Issue 84 - Praise for Librarians

Since I've been working on distributing my new book, I have been thinking about libraries. 

This summer, our family has been visiting our local library nearly every week. I'm researching a young audiences project with my youngest son as my consultant. He is a speedy reader--the other day we brought home a shopping bag of books that he will have read in a week. He is my database of YA storylines, characters, and themes. 

When we couldn't find a YA book in our local branch library, all we had to do was ask, and they'd get it for us. Same for novels about climate that I'm reading for another project. (“Working on many things,” as it says in my bio.)

You may have heard about Project 2025, an initiative of the conservative Heritage Project. Project 2025 argues that librarians, publishers, authors, and educators could be subject to criminal charges and incarceration if they put an LGBTQ+ themed book on the library shelves, or a book about slavery in America, or a book about systemic racism.

This episode covers how librarians are under attack, and the written version of the post has some helpful links. 

What is 500 Words by Lee Schneider?

500 Words is a companion podcast to the 500 Words newsletter, written by Lee Schneider. It features blogs and newsletter read by the author. Past seasons have featured short-form interviews with creative folks from film, music, design, multi-media and more.