#Wisconsin Libraries

[archivlibrarianist]

No librarian was ever mad that your dog ate a book. We just want to see pictures of the dog, we promise, because we need to confirm that your dog is a very good dog, book damage notwithstanding.

[lesterpubliclibrary]

Lighthouse Quilt by Lester Public Library Via Flickr: Patch of Lakeshore Quilters, Quilts on Display at the Lester Public Library, Two Rivers, Wisconsin

[garadinervi]

Steven Ferlauto – Jeffrey Morin, The Sacred Abecedarium, sailorBOYpress, Stevens Point, WI, 1999, Edition of 26 (plus 5 dedicated proofs) [Special Collections, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. © Steven Ferlauto, Jeffrey Morin]

[thisiswheremywritinggoes]

A state senator in the district where I work has co-sponsored a bill requiring public libraries in my state to automatically provide a list of all materials checked out by patrons age 16 and under to their parents within 24 hours of checkout. Hopefully the bill dies in committee. Barring that, I hope our governor vetoes it as soon as it reaches his desk.

I cannot even begin to tell you how asinine this bill is. How dangerous this bill is.

"But parents have a right to know what their kids are checking out of the library."

Sure, maybe you do. I don't give a fuck about your rights as a parent. The issue is whether I, as a public librarian, who follows a professional code of ethics, is under any obligation to provide that information to you. Your rights as a parent are not my concern. I don't answer to you. Your children aren't some half-witted partial-people -- they're either patrons or they aren't. And if they are, they have a right to privacy in the public library.

I'm not your ally in conducting surveillance over your child. It's not my job to make it easier for you to gather intel about your kids. That's called parenting, dude.

A child who knows their parent will be emailed a list of the materials they check out is not experiencing free, unfettered access to information. Full stop. Please pause for a moment and consider the dire consequences of this requirement.

If you want to bring your child to the library and monitor their checkouts, I won't get in your way. But, between you and me, the best thing you can do for your child is to bring them to the library and let them discover it on their own. Get out of their way. Let them browse and investigate and check out a million books and read only one of them twelve times in a row. Let them roam the shelves like they are starving and the books are food.

Stop telling them which books to read or not read. Stop sneering when they select a book from the shelf and deem it "too easy" for them, or "too difficult." If your kid is enthusiastic about an author or a series or a topic, rejoice! Enthusiastic people are the best people!

Let your toddlers pull a dozen books off the shelf -- don't worry, we pay people to put them back. Let them wander with reckless abandon. Let them make noise. We made this space for them. It's theirs. Nothing in the library can hurt them except your undeserved sense of self-importance and your prejudices. We made this space for them. Please get out of the way and let them discover it.

[timelyenigma]

LETS FUCKIN GOOOOOOOOOO

[thebigrideproject]

Finding stories on my Big Ride: Book Bans in Wisconsin

Much of the route will take me through Wisconsin, a state which, while I’ve never lived there, two of my siblings have. It’s an unavoidable part of living in the western Upper Peninsula: you will, at some point, find yourself in Wisconsin.

In fact, we may have more in common culturally than the rest of Michigan. Although an imperfect test of cultural distance, most Yoopers are Green Bay Packers fans as opposed to Detroit Lions fans, by about a 70-30 personal estimation. An estimation that I absolutely did not just rip out of thin air. So what happens at a cultural level in Wisconsin has a relevance to the UP.

Which takes me to book bans.

Wisconsin is one of several states where book banning attempts are a regular occurrence and have only ramped up in recent times. A consultant with Freedom to Read at PEN America described Wisconsin as “one of the most dangerous states for book bans. ”[1]

The process of a proposed book ban typically starts with either an informal inquiry or a formal complaint about a book or set of books. This process was set up to allow for direct communication between a library and the local community to whom those libraries serve, but has been co-opted by conservative state or national level political groups as a way to target reading material deemed “offensive”[2].

The result is a book challenge process that is not an organic engagement between a library and a concerned parent or community member, but rather an effort with political intent. When political organizations organized outside the targeted communities tap into communication channels designed for use within those communities, it lends a false veneer of being a grassroots effort, i.e. “astroturfing”.

