What Can Librarians Do to Help Combat the Current Political Climate?

Last week was another devastating week. It was one of those weeks that made me want to take to take to bed and wallow in my despair. I questioned whether or not the job I was doing as a librarian was making any difference at all. But yesterday morning I returned to my library with resolve. I am a librarian because I believe that access to information is essential to democracy. I am a librarian because I believe reading stories helps us to learn, grow, change and develop compassion. So I tweeted some thoughts about the things that we can and should be doing in our libraries to help combat the current state of our world; to combat racism, bigotry, hatred and the rising tide of fascism that I fear is growing and coalescing. I tweeted to remind myself to be accountable, to inspire myself to do the work, and to share these thoughts with others who may be feeling the same. If you have some additional thoughts, please add them in the comments.

https://twitter.com/TLT16/status/1056895835814924288

https://twitter.com/TLT16/status/1056895837375262725

https://twitter.com/TLT16/status/1056895839027761152

It may be hard to realize that what we do matters, but it does, especially if we are doing our job well and with intentionality. Keep doing the work, one book at a time we can help make the world into a better place. And as election day quickly approaches, it is important for us to remember that public libraries do in fact matter in a democratic society.

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