this series of library posting is very self-indulgent but i’m finally home from my day of recon and i just wanna get my findings down somewhere (and maybe someone out there is interested in a very niche and unknown area’s library pride displays)
so out of the 7 libraries i visited, 4 had some kind of pride display. 3 out of those 4 only had displays in their ya rooms which is an interesting and frustrating trend in my opinion. but at least they existed at all!!
2 of the libraries that did not have any pride displays whatsoever labeled some of their queer books with distinctive LGBTQ stickers. i immediately noticed some glaring exemptions to this classification tactic though (they both die at the end by adam silvera didn’t have one???), so i wonder who is the judge of what kind of story warrants a sticker and how knowledgeable they really are about queer books.…..i also just despise this labeling anyway bc i feel like it alienates and discourages teens especially from checking out queer titles. so i did not find it surprising at all that the libraries that utilized it were the ones that did not have pride displays. of course my sample size is incredibly small, but it’s still a trend i plan on looking out for if/when i visit some more libraries later in the month.
all in all, i’m disheartened in some respects and pleasantly surprised in others. i now know that my library, with what i thought was a pitiful pride display, is actually a beacon of hope in a pretty bleak area. i plan on doing everything i can to make sure the displays that we have up STAY UP bc we simply cannot afford to compromise.
if anyone has read this far, i’d love to hear if your local library has a pride display!!!! and if it does, please do your part to let your librarians know that it is VALUED. check out a queer book!! in june and in every other month!!
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