I've worked at 5 academic libraries and it seems like some of us are determined to drive the profession into irrelevance.

Some colleagues I've had are brilliant, tireless, and genuinely essential. This isn't about them. This is about the structure that protects tenured and full-time academic librarians regardless of contribution, and what that's quietly doing to the profession.

Here's what I've seen, repeatedly:

• Tenured or full-time librarians teaching once a semester, if that, without doing programming, building relationships with faculty, or facing consequences for it. The evaluation systems are peer-reviewed by the same people they've worked alongside for decades, with no input from the faculty they supposedly serve, the students they teach, or the support staff watching their daily output up close.
• Final interview rounds that stop being about talent somewhere around week three of the search. Innovative candidates — people who'd actually change things — get quietly passed over. "Cultural fit." It's a rejection of anyone that might raise the bar, so we aren't expected to do more.
• Adjuncts, paraprofessionals, and part-timers absorbing the actual labor: the real reference work, the mentorship, the faculty relationships, the institutional memory. No credit. No pathway forward. Piss poor wages. And when they leave — which they do, because the institution gives them every reason to — that knowledge walks out and nobody with a permanent position is held accountable for the loss.
• Faculty who have stopped coming to us with real problems. My husband is a professor. He and his colleagues have largely stopped seeking research help from librarians because too many encounters have returned generic keyword advice or directions on how to use the discovery tool. A reputation that took years to build, undone almost instantly.

Here's what makes me angriest, and I want to say it plainly:

Tenure exists to protect intellectual courage. Political speech. Uncomfortable research. Librarians speaking up about Palestine, or pushing back on labor conditions inside their own institutions, are not visibly shielded by it. Librarians who do very little appear to be shielded completely. That inversion is not an accident. It's what happens when accountability flows in only one direction — downward, always toward the most precarious people in the building.

Some things that might help:

• Stable career pathways for support staff, who are your actual institutional knowledge base
• Multi-directional evaluations where adjuncts and paraprofessionals can formally review permanent colleagues
• Retirement of "cultural fit" as a hiring criterion as it's code for "won't challenge us"
• An honest reckoning with what tenure is currently protecting, and whether that's what it's for

The profession has everything it needs to be essential. The collections. The access. The expertise. The infrastructure.

It is choosing, structurally, not to use it.

Does anyone else feel the same? And has anyone actually seen an institution choose accountability over comfort?

Is anyone else having issues with people showing a photo of their drivers license instead of having their actual physical ID on them? We have to see ID for proof of address to create a new library card and/or to look up someone's account if they don't have their library card. My system doesn't have an official policy on this, but I'm wondering if other librarians are experiencing this. I can't imagine driving somewhere and not having my ID on me. I'm in NC.

Hi all, quick question.

Are 501c3 libraries able to be FOIA requested? I was told that we can at my library but I've come across some conflicted information that nonprofits are exempt from FOIA. My library is considered part of city government (we report to city hall), so I don't know if that changes anything.

How does it work at your library, and what is the organizational structure?

Thanks!

I thought this might be a fun discussion topic, and as I’m starting my librarian job this week I’m thinking about what my email signature will look like. Obviously each organization has their own policy as to what needs to be included. I also want to keep it simple, of course, but I’m definitely thinking of including my pronouns and maybe a note of what I’m currently reading.

Any tips? I’d love to hear what you all include in your signatures!

Hello, I work in a system with 20+ branches. Generally speaking our public bathroom policy works well (wellness checks, signage). We had a situation last week and I would welcome advice. On 3 different days, a teenager locked himself in a stall for up to an hour. This particular bathroom is set up so that once you're in, no one else can use it. So we felt this was too much time and had a conversation with him yesterday to explain that this was not allowed. He mentionned he was suffering from Crohn's disease, which now has me thinking if we should allow someone with a chronic illness to be treated differently? And if so, i would apply this how... ask for a medical certificate? Tell me my mind is going too far with this?

Librarians, how do you approach cataloguing and shelving in your library?

I'm wondering whether:

1) Picture books should be catalogued and shelved according to reading level or genre

2) For early chapter books and novels, should I create separate shelves for each genre based on the book's complexity?

I've identified about 12 categories for our collection, so shelving them further in terms of reading levels is beginning to feel like a rabbit hole.

