#use your library

[blondebrainpowered]

Peanuts - March 12, 1959

By Charles Schulz

[roseredsnow]

Hey this a reminder to anyone who like me, can use their phone for extended periods of time at work (both because you won't be told off, and because there's time between tasks)

If your library gives you access to Libby or borrowbox or similar, that's a great time to utilise them (especially for learning).

I was reading queer theory two days ago and got partway through a book on antiracism today, and I've basically been paid to do so.

Obviously there's few jobs where this is an option but if you're lucky enough to just a suggestion.

[phineas-and-ferb-summer]

Day uuuuh idk this wasn't supposed to start yet:

Checking out Phineas and Ferb's Guide to Life from the library, and working on my Jinx cosplay

[erileighbooks]

If you think libraries are irrelevant, you’re using libraries wrong.

My local library system has their version of a “Wrapped” that shows you how much money you saved. Look at that number—and it was a slow reading year for me!

Read books through your library before you buy them to see if you enjoyed them enough to own.

Sick of movies being passed around every streaming service and you missed out on watching a movie you were in the mood for? Your local library might have the dvd or blu-ray OR even offer it via streaming instantly.

Audiobooks are expensive as shit and big companies are making bank off of them (Amazon and Spotify). If only there was a way to enjoy audiobooks without giving money to these companies… oh wait, you can get them through your library.

If you want to shove it to big companies and streaming services and capitalism as a whole, use your local library!

Destroy the myth that libraries are no longer relevant. If you use your library, please reblog.

[roseredsnow]

Plan "Borrow a book from the library to learn a language in hopes it makes me brain react the same way as it does to crafts" is absolutely working I want to learn more Gaelic but I have to be awake again in 8.5 hours help.

[rhettlevin]

Me in the library today... Me: Are you able to look up a book for me? Fast Bakes by Mary Berry?

Librarian 1: Uh... wait, no I did that wrong. Me: I used to work as a librarian and one time I told a customer we didn't have any books by Harry Potter. It's fine.

The librarian begins searching. It soon becomes apparent that the book isn't in the library. I check my phone.

Me: Oh my god, sorry, it's Fast CAKES, not Bakes.

The book is still not available in the local library, but they can order it in from one of the others in the 'shire. However, the librarian doesn't know how to do this so he asks his colleague for help. Librarian 1: So we've looked for Fast Bakes, Fast Cakes, Fast Lakes, Fast Drakes... Me: Oh that last one's not by Mary Berry. That's Sarah J Maas' most recent. Librarian 1: Is that a thing? Me: No sorry, just messing with you. (And now I shall cringe and die) Librarian 2: You're the only person to have requested that book and there's six copies available so we should get that fast, maybe even by Tuesday! And this is all free, people. But also I am now feeling worried that I am being considered a weirdo for requesting an ancient Mary Berry tome (not that ancient, actually: 1981...)

[wise-woman-wulfruna]

Libraries are free access to learning and information. They are repositories of knowledge. Use them. Educate yourself. When people start shutting them down or defunding them, it's just another way of burning books. It's removing that source of information from the masses. Go use that free resource and make your voice heard if they try to close them. Libraries are community hubs over here; they offer Internet access, music, books, and magazines, events, activities, courses... just keep using your library.

As a former librarian I'm actually required to remind you that many libraries that subscribe to Libby are opted into a program that lets you subscribe and access magazines for free with no wait

And that this is actually a really fun, low cost way to not only access news and larger cultural magazines, but also to get free patterns for many different crafts that you can screenshot if need be and that lower the financial barriers to entry for trying new things

From my experience working in both academic and public libraries, many libraries are use it or lose it funding-- I have to say this because a lot of patrons feel guilty for how much they use the library and how often they're using it funny enough, but the worst thing you can do for libraries is not try out new features and not use what's already given to you as much as possible.

The numbers that come as a result of your patronage are how most libraries justify their continued existence in times of financial hardship, which sucks but, go check out some magazines on Libby!

