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WilliamMinorsWords t1_ja1ew09 wrote

"Karens" implies middle aged women.

This is not that.

This is a coordinated attack by organized conservative groups in order to drum up publicity and engagement, likely for an election that's coming up in your area. There might be a bond issue for the library that will be on the ballot that they want voted down.

Whatever the issue, they are trying to rile up the conservative base with a red herring about what's available at the library.

Instead of blaming this on unseen women, put the blame where it belongs - on the wider, organized conservative political action groups that are so well funded that they have the time and money to focus on random public libraries throughout the country

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Jynx_lucky_j t1_ja1p5xw wrote

Hi I'm a librarian, while the exact rules and procedures may vary a bit state by state, this will largely be in the hands of the Library Board. I would find out when they meet and ask to be put on the agenda. It would help if you could get a bit of a crowd together that supports your side to attend the meeting as well, and/or get as many people as you can to sign a petition for their integration.

The truth is that usually not many people show up to library board meetings, so it really doesn't take much to make a strong showing. So if you can show that there is strong support in the community for the integration of LGBTQ+ materials you would have a very good chance.

Beyond that find out their meeting schedule and attend the meeting regularly. They are open to the public and and it will help you keep abreast of what is going on at you local library and any challenges they are facing.

It could also be useful to join your local Friends of the Library group. While they don't have any official authority over the library, they tend to be a major source of donations and volunteers at the library and as such tend to be fairly influential.

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BakeKnitCode t1_ja1fuv0 wrote

Ooof. I have not dealt with this personally, although I suspect that it's coming given what our state legislature is up to, but have you checked out the American Library Association's page about how to deal with censorship efforts? It may have some relevant advice even if you're not in the U.S.

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greatbabushka121619 t1_ja1fte2 wrote

Reach out to Children’s Cooperative Book Center (CCBC) at UW-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. I’m fairly certain they can offer guidance or at least point to you resources/support.

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Humble_Draw9974 t1_ja1o0ml wrote

What’s the point of that? So people in search of LBGTQ books can easily find them? That would be the effect. I don’t see how it would prevent exposure to that kind of content.

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Competitive_Depth_96 t1_ja1pngq wrote

Imagine a gay kid who doesn't have support at home going to the library to stand in a segregated aisle like that. Or, books are not segregated and the kid can check out the one that interests him or her without the chance family members will notice what type of book it is. This is important because not everyone can safely come out of the closet.

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Nice-Definition-8360 t1_ja1vi4w wrote

Yep. That’s exactly it. It has a chilling effect. People who need the books and can’t or don’t want to read them publicly will just not be able to check them out.

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fliponymousredux t1_ja1y94c wrote

First you segregate them, then you remove them. It's a pretty transparent tactic.

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so-it-goes-and t1_ja1hfm1 wrote

Summon up a group of people who venomously oppose books that represent outdated family values and structures. Get them to obnoxiously request that books like that are labeled and kept separately. When people complain that this is ridiculous say "exactly".

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swiftb00ks t1_ja1j0gf wrote

Is this about Glen Ridge? I work at a library currently and my director has told us to be very calm and polite when dealing with someone who wants to challenge a book in our collection but in her experience she has usually been able to diffuse the situation with a rational conversation with the patron. I can’t imagine these people will go away any time soon but I hope I never have to deal with them personally

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Alice_Smol_Worm t1_ja1f94n wrote

Tell them to go somewhere else if they don't like it. That's what I did when I tried to give away a free book that I made to someone as a bonus for making a purchase at my store.

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Turkleton-MD t1_ja1yc1v wrote

Ask them to read The Wasp Factory and classify it. It will yield lots of opinions, and you should know who is who.

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jahwls t1_ja1k0rn wrote

People who don’t read banning books. Sounds familiarly fascist and anti American.

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DJGlennW t1_ja1ka5v wrote

Sounds like it's time to put on a drag show story time!

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nonnativetexan t1_ja1gizg wrote

Any reason not to just say OK, move the books, then put them back in a couple weeks once everyone moves to the next TikTok trend or Facebook outrage?

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BakeKnitCode t1_ja1kctd wrote

Don't do that. Their end-game isn't to move the books. It's to identify the books so that they can be banned in some direct way. Next they'll demand that the library keep track of how much money they spend on LGBTQ books and spend an equal amount of money on anti-LGBTQ hate books. They'll demand that kids get parental permission before they can look at those books. They'll challenge every single book and make the library staff spend a lot of time fighting the challenges. You can't give in to these people and hope they'll move on. They won't move on. You have to fight them.

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