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??????

something i need to stop thinking in my daily life. working in a library. is the phrase ‘i hope something name of the rose happens to you’ whenever someone pisses me off

i don’t have an mlis but i’m planning on doing the uk equivalent degree in the next few years! the boring answer is that i volunteered at the departmental library in undergrad, used that to get a volunteer position at the museum library when the opportunity arose, and then had exactly the right experience when a full time position came up. i was very lucky!!!

transmonk:

i was born to be a monk because my favorite activities are sitting at a desk, rearranging bookshelves and having existential crises

wizardysseus:

Library Funding Targeted in New Trump Executive Order: What It Means & What To Do Now

What the Executive Order slashing the Institute of Museum and Library Services means, how it will impact you, and what you should do right n

BOOK RIOT

On Friday, the president signed yet another Executive Order, this time directly targeting funds allocated to libraries and museums nationwide. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is a federal agency that distributes fund approved by Congress to state libraries, as well as library, museum, and archival grant programs. IMLS is the only federal agency that provides funds to libraries.

The Executive Order states that the functions of the IMLS have to be reduced to “statutory functions” and that in places that are not statutory, expenses must be cut as much as possible.

[…] The department has seven days to report back, meaning that as soon as this Friday, March 21, 2025, public libraries–including school and academic libraries–as well as public museums could see their budgets demolished.

Actionable items from the article:

• Sign the petition at EveryLibrary to stop Trump’s Executive Order seeking to gut the IMLS then share it with your networks.
• Write a letter to each of your Senators and to your Representative at the federal level. You can find your Senators here and your Representative here. All you need to say in this letter is that you, a resident of their district, demand they speak up and defend the budget of IMLS. Include a short statement of where and how you value the library, as well as its importance in your community. This can be as short as “I use the library to find trusted sources of information, and every time I am in there, the public computers are being used by a variety of community members doing everything from applying for jobs to writing school papers. Cutting the funds for libraries will further harm those who lack stable internet, who cannot afford a home library, and who seek the opportunities to engage in programming, learning, enrichment, and entertainment in their own community. Public libraries help strengthen reading and critical thinking skills for all ages.” In those letters, consider noting that the return on investment on libraries is astronomical. You can use data from EveryLibrary.
• Call the offices of each of your Senators and Representatives in Congress. Yes, they’ll be busy. Yes, the voice mails will be full. KEEP CALLING. Get your name on the record against IMLS cuts. Do this in addition to writing a letter. If making a call creates anxiety, use a tool like 5 Calls to create a script you can read when you reach a person or voice mail.
• Though your state-level representatives will not have the power to impact what happens with IMLS, this is your time to reach out to each of your state representatives to emphasize the importance of your state’s public libraries. Note that in light of potential cuts from the federal government, you advocate for stronger laws protecting libraries and library workers, as well as stronger funding models for these institutions.
• Show up at your next public library meeting, either in person at a board meeting or via an email or letter, and tell the library how much it means to you. In an era where information that is not written down and documented simply doesn’t exist, nothing is more crucial than having your name attached to some words about the importance of your public library. This does not need to be genius work–tell the library how you use their services and how much they mean to you as a taxpayer.
• Tell everyone you know what is at stake. If you’ve not been speaking up for public institutions over the last several years, despite the red flags and warnings that have been building and building, it is not too late to begin now. EveryLibrary’s primer and petition is an excellent resource to give folks who may be unaware of what’s going on–or who want just the most important information.

to celebrate world book day i am being banished to the library stores

shoutout to the schoolchild who answered ‘how big do you think the archive collection is’ with ‘as big as three big bens’. my new favourite unit of measurement 👍

i NEED to vaguepost about the frankly ridiculous library drama that’s happening rn. like i won’t but genuinely what the fuck

was going through a super grimy old book and now i have a rash on my hands. some kind of name of the rose shit

i think i have done something to my wrist by. moving massive 17th century atlases

the scariest bookshelf organisation to me is. when i volunteered at redacted uni classics library and we were all sharing bookshelfies and this one phd student was like oh yeah my books are arranged chronologically. and they were. mostly ancient texts. of uncertain publication date wgat do you mean they’re arranged chronologically HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT. i got so upset by the idea of having to decide which book to put first out of like. all of propertius in one volume vs all of horace in one volume when individual books by each poet were published in interlocking chronological sequence. why would you do that to yourself why would you do that to ME #autism

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nick thurston, speculative libraries

decided i was going to try and get rid of some books i read as a child that are still taking up space on my shelves so i can put the books that live on the floor on the new shelf space. but then i got sad about donating the old books so now im scanning all the covers first to make a ghost library 👍

public library computers all down 😭 puella adiuva 😭 my e-resources 😭

sucks that most scents that claim to smell like paper/books/libraries literally do not even come close. i have found one single book in [redacted] library and archive that smells exactly like maison margiela replica whispers in the library and it was like. an index of early 20th century oil tankers. which i am not sure that was the intended vibe yknow