Coincidentally (or rather, not coincidentally, depending on how critical you wish to be, wink wink nudge nudge), the books that are targeted for book bans in Wisconsin (and nationally) are largely those whose themes are LGBTQ+ identity, plotlines, and sexuality, featured LGBTQ characters, or discussed racial justice activism[3]. Wisconsin Watch put together a list of the most challenged books in Wisconsin school districts (see the screenshot below). While I admittedly haven’t read any of these books, I’m pretty confident that, based on titles alone, you can see the theme.  

What makes this astroturfing so effective as a means of targeting certain books (and implicitly the ideas they represent) is the asymmetrical amount of effort required by both sides. Filing a complaint about a book does not require that the person filing the complaint to have actually read the book or books in question. Talking points or scripts are typically fed down to a local agent who then files the complaint without mention their source. Furthermore, if one were to actually, you know, read these books, they’d realize their books about a lot of things and bigger ideas, much bigger than the decontextualized passages or panels that are used to point these books out as aiming to ‘indoctrinate, corrupt, pervert, and deceive’ children[4].

On the flip side, defending a book requires substantially higher commitment. The library would have to make claim that it defends the legitimacy of the book and its intellectual or social value to the library, a claim that typically depends on having at least some form of understanding of the book itself, how it fits into the library’s collection or a curriculum, etc... That is to say, compared to the complainant, it requires actual work and understanding.

Perhaps its most dangerous nature is the emotional warfare that the entire process embodies. On top of the day-to-day life of maintaining a library, from restocking to collections management to human resources to millage and budgets, the additional time, energy, and emotional labor involved constitutes a dangerous precedent not just to libraries, but also our rights as citizens to knowledge, information, literature, and, let’s be honest, the very ideas that are under attack in these efforts: queer identity, racial justice, and social awareness of privilege, inequality, and injustice.

I want to know these librarian’s stories.

What is their fight?

How do they fight it?

How will they fight it going forward?

[1] https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/07/wisconsin-book-ban-school-district-challenge-lgbtq-gender-queer-racial-conservative/

[2] https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/07/wisconsin-book-ban-school-district-challenge-lgbtq-gender-queer-racial-conservative/

[3] https://upnorthnewswi.com/2023/09/28/banned-book-backlash-how-wisconsin-libraries-are-fighting-to-keep-all-books-on-shelves/

[4] https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/07/wisconsin-book-ban-school-district-challenge-lgbtq-gender-queer-racial-conservative/

[rustbeltjessie]

Support Your Local Librarians

(August 11 // Racine, WI)

[maphunt]

“Man of Commerce”, 1889 map that conflates human anatomy with the transportation system of America at the time. Notice West Superior, Wisconsin is at the heart of this man and is also the ‘heart’ (center) of 1889 America’s railroad system.

Item ID: 800 M-1889

Link: https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/864/rec/1

[digitalnewberry]

Ultimate tranquility

Trees in dark, n.d.

While lots of people find the nighttime forest creepy, one of my favorite memories is snowshoeing with my Dad around midnight in the deep woods of northeastern Wisconsin where I grew up. With the moonlight and the snow, it almost feels like daylight, but aside from the snow crunching and the occasional owl, it's completely silent - ultimate tranquility. -- Rose Miron, Director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies

To celebrate the launch of our latest digital collection, we'll be featuring mini-posts of staff faves.

Browse the full collection: John Monroe collection of artist-signed postcards

[shirochin]

Library, Ellison Bay, Wisconsin

[lesterpubliclibrary]

Celebrate Arbor Day by Lester Public Library Via Flickr: Lester Public Library, Two Rivers, Wisconsin

[garadinervi]

Steven Ferlauto – Jeffrey Morin, The Sacred Abecedarium, sailorBOYpress, Stevens Point, WI, 1999, Edition of 26 (plus 5 dedicated proofs) [Special Collections, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. © Steven Ferlauto, Jeffrey Morin]

[ex-skydiving-scientist]

Library Staircase, House on the Rock, Wisconsin

[travelaroundtheworld82]

Library Staircase, House on the Rock, Wisconsin

[petsincollections]

Man with a dog near Downer Avenue, 1906

A view of a man and his dog walking near the streetcar tracks that run along North Downer Avenue and continue to Capitol Drive. People can be seen golfing in the background at the Milwaukee Country Club.

Milwaukee Public Library Historic Photo

[rustbeltjessie]

This ragged American flag and this particular grouping of stuff in the Little Free Library, both found at the same park, seemed like a poignant visual metaphor. Maybe even a little heavy handed, if I’m being honest.

(March 14)