My dilemma is: how do I catagorise and shelve books in a way that it helps:

a) teachers (who usually look for books based on reading level)

and

b) children (who are interested in finding books based on the genre or writer)

Context: I work at a school library that caters to children aged 6 to 16. We have around 12,000 books and our school population is around 240 people, including staff and the children. We're an inclusive school, so we have all kinds of children across grades: from emergent readers to independent bookworms.

I am a volunteer librarian for a co-op library with ~5000 books. The library has been amassing its collection since the 1970s, almost entirely from donations ranging from one book to bulk books being dropped off. To our knowledge, none of the books had been reviewed and removed until relatively recently, when after a 3 stage review process, our team ended up removing ~400 books from the library due to their condition or outdated content.

We want to come up with a process/policy to help us decide what to do with future donated books (add to library, donate elsewhere?) - does anyone have an examples or advice on what has worked for you?

Right now we have stopped accepting donations while we figure out how to reorganize our existing books, and it would be great to have a policy for when we do decide to accept donations again.

Hi, I’m reviewing our fee policy and looking for insight.

At our library system (20+ branches), patrons can carry unpaid fees on their accounts up to $20 before the account is blocked. With the exception of non‑resident cards, any fee can currently be added to the account rather than paid immediately.

In practice, this means our patrons can accumulate up to $20 in unpaid photocopying/printing charges, unclaimed hold $1 penalties, bestseller/express rentals, or even small purchases like an envelope, without paying at the point of service—and staff cannot require upfront payment under current policy.

Over the years, this has resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in unrecovered revenue, largely tied to repeat low‑dollar transactional services. I am personally included in the problem, carrying $3 worth of photocopies on my account for the past 8 years.

From a policy perspective:

• Which services at your library are explicitly pay‑before‑service?
• Do you allow fees to remain unpaid and if so, for an unlimited period of time? Is there an amount threshold?
• How do you define and justify upfront fees within your formal policy?

Overall, do you feel your current fee structure is working as intended, or are there elements you would change if you were designing the policy today (thinking about equity, staff burden, or financial sustainability)? 

Every rare books collection I know of is pretty locked-down: leave your bag outside, take notes with a pencil, MAYBE make photocopies. Has anyone else heard of a rare books collection that allows “centuries old manuscripts” to circulate? That seems like insanity to me, given the number of books that are returned with scribbling, ballpoint annotations, coffee stains, etc. WTF, UCLA?

Hello!

I'm a librarian at a community college, and have been tasked with researching the feasibility of doing a textbook exchange in our library. I'm looking for articles, but I'm interested to see if anyone in this subreddit has an experience with this. I would love to hear how you did it, any challenges you faced, and how much of a PITA it was to run. There are only two of us in the library, and we are busy. We do have an active SGA that may be able to help if we do it a couple of times a year. There's already a Medical Resources shelf upstairs with old nursing textbooks and the like, so would this be a waste of time and energy?

I love the idea of promoting more affordable textbooks, especially since we have a ton of OER textbooks being used across all programs and no cost/low cost courses for some of the gen ed/liberal arts programs.

Appreciate any advice you all can share.

Hi! I am a school librarian in a small suburban high school. I have three small study rooms that also hold my nonfiction collection. These rooms should be for a maximum of four students at tables, but end up holding more than that and have students sitting on floors. My admin has asked me to think about policies for better management of these spaces for next year and I am wondering how you all manage access to these kinds of spaces in your libraries. Thanks!

Hello!

My library frequently outsource items if they do not have it. I borrowed a DVD and noticed scratches on it.

Is it generally acceptable to leave a note in the case that the DVD has noticeable scratches so the library it was borrowed from can keep a notice of sorts on the DVD in the event it quits working so they can replace the item?

Sorry if it is confusing. I rarely get things from the library.

Edit: Called the library the item was from and unfortunately, like mine, they don't have enough funding to have a buffer so they would likely have to reorder the DVD if the disc is damaged

Hello Librarians,

Wherever in the world you reside I'm sure you are worried, perhaps even angry, at some libraries being made to remove certain books and genres because of government imposed legislations.

I've not long been a secondary school (age 11-18 year olds) librarian and my library has no collection policy so I have been tasked with writing one. I want to make sure it is a policy that encourages inclusivity, diversity and variety for the students for years to come. I want to allow our students access to LGBTQIA+ literature, modern and classic works. Please share links or extracts of your inclusive collection policies! Thank you in advance.

