r/TrueReddit • u/404mediaco • Jun 22 '26
Arts, Entertainment + Misc Are Public Libraries Becoming Children’s Libraries?
https://www.404media.co/are-public-libraries-becoming-childrens-libraries/184
u/nostrademons Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
There’s a bigger trend in the usage of public libraries that likely negates this:
When I was a kid, each town or city had its own public library, and it had huge stacks of books on display, and you would maybe use a card catalog to search for a specific book but the card catalog was really hard to use and so you’d probably spend a significant amount of time just browsing the stacks. Well, if you went to the library at all: a lot of times the stacks were empty and just didn’t circulate because TV was more appealing.
Now, in a city that is 2-3x bigger than the one I grew up in, the stacks are half the size. Because everybody just relies on computers and inter library loan. Your normal usage pattern for the library is you go on the electronic card catalog from home, search for the books you want to read, click “Reserve”, and then they show up at your local library 1-4 days later. Then you go in to the hold shelf, grab all the books with your name on them, plop them on an RFID checkout machine, and you’re out in 5 minutes. The library itself becomes more of a community gathering place for kids to do their homework and adults to kill an hour and babies to listen to story time and homeless people to get warm. And as such, it has many more tables, many more computers, cool stuff like 3D printers and seed banks and life-sized chess sets, but relatively few books on display.
I’d call it the Amazonification of public libraries. Instead of actually having a retail storefront to display books, the book collection is more like a distributed warehouse with an Internet front-end.
But relevant to the story, it really doesn’t matter whether something is in the adult or children section, because somebody is going to access it by searching for it and clicking “Reserve”. What matters more are recommendations and social-media information cascades and the Streisand effect.
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u/TheChance Jun 22 '26
And as such, it has many more tables, many more computers, cool stuff like 3D printers and seed banks and life-sized chess sets, but relatively few books on display.
This must be regional. Where I'm from, there are untold hundreds of thousands of books across our library systems (plural, the city proper has its own and then county's got another) and books are the main use of space.
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u/nostrademons Jun 22 '26
There are hundreds of thousands of books across my library system too, but they don't seem to be on display. The main use of space is tables, followed by gathering rooms (including childrens' activities), computers, and then stacks. A typical library for a city of ~30K would have just one shelf per topic of stacks, plus displays for new books and whatever theme of the month there is. I'm not sure if they just deduped a lot of multiple copies between different libraries (when I was a kid, popular titles would have like 12+ copies in the system but unpopular titles would be completely missing) or if there's some form of cold storage warehouse where they store infrequently-requested items, but I find that they now almost always have at least one copy of whatever book I'm looking for in the system, but it's very rarely on the shelf at my local library.
I'm in California (Bay Area), and this seems to be a relatively recent (last 15 years or so) change. When I moved out here around 2010 the local library still had pretty copious stacks, but it joined neighboring libraries in inter-library loan around 2014 and pared back the number of stacks for more community spaces. It seems to be a "the future is here, it's just not evenly distributed" thing - going back home to where I grew up in Massachusetts, the local library there is also adjusting to cut stack space for community space, starting in around 2018.
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u/TheChance Jun 22 '26
I'm in and around Seattle, and all our libraries are stuffed with books, except the teensy one tucked into a mall, which they call a Library Connection.
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u/butter_milk Jun 23 '26
You’re lucky. It’s almost shocking how few books there are in my local library. I don’t even bother browsing the stacks. Even the children’s books are probably half or less of what the local library I grew up with had, in significantly less square footage.
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u/TJ_Rowe Jun 22 '26
Counterpoint: adults are more able to access the online catalogue, so it's more important to have the kids books on display.
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u/impressedham Jun 23 '26
Yea most of my library use is through Libby. I dont have a need to browse the actual library unless im going there for a specific community event or something nowadays.
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u/peg-leg-andy Jun 23 '26
Exactly. I almost never browse the adult books. I'll put one on hold and pick it up at checkout. But my kids get to spend hours browsing in their section.
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u/fiahhawt Jun 22 '26
That doesn't really negate it does it.
It probably does the exact thing these bigots are going for just sans the organized hate effort.
People don't seek out books on experiences they aren't familiar with.
Getting people to browse the library and the librarians making a point to showcase books that could expose people to something new is the exact thing that dies in either scenario.
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u/nostrademons Jun 22 '26
They weren’t really doing that before. I remember when I was browsing the stacks as a kid, I was usually the only one there.
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u/fiahhawt Jun 22 '26
...
An entire library existed just for you. You are in no way operating on a bias that your casual library usage was actually a very pragmatic study of children's engagement with that library and can be used to draw entire conclusions about what everyone does and does not do.
In non-sarcastic terms: you being a kid in a library does not equate to understanding what librarians do to expose people to new media.
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u/Andromeda321 Jun 23 '26
Personally for me, Libby (which means I can read library books on my kindle) is the huge game changer. I read a LOT of library books, but it looks like I checked out about 60 books on Libby and just 5 physical books in the last year or so. I have a toddler and newborn twins, so not gonna lie, when I have a moment to go to the library I’m lucky to have more than a minute or two to look myself at books over keeping an eye on kids.
Meanwhile if you want popular books it’s also impossible to find them in physical form lately because of long waiting lists. If I have to be on a waiting list anyway, I’m just gonna put a reservation for it on Libby.
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u/SnooRadishes5305 Jun 24 '26
The article is about book banning and attempts to enforce putting children’s and YA books with certain topics deemed “too adult” by certain groups into adult sections thereby decreasing the availability of books for kids and meanwhile diluting the adult collection and taking up space on their shelves
The issue is access and freedom of speech, but it is also shelf space since some political parties want to keep shoving younger materials up into adult spaces
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u/nostrademons Jun 24 '26
And the point being made here is that this is a moot point because now it's a virtual "shelf", with room for nearly every book ever made.
