#Iowa library

[without-ado]

Iowa State Law Library l christosjpalios l U.S.

[allthedesiredusernamesaretaken]

... endless amount of knowledge ...

The State Law Library in Des Moines, Iowa

Victorian style architecture, with intricate details from floor to floor ceiling. Wrought iron spiral staircases on each end of the library that wind from the bottom level to the top tier. Approx. 100.000 titles filling the shelves.

[loxlia]

Hey, if you’re in Iowa, please reach out to your state government representatives. This is a terrifying and obviously fascist push to censor libraries and suppress information.

And if you aren’t in Iowa—spread this around and keep an eye on your own state legislature to see if they’re trying to push this kind of blatant fascism through. Louisiana tried last year and thankfully failed, but I guarantee other states are going to try this.

[upstairsdownstairsandinbetween]

The Law Library at the Iowa State Capitol 

[iowacitypast]

Periodicals reading area, The University of Iowa, April 1963

Creator: Kent, Frederick Wallace

[archivlibrarianist]

From the article:

"Iowa House File 274 would repeal a section of Iowa Code that states nothing in the state’s obscenity laws prohibits the use of appropriate materials for educational purposes in accredited schools, public libraries, or educational programs for minors.

"The Iowa Code section also does not prohibit the attendance of minors at an exhibition or display of art works or the use of any materials in any public library.

"Iowa Code defines obscenity as: 'any material depicting or describing the genitals, sex acts, masturbation, excretory functions or sadomasochistic abuse which the average person, taking the material as a whole and applying contemporary community standards with respect to what is suitable material for minors, would find appeals to the prurient interest and is patently offensive; and the material, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, scientific, political or artistic value.'

"Supporters of the legislation argued the exemptions allow minors access to inappropriate, sexually explicit material at public libraries, and that the bill is needed to restrict children’s exposure to obscene content." (emphasis added) .

In other words: they know it's not "pornography." They know legal definitions of obscenity do not, in fact, apply to books they screech are "obscene." And it isn't stopping them.

It isn't stopping them because this was never about "protecting" anyone. It was always about controlling what people see and read, in order to control what people think and believe.

Don't let them get away with it.

[apologize-to-no-one]

[thistle-and-bee-press]

From the LGBTQ Iowa Archives and Library, a Queer archives, library and community center, located in Iowa!

Help support the work of the LGBTQ Iowa Archives & Library by becoming a Friend of LIAL. With an annual or monthly donation, you will help support our free programming, archival endeavors, and our library full of trans and queer books that cannot be banned by the state legislature. As a trans and queer volunteer-run organization, LIAL depends on community support to continue our mission of preserving and sharing Iowa's LGBTQ history.

If you become a Friend of LIAL before February 15th, you will also receive a handmade notebook by India Johnson!

Learn more about us here:

Join or donate here! https://donorbox.org/friends-of-lial

[nkp1981]

The State Law Library of Iowa

[popculturelib]

Haunted States of America: Iowa

Ghosts of the Amana Colonies (1988) by Lori Erickson

The Amana Colonies are a group of villages in central Iowa settled by German Radical Pietists in the mid-1850s. They emphasized an isolated communal society and self-sufficiency, with minimal contact to broader Iowan culture until the Great Depression. At this point, financial and social changes forced the members to become more involved in the outside world. Today, the villages are on the National Register of Historic Places and have a strong tourist industry.

Ghosts of the Amana Colonies asks us to consider stories from the villages with chapter titles like "The Hope Chest," "The German Grandmother," "Tina and Marie," "The Kitchen Boss," and "The Ghost Corner," among others.

We don't have many other books about the Amana Colonies save for the book A Collection of Traditional Amana Recipes (1948 and 1976) by the Ladies Auxiliary of the Homestead Welfare Club, but you can find several other books about ghosts in Iowa:

Ghosts of Des Moines County, Iowa (1986) by Bruce Carlson

Ghosts of Polk County, Iowa (1988) by Tom Welch

Ghostly Tales of Northeast Iowa: Allamakee, Clayton, Fayette, and Winneshiek Counties (1988) by Ruth D. Hein and Vicky L. Hinsenbrock

The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States.  Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.

[allthedesiredusernamesaretaken]

... endless amount of knowledge ...

The Iowa State Law Library, Des Moines, United States

The decoratively epic wrought-iron spiral staircase, one of only two, inside the State Law Library, Iowa.

📷 christosjpalios

[kmalexander]

Found this 1939 Authur Rothstein photo on the Library of Congress, and I can't get over it. I keep noticing new details.

[jtwb768-babbles]

A Quiet Revolution: How Public Libraries Like Davenport’s Are Holding Communities Together in the Age of AI

When the world races forward with artificial intelligence, streaming services, eBooks, and smartphones capable of storing a library’s worth of data, some question whether public libraries remain necessary. Are these quiet community institutions relics of a bygone era—or are they, perhaps, more vital now than ever before? In cities like Davenport, Iowa, the answer resounds with clarity: public…

[archivlibrarianist]

From the Fort Dodge, Iowa Messenger, an example of all the neat stuff you can find volunteering at your local historical society.

People interested in careers in GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), working with local historical societies and/or history museums can be a great way to not only network and learn some things, you can help provide a service that your local community appreciates:

"...But [volunteer Joe Kudron] has also posted the images online [for the historical society], allowing people to see them for perhaps the first time. They have been posted on the Historical Society’s Facebook page and the Fort Dodge Iowa Memories, Stories and Photos Facebook page.

"The posts have proven to be popular."

[sebastianravkin]

Fuck book banning

College of Charleston students held a book drive this past week to fight Florida state book bans [article linked below].

I like this idea. Especially for a class of high school or college students to do. For my ideas on how to fight book bans, go to the top of my blog.

Here are some recent statistics from the American Library Association's webpage:

Between January 1 and August 31, 2024, there were 414 attempts to censor library materials and services in the United States; in those cases, 1,128 unique titles were challenged.

More than 80% of book bans so far in 2024 came in Iowa and Florida. Around 4,500 titles were removed in Florida, and more than 3,600 in Iowa, according to PEN America.

Jodie Picoult's Nineteen Minutes tops the list of banned books so far in 2024. It is a book about how to recognize bullying before it escalates into a school shooting.  The reason the book has been banned is not because of the shooting scenes. The problem is that on page 313, the author uses the term ‘erection’.