National Library Workers Day
Has A Patron Called YOU "Fucking Bitch" Today?
It is National Library Workers Day. Congratulations to you if you have just learned about yet another one of the meaningless, empty days we have decided to “celebrate” as a nation. Many of you probably have not stepped foot into your local library since at least the Obama Administration, yet the same many of you feel uniquely qualified to pontificate about the significance of libraries and library workers in this day and age. Let’s start here: we don’t need your opinions, and we absolutely do not need another “are libraries still relevant?” thinkpiece from a milquetoast upper income white man.
In the last year and some-odd months, library workers have had to almost entirely pivot to an online-only, patron-limited service environment, many with little to no additional training or support, just demand from administration and empty statements of support, statements of “solidarity” on the insurmountable levels of violence towards BIPOC, and increased demand and entitlement from patrons who find our service critical yet our personhood non-existent. Chicago Public Libraries never closed, were never provided PPE, and continue to work every day at risk, to serve communities that need them the most, with zero recognition from anyone but their colleagues who are trapped in similar situations1. In this new online environment, we have been expected to continue providing almost the same exact services as we did, in person, and subsequently expected to somehow maintain the same metrics we were pulling in in the “before” times.
Our social media continues to hashtag us as #essential, #essentialworkers, yet on the ground level treat us as if we are a nuisance for requesting that patrons treat us as, at the very least, fellow humans. Requests for PPE were denied for months due to the “optics” of the situation, and then when we finally opened again, two months after shutdown, patrons were not mandated to wear masks within the buildings, because keeping us safe, us essential workers, was not as important as patron comfort, because these people “pay our salaries with their taxes” and “you can’t tell me what to do.” Easily done when your workforce is 80+% female2, as our labour is seen as less-important somehow? It begs the question, however, why is the comfort and safety of workers less important than the comfort and safety of those we are serving - a prevalent thought across all fields of public service during this time.
Many of us, who when vaccination tiers were released, were shocked to find that we were not even listed in any groupings, leaving many of our workers, a large swath of us at-risk, in the lurch. Our state level professional organisations attempted to lobby our state governments, to no avail, because we are “the general public” all of a sudden, even though our municipalities hashtag us “essential.” These are people who every day interact with patrons who are belligerent and angry and want to take their feelings about this public health crisis out on us due to being sitting ducks behind some shoddily put up plexiglas. Working to provide hotspots to those with limited to no internet access at home, access to computers for those with no devices of their own, who have lost their jobs to apply for new ones, navigate complicated and outdated unemployment websites, sign patrons up for vaccines, as well as the regular day to day services of printing, book lending, base level social work, children’s programming, community engagement events, and so so so much more. Myself - I have been tasked to not only provide my regular branch-level services, but additionally, helm a college and career readiness team, with little administrative support, and with a team of overworked librarians and support staff, and expected to also succeed in this with little-to-no burnout.
And yet we STILL have to beg for vaccine priority. As educators. As front line workers. As community advocates. As help points for essential services. As the place people send those they can’t be bothered to help. The state of New Jersey told us “maybe in April.” Back in January - lo and behold, we can begin being vaccinated on April 5th3. New York started two weeks prior. Our colleagues in southern states are still begging. The treatment is inhumane, we are seen as subhuman public servants, who cease to exist outside of the library, who aren’t exposed somehow to the general public, under the impression that only the “select public” comes to the library - highly untrue.
It is a damning indication that we are constantly having to beg. It is humiliating as workplace professionals, and it is humiliating as people. Libraries are constantly the first place municipalities look to cut funding in budget crunches4, leaving their millions and billions in policing expenditures untouched. Why fund the resources to help communities when you can simply fund the machines of their oppression? Even libraries with massive endowments constantly purse clutch in times of hardship, trying to justify that this isn’t the right rainy day they’ve been saving for, while having to furlough staff every time the city/state/nation faces budget shortages and recession. We are tired of having to lobby our city halls and state capitals every year, on top of the resources we are spreading ourselves too thin to provide, because governments will somehow decide that since we were too busy and overworked to show up, that we don’t really need that money? Shouldn’t it be the opposite - that we should not be obligated to take a day off, at our own expense, to beg for money we need to survive?
