make an effort. Just be patient and don’t look down on people who mispronounce!
i don’t think it’s poverty, tho. as i grew up, my family gradually went from working class to upper middle class, and at no point did i hear those “i know how to spell it but not pronounce it” words in conversation. not when we were the hicks with the firewood trailer in the yard, and not when we were the ‘executive fast track’ couple and their scrubbed and shining heirs. people just generally don’t use ‘em. they’re not conversation words.
like, my dad went from being a motorcycle racer who was majoring in engineering, to a senior engineer at a big firm with DoD contracts, and the only thing that changed about the vocabulary of the people he associated with was the technical jargon. instead of motorcycle racing jargon they used materials engineering jargon. they didn’t use words like ‘confluence’ and ‘lambaste’ and ‘chicanery’.
where i heard them was in documentaries on PBS. and that’s free for everyone.
Yeah, this isn’t a poverty thing. My mother was middle class, with a highly advanced vocabulary; my dad was a college graduate working at IBM. All of us were native English speakers. I still mispronounced everything because I read so much, I would almost always encounter any sophisticated word in writing before I encounted it in speech. So for years I said things like “ME-tabolism” (as opposed to “me-TAH-bolism”). For that matter I pronounce one of my favorite characters’ names wrong because I didn’t know he was named after a real-world device; his name is a common word with an -o tacked on at the end, so that’s how I pronounced it. It was a decade after I started reading comics with him in them before he first appeared in any spoken-language media I was able to consume.
“Hi, I’m looking for a book with adventure, but no graphic violence.”
“I’m interested in a thriller that doesn’t have any rape scenes.”
“I want a gay main character but I don’t want it to be a coming-out story. And no anti-gay violence.”
“Oh, no, murder’s fine, but no animal cruelty.”
All separate reader’s advisory questions that I’ve answered, and successfully. I don’t know why any of these people asked for those specific parameters, and I didn’t ask, because it’s not my fucking business. And it’s no one else’s business, either–up to and including the government.
Librarians don’t make you reveal your trauma in order to justify what you read or write. You may be confusing us with, uh… *checks notes* …fandom.
We are literally trained not to ask. Any halfway decent reference professor nails it into you. Even if it would help you answer a question, you never ask a patron why they need something.
It’s really not that hard to understand that part of a librarian’s job is to help you find books you want to read. They don’t need to know WHY you want them, they just need to know as many specifics as possible about WHAT you’re looking for so that they can help you find it. Don’t want rape? Specify “no rape scenes”.
You can say stuff like “I loved the political intrigue in Game of Thrones, but there’s too much sexual assault (and/or graphic violence) for my tastes. Got anything similar without the rape (/gore)?” You don’t even have to give that much explanation. You can if you want to. But you don’t have to. “I’m looking for political intrigue like in Game of Thrones but without the graphic violence / sexual assault”.
Just tell them two things: what you explicitly DO want, and what you explicitly DON’T want. Nothing more is needed.
Having spent enough of my life at the local library reading just about everything I could get my hands on… not once has a librarian done anything to make me feel judged about my book choices. I’ve had nerves about checking certain books out, but that’s me and my generalized anxieties from sources that are not “a librarian actually did or said something judgmental or made me explain myself”.
The New York Public Library’s Riverside branch invites you to check
out a necktie, briefcase, or handbag suited for a “job interview,
wedding, audition, graduation, prom, or other formal event.” It’s part
of their NYPL Grow Up initiative. From the NYPL:
Several library organizations and advocacy groups, including the American Library Association and ReadersFirst, have come out against Tor’s embargo. In a phone interview with io9, ALA president Loida Garcia Febo expressed her concerns that it could mean more trouble for libraries and their relationships with publishers, taking into account how hard they had to fight to get e-book access in the first place. She also said how unfortunate it is that the embargo is targeting sci-fi and fantasy readers, given how dedicated and passionate they are about the written word.
you know that dumbass Forbes article advocating for Amazon stores to replace public libraries? It was taken down cause the author got dragged so hard by like everyone who has ever entered a library in their life & now Forbes released a statement basically calling the author of the original op-ed “deeply misinformed” lmao
You know, mabes we socialist types should proactively do something to help our local libraries before capitalists find ways of shutting them down for good. Some kind of mass fundraiser or something, I don’t know what. But they seem like the last holdout for people who believe that everyone has a right to resources, no questions asked.
For many people, the library is the one place they can access the internet, which may in turn be the only way they can apply for jobs or get schoolwork done.
Other technology is also available for use at a library, such as a copier or a printer (ours even has a 3D printer open to the public).
The library is a safe place to go if it’s raining or really cold outside.
Children are enabled to read more books than their allowance could ever possibly afford, and for kids from lower-income backgrounds, it might be their only access to books at all.
Lots of libraries provide classes that are needed in their community, whether it’s ESL or literacy or parenting or what have you. Free of charge.
You can even borrow movies or seasons of TV shows instead of springing for Netflix.
And there is no shame whatsoever in visiting one. There is no social stigma attached to the library, it’s for everyone, period.
Any librarians with ideas for how we could help keep them going?
Support the Library Defense Network! They’re a leftist org made up of library workers and they organize communities to prevent public library closures.
In a shocking move, Macmillan / Tor announces that they will begin a “test” of scaling back library lending and waiting 4 months after release date before making e-books available to libraries. They say that it’s because library lending is adversely affecting their sales.
This honestly seems like a giant greedy cash grab, and I’m very disappointed with Macmillan and Tor. I cannot believe they would do this to their library patrons.
Can we figure out a way to do this to student loan debt.
I would read Ayn Rand to pay down my student loans
Our library ran the expenses and realized we spent about 3,000$ MORE than what we got back in trying to collect late fees. So? We dropped them completely. No late fees. Period.
If you keep a book, it auto renews two times. Then it comes up as overdue. If your overdue items exceed a certain amount, your account freezes. You can’t use any of the local libraries anymore until you return the items or claim them lost and pay for them. If someone else is waiting for the book, you can’t renew. Its that simple.
And guess what. Not only did we save money, but we /got more materials back/. More materials were turned in than declared lost as compared to before. There was no stigma to it. If you had already paid for the item, the money was credited back to you.
Because the people late fees actually affected were children and elderly adults – people unable to regularly get to the library. And the stigma of late items was dropped. Attitude and mindset are important.
we still have no late fees. And we are considered to be one of the top public systems in our state. People from out of state PAY to get library cards for a year because our online Overdrive system is amazing, and we have a ton of partnerships and interlibrary loan systems in place. AND we suffer less losses of both materials and patrons due to our “no late fee” policy.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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