LibraryThing: State of the Thing

Welcome to the May 2020 State of the Thing Newsletter. This month we have some exciting information about our new series system, a store sale, and an interview with an activist in the Protect Library Workers movement.

We at LibraryThing hope you are staying safe and at home as much as possible. Books can be a joy, a refuge, and a consolation—we wish all of these for you.

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LT News

New Series

LibraryThing is moving to a new series system that's easier to use and captures more information. "New Series" includes a distinction between a series "core" and more tangential works, as well as much-improved adding, editing and sorting.

To prepare for the move, series and publisher series are currently locked to new data. We expect the change to go live Monday or Tuesday. Check this talk post for updates!

Store Sale

Our sale on barcodes and CueCat Scanners is continuing through June 6th.

Book World News

The book world has changed rapidly in the past month in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some updates from various segments of the industry.

Libraries

In May, as parts of the United States began to open back up, that included libraries. Libraries are beginning curbside services or limited inside circulation, all over the country: North Carolina, Texas, San Diego, and Chicago, to name a few. There has been swift and fierce backlash to this move to re-open libraries, and especially in regions with rising cases of COVID-19 and uncontained transmission. The movement #ProtectLibraryWorkers arose on social media and continued further in articles and opinion pieces, pointing out the lack of adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for library staff, a structural safety inequality of front-desk staff and decision makers who are still able to work-from-home while the library re-opens, and other serious concerns. We interviewed an activist librarian with this movement, Callan Bignoli, below and encourage you to read the whole interview.

Indies

It's been more than two months since most Indie bookstores were forced to close their doors. They have settled on a few methods of keeping readers involved: Virtual author events, curbside pickup where available, storytimes on social media, free or reduced shipping.. Many are still applying for emergency funds, with Black owned bookstores struggling a lot. And, as we turn towards June, some bookstores are beginning to open back up, with much of the same difficult decisions as libraries.

If you are looking to shop for a book at a local independent bookstore and are unsure where to start, BookRiot made a list of bookstores in each state that are accepting online or phone orders.

Authors

First, we would like to let you know about authors who have been lost to us from COVID-19 since our last newsletter. Go here to see the new section of Common Knowledge where you can view and add information about authors who have died due to this pandemic.

In lighter news, we want to highlight some great read alouds actors have been doing to raise funds and awareness for relief charities. Daniel Radcliffe, the star of the Harry Potter movies, reads the first chapter of the first book in the series. Director/Actor Taika Waititi is leading a multi-part, star-studded cast read aloud of James and the Giant Peach, ongoing. And Andy Serkis read the entirety of The Hobbit, which makes sense because he is most known for his role as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings movies.

Interview with a Callan Bignoli

LibraryThing has been talking to people affected by the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This month we spoke with Callan Bignoli (she/her/hers), Director of the Library at Olin College of Engineering, who has been organizing and advocating for the health of library workers. First through the #closethelibraries campaign to encourage hold-out library systems to close their physical doors for public and staff safety earlier this year, and now for #ProtectLibraryWorkers, advocating for a more considered approach to reopening physical library locations, including curbside.

Callan can be found on Twitter (@eminencefont) and her website.

1. What is #protectlibraryworkers and how did it come about?

#ProtectLibraryWorkers evolved from the #closethelibraries movement on Twitter when it became clear that just because a library had closed to the public did not mean that communities or library staff members were being kept safe. Curbside and home delivery, interlibrary loan, document scanning, and more were still happening at libraries, often with library assistants, pages, and student workers being put at risk while their “higher up” colleagues worked from home. In the case of libraries in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, and likely elsewhere, workers were forcibly deployed to other positions that exposed them to considerably more risk, such as emergency childcare centers and temporary shelters, with little choice in the matter other than whether or not to still get paid. Then, the wave of layoffs and furloughs began to sweep the country. #ProtectLibraryWorkers was an attempt to speak out against all of these crises and advocate for libraries-as-people, not just libraries-as-institution as we have seen our professional organizations repeatedly choose to do.

2. How can people support library workers at their local or national level?

1) Sign this petition written by members of current and past Library Freedom Institute cohorts to push for safe and fair reopening conditions. We want as many cosigners as we can get before we begin to distribute it to decision makers in individual states.

2) Figure out what is going on locally and question it. Is your local library providing curbside pickup before your state’s stay-at-home order is lifted? Ask why that’s happening and push for it to stop.

3) Continue paying attention to the local conversation and find like-minded fellow citizens to band together and prepare to push back on library budget cuts and staffing reduction.

4) Donate to EveryLibrary’s Help a Library Worker Out (HALO) fund.

>>See the whole interview at our blog.

Talk of the Thing

Gardens and Books discussed what’s outside their windows.

The Gothic Literature group compared editions of Dracula.

And the Humor group sang the praises of Wodehouse.

Did You Know

Thinking of organizing your books? Did you know you can reorganize Your Books by different classification systems to help you out? Go to Your Books settings and choose a classification system to drag-and-drop into one of your display styles. Switch to that style and click on the column title to sort Your Books by that classification system. Learn more about how to customize Your Books here.

Early Reviewers

Early Reviewers is our program where you can win free(!) advance copies of books to read and review. This month SOTT is a bit late, so keep an eye out on social media for our announcement about June Early Reviewers!

Do you work for a publishing house and think your company would benefit from some advanced reviews? Work with us! For more information about how to join Early Reviewers as a publisher, please see our Info Page or write to Kate (kate@librarything.com).

TinyCat

We’ve recently added a whole slew of new features to TinyCat! TinyCat is the online catalog for small libraries, created by LibraryThing. It turns your existing LibraryThing account into a simple, professional, web-based catalog.

Check out our updated playlists of Tiny Tutorials on LibraryThing’s YouTube channel, where Kristi walks you through various features of TinyCat in 30 seconds or less.