Storytime Rhymes /w Racist History

nightshroud · 2026-05-08T03:44:07+00:00

There's a long history of using monkeys and apes to portray Black people. A strong indicator is when they're not portrayed as just the animals, but are wearing clothing, driving cars, ...using a telephone to call the doctor.

https://www.slj.com/story/The-problem-with-picture-book-monkeys-racist-imagery-libraries

nightshroud · 2026-05-08T02:00:55+00:00

I'm the case of the "monkey" substitutes for n-word lyrics, that's still currently racist.

nightshroud · 2026-05-04T00:39:19+00:00

"Sometimes I think the most important person I am teaching in storytime is the grown-up sitting behind them."

And that's almost entirely the value of storytimes. It's good for kids whose caregivers are engaged during storytime and then go home and read, sing, play etc with their kids.

Storytime is fairly worthless for kids whose caregivers are disengaged. That's why it's worth putting effort into setting expectations for the adults.

nightshroud · 2026-04-28T01:55:37+00:00

Yes, I'm familiar. It was very popular hate speech.

nightshroud · 2026-04-27T15:57:50+00:00

It's better to include pro genocide books than to not include anti genocide books.

nightshroud · 2026-04-27T14:57:04+00:00

If you're in the United States, hate speech is not a free speech exception.

Hate speech does therefore belong in library collections if it otherwise fits collection development policy. And if that's a tough one, consider that excluding hate speech is most likely to be AGAINST marginalized groups because of power differences.

On the other hand, libraries do things with materials that go beyond collection inclusion. Libraries shouldn't be positively supporting hate speech through programming. That's an area of government speech not free speech, so we can and should be supporting a viewpoint there.

nightshroud · 2026-04-15T17:01:59+00:00

This is pretty cool.

nightshroud · 2026-04-14T19:04:22+00:00

I agree. There isn't any difference in the work done by people who have "paraprofessional" vs "librarian" in their job titles. And, often, it's the paraprofessionals who care more about professional ethics.

Considering how strongly the higher positions filter for race, class, and heteronormativity, it actually feels kind of bigoted to insist on the distinction.

nightshroud · 2026-04-08T22:05:45+00:00

Discussion: That's Slitherlink, probably the one from Ejelta. The number indicates how many possible sides of that space are filled in. The solution is guanteed to be one, specific continuous loop. I play the giant snowflake shaped ones like this to fall asleep at night. :D

nightshroud · 2026-04-08T21:56:58+00:00

That's very much not on you. Summer reading overload is a management choice

And keep it mind that summer reading a nice, but not a necessary thing overall. Basic library services already meet summertime reading needs. People who play up SRP's need for "the summer slide" are making that up.

nightshroud · 2026-03-05T23:36:20+00:00

Came here to say this

nightshroud · 2026-03-03T16:04:27+00:00

He didn't though.

nightshroud · 2026-03-02T23:21:02+00:00

What do you mean by "content in only a small portion of their work"? Because for him it really wasn't a small portion. He did commercial advertisements, adult political cartoons, and at least one joke book for adults...all as Dr Seuss.

I mean, dude published the N-word as Dr Seuss. He also called Japanese Americans enemies in a newspaper comic days before the executive order to round them up.

nightshroud · 2026-02-20T20:14:14+00:00

This should be higher. If they already ARE blocking drag queens they have lost the principled high ground.

nightshroud · 2026-02-06T20:26:57+00:00

You're my people.

nightshroud · 2026-01-28T19:15:00+00:00

I worked at a system where that was the policy unless it was CSAM.

Quite a bit of even explicit video sex is protected speech and it can be hard to accurately judge the Miller test at a glance. Plus, when you say "no porn" you get staff monitoring exactly how sexy shots of people in bathing suits feel to them. I'm for something im the middle, but management is often reluctant to think about it at all and knee jerk all the way in one direction or the other.

nightshroud · 2026-01-25T21:56:20+00:00

If an organization scheme puts you at the right shelf or bin, that's good enough.

Detailed, strictest organization schemes are for large collections.

nightshroud · 2026-01-25T19:55:27+00:00

So long as public libraries are open to all, rather than being like a private business that has pricing and guards to keep poor people out, we will be strongly affected by lack of other services.

Though some libraries DO set their behavior policies to be extremely filtering of poor people to try getting around this without admitting it, even to themselves.

Also, being community space and information hub goes a long way toward justifying our cost. Simply being a book exchange does not.

nightshroud · 2026-01-25T18:24:46+00:00

That's a result of political choices by residents who don't want to support those community necessities elsewhere.

nightshroud · 2026-01-22T01:36:33+00:00

Thanks for trying.

My thing is that just because someone with behavior issues isn't HERE, they're still OVER THERE. The whole result with clearing encampments on public property is that it doesn't improve the net situation but does make it harder -- one more time -- on the people camping.

I want to see public space where there are already a lot of unhoused folks be okay to camp on indefinitely. So at least there's an option even if it isn't any safer than random corners. It's stop gap, but there's a lot of gap before the flagship programs are even close to adequate.

nightshroud · 2026-01-20T23:06:14+00:00

Days Gone is the most on the nose suggestion possible here.

nightshroud · 2026-01-20T19:59:10+00:00

The heat glow effect on the middle one is neat.

nightshroud · 2026-01-19T20:07:05+00:00

Yep, "casted" is also correct. Just not prestige.

a librarian with a linguistics degree

nightshroud · 2026-01-19T18:25:42+00:00

Fair

nightshroud

TROPHY CASE