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.

Engage in continuous, ongoing professional development.
Find ways to redirect patrons of all ages if they use harmful or offensive language.
Train your staff & hold them accountable.
Ask hard questions.
Challenge your library administration to explore getting rid of fines.

— TeenLibrarianToolbox (@TLT16) October 29, 2018

Protect staff & patrons from harassment, hate speech, and more.
Make sure everyone understands what sexual harassment is and have policies and procedures in place to deal with the situation.
Check all of your publicity materials & make sure they show diverse patrons using the lib

— TeenLibrarianToolbox (@TLT16) October 29, 2018

Make sure your professional development includes more than just other librarians. Read in other fields to learn more about marketing, inclusion, development, outreach, community building, etc.
Get out of your bubble and challenge yourself to listen, learn, grow & change.

— TeenLibrarianToolbox (@TLT16) October 29, 2018

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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