And after all of this, library workers continue to be disrespected and maligned by the communities we are trying to serve, by interlopers non-reflective of the majority community populations. Dozens of white mothers who show up to berate us for late fees incurred by their own inability to be responsible parents, calling to tell us that our Drag Queen Storytimes are alienating, that there are too many homeless people sitting in the library minding their own businesses. Pre-covid, I had a young mother (around my age, early 30’s), try to aggressively grab me as I was walking by with a stack of books to shelve, to get my attention. I tripped and fell, trying to avoid her reach, and as I tried to get up and re-orient myself, she proceeded to stand over me and ask why we were “displaying only black books,” during Black History Month. Paying no mind to the fact that I could have been injured by her actions. My manager did not see this as cause for concern - another failing of how library workers are disrespected by their own management and administrations. Library workers are harassed, insulted, spat at, screamed at, and in extreme cases which happen more often than you think about, groped and stalked and physically assaulted.
Our administrations fail to protect us. Time and time again. A large problem and a massive failure of library administration is the endless revolving doors of white men looking for platitudes for lording over critical services to in-need communities. The people being hired, and subsequently promoted up to administrative roles are by and large, poorly reflective of the communities libraries are serving, with little to no opportunity to get their feet in the door, due to our constant begging for funding, due to the costly gatekeeping of MSILS programs, and subsequently all we get are bored housewives with time to spend on an online degree from a “fancy” college, and a lack of need for a second income, and mediocre men with a white saviour complex coming into libraries, who want to “work with cops” rather than ensure that police presence does not prevail in the only truly safe spaces left for humans to inhabit indoors without the obligation of spending money. These people, who have zero connection to their communities, and live in their own protected worlds, are the ones who frequently get promoted up due to long histories of segregation and racism at libraries, while those on the ground doing the work are pushed and stretched to all corners of their ability, making dimes into quarters, creating programming from a handshake, an email, and a prayer, and many of us are headed for white-hair burnout soon, if 2020 has not brought us there yet.
Many of our colleagues are discouraged or outright banned from organising, and this needs to change. Library workers need to join together to form unions, to ensure they are protected. If we have to beg, we can beg with the weight of national organisations behind us. ALA continues to extort libraries and library workers with insanely high membership and conference fees, when the average library worker is barely making above the minimum wage5, while releasing tone deaf posturing day in and day out, a circle jerk of back patting and glad handing. Our professional publications publish racist covers then have to walk them back with public apology and exhibitive forgiveness grovelling, rather than exercising the foresight to notice the obvious bigoted statements they are sending to print - these do not happen as accidents6.
It is not my place to tell libraries what they SHOULD be doing to diversify the workplace, but it is absolutely a failure of grade schools, with whom our relationships are nebulous, and higher education, for not emphasising public service fields, leaving only those who “think it would be fun to work at the library” as viable candidates for employees, and leading them to move up the ranks as rising to the level of their incompetence. What we need to be doing is targeting future educators, those who are passionate about giving back to their communities, those who reflect the communities libraries are serving. The routes to do so are plenty - ensuring library patrons are supported from childhood into adulthood, demonstrating trust and value to those who rely on these resources, rather than catering to those who threaten us with retail or grievous harm when we cannot or will not accommodate.
If you are reading this as a library worker, I see you, and I hear you, and we help one another. No one is living this experience in a void. Our professional organisations do not exist to help us - only we can help us. And shout out to our navel gazing colleagues who are offended by the word “fuck,” which I have also now used twice7.
If you are reading this and already go to libraries, good for you, thank you. If you are reading this and don’t go to libraries, please start. Our funding is related to people visiting, and our livelihood is related to people not treating us like shit every day.
Happy National Library Workers Day.
https://bookriot.com/chicago-public-libraries-open-amid-soaring-covid-rates/
https://www.dpeaflcio.org/factsheets/library-professionals-facts-and-figures#_edn22
https://covid19.nj.gov/faqs/nj-information/slowing-the-spread/who-is-eligible-for-vaccination-in-new-jersey-who-is-included-in-the-vaccination-phases#direct-link
https://bookriot.com/trump-2021-budget-imls-nea/
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/librarians.htm#tab-5
https://bookstacked.com/features/school-library-journal-february-2021-cover-controversy/
https://librarycallan.com/blorg/library-mgmt/on-the-blossom-debacle/
❤️❤️❤️