Library Resources!

At least hit the shiny repost button if you're going to do nothing else. This should not stand.

The reason it was so important for narrative purposes, was that the plot concerns the visit of the Astronaut, in his completely opaque spacesuit, to a planet populated entirely by self-aware robots (originally from Earth) who have built their own society and are petitioning to be allowed to interact with Earth again as equals.

They have a democratic government and free choice of careers etc. as the orange robot serving as guide tells the Astronaut.

The Astronaut notices that there are two different types of robot on this world; the orange ones, who are in charge, gifted access to all information and facilities. and the blue robots, who are seen as more limited in function, have less access to information and resources, and are not allowed positions of power or as wide a choice of employment opportunities. Even transportation is segregated.

The Astronaut investigates further and discovers that the blue and orange robots are actually structurally identical, there is absolutely no difference between their potential or capabilities, and it is only because the orange robots are instructed by their Educator system to consider themselves superior, that the difference exists.

The Astronaut tells the robots they are not ready for re-alignment with Earth, until they come to terms with their own unfairness, and how Earth had had to deal with this issue themselves. When that time comes, the robots will be able to ally with Earth.

Then he leaves in his spaceship, and it's only in that one final panel that we see the Astronaut is black.

Not subtle, nor should it be, but for 1950 this was a breathtakingly powerful statement, perhaps the first of it's kind in the genre.

The same is true when it comes to the attention and energy for reading books! If you've been reading infrequently or mostly reading short-form text for a while, it's difficult to jump into a "classic" written in another century or an absolute doorstopper of a fantasy novel. Sustained attention takes practice. You gotta ease yourself into it!

Read some of the many excellent graphic novels out there! Read a chapter book intended for tweens, or a nonfiction text for 8-year-olds! Revisit some of your favorites from when you were a kid! Read some novellas! Pick a picture book award list, like the Caldecott Medal or the Coretta Scott King Award, and read through them at your public library! (plus then you get to enjoy all the wonderful picture book artwork) Enjoy a collection of short stories or essays! Read the light novel version of an anime you like because you already know what happens and you won't have to use as much mental energy to follow what's going on!

Just remember that there's lots of different ways to read, and not every book is meant for every person. Despite what you might have experienced in school, reading shouldn't actually feel like a punishment you have to endure. Give yourself the patience and kindness to discover how to make the act of reading feel joyful to you.* And if you aren't sure where to start, we librarians are out here eager to help. 😊

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.

I use Kobo, which uses a slightly different method. Some publishers already don't use DRM. Great! You're good to go. Most others will be listed as using Adobe DRM. For that, you'll need Adobe Digital Editions.

Download the DRM file. This will be an ASCM file (Adobe Content Server Message) called 'URLLink.ascm'. This isn't an ebook, it's basically just a link.

Open in Adobe Digital Editions. It should automatically download the ebook.

Locate the actual file location. By default, this is Documents > My Digital Editions. This will give you the epub file, with DRM.

Follow the above instructions to install DeDRM in Calibre.

Drag the epub file into Calibre. If you've installed DeDRM correctly, there'll be a button up the top labelled 'Convert books'.

Up the top of the window, there'll be 'Input format' on the left, and 'Output format' on the right. Input will default to EPUB, select whatever you like (including EPUB again) for output. Select 'OK' (bottom right).

Locate your Calibre file. For me, this was Documents > Calibre. By default, books are listed in subfolders by author, then title. Open the folder for the book you converted, and you should have four files - a cover, an OPF file with metadata, your new EPUB file, and an old version with the file extension of .original_epub.

Not necessary, but I prefer to do this for organisation - you can now place the DRM-free EPUB file wherever you like. I have folders for my own library that I can back up as I wish.

You may want an ereader not tied to a particular platform. I use one for my phone called Moon+ Reader. It has a free option with unobtrusive ads (which only show when you close a book). Otherwise, using Calibre on my PC has its own epub reader.

You should still be able to use the PC and mobile apps, and in browser reading, but your device will be entirely reliant on WiFi (which isn't always available or reliable!). Here's 1 article on it.

I've been using Epubor Ultimate to remove DRM from all of my ebooks so I can convert and save them, able to read them either in Kobo or Kindle, or in Calibre. I can save them as Epubs, PDFs, or what have you.

Also keep in mind Bookshop.org, an online store that interacts with independent booksellers, now has an ebook app and options from those indie stores. You can even set it specifically to your own favorite local bookstores if you want.

I get a lot of ebooks due to space issues, being a rental/apartment dweller. So the cracked and converted books are saved to my PC and external backup drives. I bought them. They're mine. I ought to be able to read them, and not worry about them being "updated" or removed on some whim*.

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Is that link now dead? Go to your search engine and enter LibGen. You'll find where it resides now. Go there and download books. Save them to a backup. Burn a disk with them on it. Whatever you have to do to keep knowledge accessible to you and others.

In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury books were band but people assigned themselves a book and memorized it. Then shared the knowledge. We aren't there nor will we be because in Bradbury's time there wasn't the ability to download and save ebooks.

SO DOWNLOAD AND SAVE EBOOKS PLEASE.

Libgen helps you do that. So does Calibre, which is an ebook creator AND an ebook reverser. You can take an epub and turn it into a PDF or a .docx.

Has your name every appeared in the credits of a book, or is it likely to in the near future? Then you should join AUTHORS AGAINST BOOK BANS! Transcript below the cut. A version of this zine formatted for print is available to download on my patreon.