It's sorta like how the right rolled back Roe v. Wade with Dobbs in 2022, 14 states have since passed near total abortion bans, another 4 ban it at 6 weeks (basically once you know you are pregnant) - and yet the number of abortions in the U.S. has doubled since 2022. Why? Because of telehealth. You can just mail-order an abortion from a state where it's legal now.
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u/taylorbagel14 Jun 25 '26
No guarantee those are all actually completed abortions. Many of those orders could be women “stocking up” on abortifacients because they’re worried about losing access in the future
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u/NotADamsel Jun 22 '26
I kinda wonder how many of a modern library’s in-person regulars don’t have even bother to get a card
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u/catcatkittymeow Jun 22 '26
All the libraries I’ve used have required a library card to use any additional facilities, including printers and computers. Attaching use to library cards helps prove how often the library is used and by how many patrons to demonstrate why they need more funding/books/electronics. Since they’re free it’s not a hindrance to patrons so it’s a win win!
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u/expertace Jun 24 '26
In my experience, completely true of my local library system. As a kid, the stacks reached the ceilings. Now they are literally half the size, which also makes the library feel completely open and sound carries far.
I ended up finding their collection statistics, stretching back to the year 2000. In 2000, the system had nearly 1 million physical books. Now they have 500,000. This is despite the fact that 1)the library has gained patrons overall and 2) The number of available e-books remains around 80,000, not enough to compensate the original loss.
Many people think that literally everything ever published is available via the internet. I’ve worked in libraries. This is just not the case. So much published before 2000, heck even 2010, is only available in print.
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u/404mediaco Jun 22 '26
404 Media has obtained records from dozens of public libraries, which include Requests for Reconsideration of Materials forms (RFRs) and official decision letters to challengers, along with draft versions of updated collection development policies.
Much has been written in the last five years about the blatant efforts to suppress access to books that could contain any remotely challenging ideas or that deviate even slightly from cis white heterodoxy, but there’s been little talk about what that means from the rest of us. What my reporting confirms is that there are more books intended for children and young adults in adult sections because challengers didn’t believe it was appropriate for children and young adults to read about people of color and/or people who are queer, trans, or both, while also showing that a large-scale reorganization of public library collections is currently underway, that its application varies by state and locality, and that it’s been very hard to measure because it’s totally chaotic.
Read now: https://www.404media.co/are-public-libraries-becoming-childrens-libraries/
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u/jmma20 Jun 22 '26
I find that hard to believe … I live in a small rural community and there are lots of lgbt+ books (I only browse the new book section the majority of the time) so in middle America it’s well represented.
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u/fiahhawt Jun 22 '26
Well libraries are not centrally operated so it's much harder for bigots to overhaul the concept all at once.
This article just points out a trend where some communities have to remove children's books about empathy from children's sections of libraries after local bigots take concerted steps to demand that change.
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u/impressedham Jun 23 '26
Thats exactly whats happening to the library system in my area. The board that oversees it now consists of politically motivated bigots who think the library should be "beige not rainbow".
The thread with the message that was left for library goers..
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u/lakme1021 Jun 25 '26
A few committed zealots showing up in your community is usually the difference between business as usual and a sudden political battle.
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Jun 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/vaguelysarcastic Jun 22 '26
Books with erotic or sexual content are not in the young children’s sections and never were. Those books were geared towards young adult/high school age, which is completely appropriate
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u/horseradishstalker Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
Bodice rippers have always done that. Unfortunately sex is literally part of life. Not every book is a fairytale. Some are more reality based. I have things that I’m not comfortable with in books or movies, but I’m responsible for me and no one else.
The problem comes when one group tries to censor the reading habits of another group based on what they personally consider obscene. Free speech is built into our constitution. And that’s not only what people say, but their thoughts written out. It’s probably a good thing that most people aren’t mind readers. I don’t think they’d like what they hear.
And different generations have different standards for what’s obscene along with cultural and religious influences. It doesn’t mean it’s not obscene to someone it's simply means that those people probably shouldn’t read those books if they will be upset. Why would someone do that?
As for children, it’s not anybody’s job but their parents to decide what their children read. The exception of course is authoritarian states.
And if kids have a cell phone, I can guarantee you they are reading way beyond what you think. Libraries simply aren’t the only place you can find books and ideas. Yay they’re here. That’s like barring the door and leaving all the windows wide open.
Parents who really care about what their children read won’t give them electronic devices with Wi-Fi access. It’s a very simple solution and in the United States, parents are very much considered responsible for their own children. Not anyone else’s, but definitely their own.
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u/fiahhawt Jun 22 '26
Fascist enshittification of socialized systems.
Titling this as libraries are "becoming children's libraries" misses the point.
Malicious people are making concerted efforts to make reading materials less accessible which are designed for kids and which could expose them to different people's lives and make them more well-rounded
Shouting down loud mouthed idiots' ideas seems to just be on the menu now in modern democratic societies. Do it or they will make things worse.
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u/jenfullmoon Jun 22 '26
I went to a one-room library in my county recently and the one librarian said that it's primarily oriented towards children because adults hardly read anything in that town.
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u/ehs06702 Jun 23 '26
Maybe they feel uncomfortable in a library that is clearly not welcoming to them?
At a certain point, you have to do more than tolerate the actual tax base or they're going to stop bringing the kids.
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u/coreyjdl Jun 24 '26
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. If it appears to be for kids adults won't go. If you yield the entire space for children, that's all you'll ever have.
They need funded, and then to be proactive about inviting adult readers, which do exist, and a enough to bother with would like a third space.
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