@dewitty1 / dewitty1.tumblr.com
Note from one of your local librarians— if you’re having drug fueled orgies in the library, please tell us!
We are always trying to boost program numbers and if this is a community need we’d love to discuss collaborating by providing snacks and relevant books for inspiration!
i love you secondhand books i love you paperbacks i love you public libraries i love you school libraries i love you little free libraries i love you audiobooks i love you librivox i love you libby i love you ebooks i love you pdfs i love you internet archive i love you public domain i love you free and cheap and imperfect books i love you widely accessible resources
As a former librarian, the whole "don't pirate books, you are taking money authors need to feed their starving children, just borrow from the library instead :) " makes me angry.
Because e-book prices for libraries are insanely high. Like I've heard the jokey meme about how "if libraries were proposed today, they would be condemned as some socialist infringing on intellectual property rights."
Well, the rights for libraries to lend out paper books were negotiated almost a century ago in most western countries, while the rights for libraries to lend out e-books and digital audiobooks were negotiated during the present neoliberal era where corporations are very powerful. And It fucking shows.
The prices for libraries to buy e-books are insane, and that's not even counting the circulation fees. And the books are frequently restricted by licensing to a certain small number of loans per book, after which the e-book is destroyed and the library has to buy a new one to the exorbitant prices the publishers give.
Like the advice about how piracy is some great evil cutting into author's profits and how you should just borrow from libraries instead is so infuriating in that context. Like listen to actual librarians talk about e-book pricing for libraries. It's a major drain on library funds, and in the era of neoliberalism and austerity those budgets are strained as it is. And libraries inability in the face of these costs to provide digital content is used as justification for further cuts.
Librarians have boycotted major publishers over their ridiculous e-book policies and have talked about how ridiculous prices are for years, and for good reason.
This is fucking corporate robbery of library funding, of tax payers money to further their own private profits. Any moralistic bullshit about the evils of book piracy should be put in that context. If the ordinary person is stealing the publishers precious book sales profits, those publishers are already robbing that person's tax dollars.
It's a fucking hypocrisy to justify the present system of copyright and intellectual property with "well, if you are poor it's still wrong to pirate because you can get books for free legally from libraries". Because book publishers are already using their strong intellectual property rights to bleed libraries dry of funds, killing them in the process like the fucking vampires they are.
Important addition from @ifihadbones. Source for it if you want context:
The context is literally that Sargent and Macmillan felt that library e-books were cutting into their profits, so they put the prices high to starve libraries out.
[ID: a screenshot of tumblr tags, reading, "#direct quote from john sargent former CEO of macmillan publishing on the subject of e-book prices for libraries: #'libraries only have so much money. and as long as we kept the prices up they wouldn't have the budget'" end ID]
Library kids are going to save the world. 📚
Seeing a steady rise of people using the library as we carry through summer break, so here's a quick thread from a staff member on little things you can do (for free!) to make life easier on staff. Let's go!
Certified Library Post
Good.
From the article:
"The Gender Justice League has barred the Seattle Public Library from participating in the Trans Pride event on Friday, June 23, after the library decided to rent a large auditorium at the downtown library to former child star Kirk Cameron, a conservative activist who is touring to promote his latest “traditional family values” picture book."
Seattle Public Library is doing this awesome program called Books Unbanned that allows teens and young adults (ages 13-26) access to their collection of e-books and e-audiobooks from anywhere in the USA. All you need to do is fill out a simple form and you get their Books Unbanned card. Please share this information far and wide. I know they're not the only ones to have done this, but the more the merrier!
Welp, the Missouri House of Legislatures just voted to defund public libraries.
I’m honestly shocked and dismayed and heartbroken. Like, I knew things were bad, but I didn’t think it was this bad already.
I’m also quite frankly shocked at how small the state budget for libraries was in the first place ($4.5 million). I’ve visited so many quality libraries all across Missouri that do so much for their communities. When I was a social worker, the local library was always the first place I’d visit in the communities I worked in, because I knew they had good services to offer and could help me get connected to other local supports. Like, even from just a heartless financial standpoint, I can guarantee public libraries are worth the money.
I’m just really sad right now.
Here is the current appropriation committee for Missouri. If you live in Missouri and your representative is on that list, you should definitely contact them and let them know this is an important issue to you.
My own representative is not, though I already contacted his office anyway. I’m genuinely unsure of what I can do, but I feel like this is something I need to act on.
if the significance of the internet archive being threatened has been lost on anyone, maybe these quick comparisons will put it into perspective…
Banning the Internet Archive would be the equivalent of burning the Library of Alexandria 360,000 times…
I hear people on Tumblr talk a lot about the importance of libraries; now’s your chance to help save one!
At Vermont State University is a newly merging Uni in so-called North America, pushing together three previously separate universities: Castleton University, Northern Vermont University, and Vermont Technical College.
Just last week, the new VTSU administration sent out an email to faculty, staff and students announcing that all the libraries at each of the 5 campuses contained within these universities would be moving to an ‘all-digital’ model. Librarians will lose their jobs if this plan goes ahead; in fact, librarians were only informed of this change 11 minutes before the email was sent out.
The history of Green Books
Start your own small thing
North Dakota lawmakers are considering legislation to ban books containing “sexually explicit” content from public libraries. Under the proposed law, librarians who refuse to remove books containing such content, which includes depictions of “sexual identity” and “gender identity” as well as “sexual preference,” “sexual intercourse,” and “sexual perversion,” would face 30 days in prison and a $1,500 fine.
The state’s Republican-dominated House Judiciary Committee heard arguments over the bill, introduced by House Majority Leader Mike Lefor (R), on Tuesday but did not take a vote.
Lefor claimed that public libraries contain books featuring “disturbing and disgusting” content and argued that a child’s exposure to such content has been associated with addiction, poor self-esteem, devalued intimacy, increasing divorce rates, unprotected sex among young people, and poor well-being without offering any evidence to support those claims, NBC News reports.
“Books are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!
“E-books are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!
“Audiobooks are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!
“Video games are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!
“Subscriptions to magazines/newspapers are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!
For real, get a library card for your local public library and you will have almost unlimited access to all kinds of media for free. Libraries also often have many different kinds of classes you can take, often for free or very cheap. Oh, and don’t forget the computers and internet access you can also use for free.
In conclusion, yet a library card.
Don’t forget movies, internet, zoo tickets, etc. we also have fun kits for old people.
At my library you can even check out musical instruments.
The Library Is
a Magical Place and You
Should Fucking Go There
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