[anotherpapercut]

yesterday I went to a little meeting at my local queer community center and I was admiring their bookshelves and mentioned that I work at the public library and someone said "well I bet they don't have any [LGBTQ+ books] at our library" and I was like um. yes we do. we have tons of them. half of our employees are queer leftists so they said "oh well I bet they don't in [nearby rural county]" and I was like uh once again yes they absolutely do. gay people live and work there as well

so here's a quick reminder that if you don't think your local library has enough queer centered materials you should actually check before assuming, and if you're not satisfied with their collection you should submit a request for more such books. I don't know what the political landscape of libraries looks like outside the us rn, but within the us no matter where you are, I promise you there are employees at your library fighting for inclusion and intellectual freedom and they can't win without vocal public support

[fangtastic-vampyra]

buying books & reading books..two different hobbies.

[tamireblog]

Reminder for US folks, that things like libraries are only funded well if you USE THEM. Because it goes like this:

Government: last year your budget was 500$, according to your records, how much of the budget did you use?

Library: we used 300$!

Government: excellent, that means this year your budget is 300$

Library: oh.

Oh and that 200$ the library didn't spend? They don't get to save it for next year, the government simply doesn't give it to them.

Use your library. Request books and check them out. Go through the entire Discworld series. Read about birds, or bones, or gardens. The more you use it, the more funding they get.

Have a favorite author? Request every book they've ever written (one at a time, please) for library inclusion so other readers can fall in love with them too!

How to Ditch Amazon

Support your local libraries and the small businesses that are actually making the products you want.  Fuck Jeff Bezos and the systemic, universal worker abuse, gaslighting, and brutality they live off of.

[willowbeesims]

The Living Room at Meadowbrook Cottage 🫧 A sweet escape into the countryside with vintage-inspired elements, seaside charm, and endless hours daydreaming.

[roseredsnow]

Good news!

Found a bobbin lace making book in my library catalogue, it's currently on loan but I've places a hold.

And in doing so I've found out I can actually get books from one library on hold to another.

I knew that my card was usable for all allerdale libraries but I didn't know that so that's really cool, instead of going into a town I don't go to on a regular basis and I can just walk to my towns one.

[cottoncandytrafficcones]

Jewish nonfiction books I recommend

Pleasant Are Their Names: Jewish Names in the Sephardi Diaspora Edited by Aaron Demsky

These Are the Names: Studies in Jewish Onomastics by Aaron Demsky

The Torah Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom by Rabbi Dr. Slifkin

Sacred Monsters by Rabbi Dr. Slifkin

Growing up Jewish in India by Siona Benjamin

The Jews of Kaifeng, China: History, Culture, and Religion by Xin Xu

Chinese and Jews: Encounters Between Cultures by Irene Eber

Basically any book on the Kaifeng Jews (though many are outdated) such as The Survival of the Chinese Jews by Donald Leslie, Wanderers and Settlers in the Far East: A Century of Jewish Life in China and Japan by Herman Dicker, Chinese Jews by William Charles White, Mandarins Jews and Missionaries by Michael Pollak, Jews in Old China by Sidney Shapiro, and Studies of the Chinese Jews compiled by Hyman Kublin.

[cogneartive]

when i think of benbaro sometimes my mind conjures up scenarios of van zieks walking around duckling style following mr harebrayne and saying "albert. #mybert"

[apologiesforthecreatures]

Maxing out your card gets the library more funding.

As long as you bring the books back in one piece we love you for checking them out.

Also personally I’m not judging you for bringing books back late, especially if nobody else has a hold on them. Shit happens, we get it.

unsung benefit i think a lot of ppl are sleeping on with using the public library is that i think its a great replacement for the dopamine hit some ppl get from online shopping. it kind of fills that niche of reserving something that you then get to anticipate the arrival of and enjoy when it arrives, but without like, the waste and the money.

[liriostigre]

those posts and memes and videos of people saying they buy and buy books but they never read them (you know those that are like "me buying a new book: 😃, the 50 unread on my shelf looking at me: 👁️👁️. or those 100+ physical tbr booktube videos. or some bullshit like that) piss me off so much because i WISH i could afford books—the books i want to read! i read everything on my phone and all of them illegally downloaded. and no, i can't borrow books from the public library because i live at the end of the world in a small forgotten town with no local public library. i'm messing up my sight with so much screen time because i love reading while those consumerist fools can't even fathom what it's like to value things!