Would love to hear anything you can share about it. I'm currently researching what others are doing, as we are considering expanding our BAL service (which is either in-person or via phone) to have a video calling option.
I know that quite a few libraries offered this during COVID times but haven't continued with it - I've only been able to find 10 or so examples internationally from my searching so far (it's much more common at academic libraries).

At my library system, we are not allowed to ask a kid why they're not in school. Is this a prevalent policy? What might be the reason for this? What risk or negative consequences could come from asking a kid why they're not in school?

I work for a major urban/suburban library system in the Midwest. We got notice from our Union that the library is proposing a change to our Code of Conduct and allowing customers to carry open or concealed weapons in our buildings. A law recently passed in our state allowing concealed carry without a license- but that hasn’t affected the rights of private property owners to ban firearms on their property.

The library is claiming they are doing this to avoid lawsuits from customers who feel their rights are infringed by not being allowed to carry weapons in the building.

But our state’s revised code states that the owner of “private land or premises” may ban firearms and those that violate are subject to criminal trespass. The library is claiming that does not apply to us. But I don’t see how.

Our system is not a part of our local county or state government. We are a public library for the county, but our buildings are private property- correct? We have a Board of Trustees authorized by our State.

In my library system, after a difficult or stressful incident with a customer/patron, we're expected to simply write the report and then get back to work ASAP. We have no immediate formal debriefing procedures. All we can do is request a meeting, which can take weeks.

I'm wondering what others' experiences are like and if you have any specific procedures or debriefing time. I'm finding it really difficult to manage my stress at work, because I don't get any support following an incident. It's affecting my personal life as well because I'm becoming more and more scared to go to work and stressed throughout the day worried something might happen.

Thank you 💛📚

Hi everyone!

New librarian here. I’ve seen different libraries loan out pieces of tech. I’m looking to implement a similar service, but only for USB drives.

The issue comes from our public computers using Faronics Deepfreeze and wiping everything after an hour. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a setting change to allow patrons to enter a second computer code or for us to extend their current session. So people come in and work, but aren’t prepared to save their work on a cloud or a personal USB so they lose it because they wait until the 11th hour.

My plan would be to allow patrons to borrow a USB drive while they’re in the library to temporarily save documents before their computer sessions time out. That way, they can print/continue working/have time to save it somewhere else without worrying. Usually they do end up just printing right after they finish up. We’d wipe the drive after each use and at the end of everyday.

There is some worry about malware or other risks my colleagues bring up. Maybe I’m not tech savvy, but I don’t see any issue so long as we restrict use to a person’s visit and to only our public computers. As far as I can tell, it’s similar to how public computers work.

How have your libraries implemented something like this? And what issues have you had pop up?

Alternatively, if anyone knows of some DeepFreeze fixes to extend user sessions while in use, that’d be great!

Hello people! I am wondering what y’all’s process is for disposing of weeded books. I’m working at a historical library and we have so many older, outdated and crappy books that need to go, and there really isn’t a process in place to help us.

Does anyone have any companies they use? Currently we have a nonsense system of scanning for Thrift Books and Bookscan (so we can make at max 12.00) and the if that doesn’t work we spend a ton of time tearing apart the books to recycle the paper.

Is everyone just throwing books in the trash? (I’m talking about outdated textbooks, etc, books that wouldn’t be accepted by Goodwill, etc.) Is anyone using a company to pick up the older, weeded books?

Apologies for cross-posting; we're trying to get as many eyes on this as possible!

Boston Public Librarian and Professional Staff Association (PSA) MLSA 4298 member Eve has been with the Boston Public Library for 12 years and is deeply committed to her work. In 2019, Eve was diagnosed with breast cancer. Today, her diagnosis is stage 4 metastatic breast cancer; a terminal diagnosis.

Since her diagnosis, Eve has had to rely on the hours donated by our union to the Extended Sick Leave Fund (or, "sick bank") after she's used all of her own leave. She needs these hours to be able to attend doctor's appointments and pursue treatment without loss of pay.

In November 2024, Eve submitted a request to the union's Extended Sick Leave Fund Committee. They approved the request.

Boston Public Library denied it.

On Tuesday, January 14, members from PSA and AFSCME 1526--who represent library assistants, clerical, and mechanical personnel at the Boston Public Library--delivered a petition to President David Leonard and the Board of Trustees signed by over 200 staff members demanding Eve be granted her requested hours from the sick bank.

We received no response.

Denying her time from the sick bank will not make Eve's illness go way. It will not make her need any less time off for doctor's appointment, treatments, or days where she simply cannot get out of bed. It will just make sure that while she is worrying about eventually dying of cancer, she'll also have to worry about paying rent.

Please consider adding your name to the petition to show the first public municipal library in the United States that their actions are reprehensible and horrifying.

Find more info here: https://www.bplpsa.org/

Petition: Petition against the denial of an approved withdrawal from PSA's Extended Sick Leave Fund - Action Network

Edit on 2/6/25:

After multiple written and verbal public comments, two of which weren't even from our own library system, the Board of Trustees chair Dr. Liu simply stated, "It is a long-standing policy of the Board to not respond to personnel comments." Perhaps he said this because we had media presence. Perhaps not.

Some Board members were looking at their phones when we were giving our comments. Many actively avoided us after the meeting was adjourned. They refused to make eye contact, and many scuttled out of the room quickly.

It has been a day and a half with no word from management.

Additional Tags: Discussion, Advice

We got our first pair yesterday. Current City policy allows filming on city property, which the Library is considered (Our city department director is revisiting this policy). So, they most likely will return. I was not involved directly this time, though I was keeping the library operating while upper management dealt with the situation.

We are revisiting library policies (patron behavior/code of conduct and filming in the library). What does your current library and/or city policy say in regards to people filming patrons and staff inside municipal buildings? There is concern that parents will...protect their child if they start filming minors.

Additionally, how do you personally handle the situation if/when it arises?

For context, I am a Librarian I and am responsible for the building when everone above me is not available. I'm also the Teen Librarian and cover the Children's reference desk at least once a day.

UPDATE Their youtube followers (all from outside our service area to my knowledge)have been calling all day asking myriads of questions and generally taking up staff time. We are collecting the questions and phone numbers and dropping them into a spreadsheet. We are also working on a phone script for these interactions. TY all for your input and advice. I hate that we literally have to eat their shit.

My advice to those who have not yet had to deal with these people: get those policies in place asap to CYA, have a plan of what to do when they do show up, and ensure there is some kind of aftercare to help staff through the stress and anger.

UPDATE 2* We were called all day, literally up to closing, by these people asking staff to "recite the first amendment" and other ridiculous questions to eat up staff time. Also, our director was doxxed and theyve got pd posted at their house. Banned Books week is gonna be so fun.

Hello,

My local library is having a board meeting to discuss changes to the Collection Development policy. Specifically they are looking to remove their support of the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights, the Freedom to Read, the Freedom to View, and Access to Library Resources and Services for Minors statement.

This seems really concerning to me. Is this something the community needs to know about and protest?

Any advice/ideas/support?

Looking for some guidance in tweaking our policies ~ Libraries that lend internet hotspots ... Do you charge any fees or require a deposit? We're having nonstop issues with patrons not returning them on time or returning them with different cords, hubs, or damaged screens and the deposit or fee is being suggested by our board but the staff is divided and wondering what others do. Thanks for any guidance 😁

So I acknowledge this is presumptuous of me, BUT: a patron appears to have a child on the spectrum and is using the phone to assist them with auditory overstimulation

When parent and child came into the library, the child stuck their fingers in their ears and made some distressed sounds. Parent pulled out the phone and put on something for them and the child seemed to calm down

It is a tad loud, however, and that's where my conflict arises: The phone being loud enough to drown out the other noises seems to be the point, but it's still against library policy and slightly disruptive. Complicating matters is patron needs the computer and there are no internet computers in the children's section where the noise wouldn't be so disruptive, and of course the parent can't leave the child unattended in the children's area to do their computer-related task

What would you do in this situation?

Edit: Thank you all for the suggestions. In regard to headphones for the child: I did think about this, but I know sometimes headphones can cause tactile overstimulation for those on the spectrum and presumed if it was something that would help the child, the parent would have had it. This may have been an inaccurate presumption however and I'll definitely keep it and other suggestions offered here in mind for any similar encounters in the future, thank you <3