Getting "those books" into your local library

National Library Week is April 13-19, 2008. I'm posting a presentation I made at GCLS 2007 concerning getting queer books into your local public library's collection.

Good luck!
-MJ

"I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am...
I, am a librarian!" From the movie, The Mummy

Why your local public library?

1. Increases Visibility. Your interest in books with les/bi women’s lives illuminated, increases the public library's interest in books with les/bi women's lives and that increases visibility for les/bi women's lives. Further having "those books" in the public library provides visibility/preservation of the literature in the larger literary world.

2. Increases Availability. A library is a wonderful place to reach folks who might not buy, either because they can't afford to, or because they don't feel comfortable doing so.

3. Increases Validation. The collection of a public library should reflect the community it serves. You are a patron of your local library and have a right to expect positive depictions of les/bi women in the library's collection.

What books are already there?
First, find out what your library has. If you don't have one, Get a library card! Check the catalog. Your local library very likely has a website that allows online searching. --It's fairly rare to find those cute little drawers anymore.-- For a subject search try: Lesbians -- fiction.

You might also need to do a keyword search. This is because a book ends up with more specific subject headings like: Lesbians -- Scotland -- Glasgow -- Fiction or Lesbians -- United States -- Fiction but not have the primary subject of Lesbians -- fiction. The basic idea is that the catalog is designed to find the most specific item, not result in a "big net" of results. Part of the issue has to do with changes in cataloging over time. Systems rarely, if ever, go back and change previous cataloging. There are places where one will still find: homosexuals -- fiction rather than gay men -- fiction.

Those are the issues to be aware of when you're looking in your local catalog. And that's the best way I know to explain the quirks you might find. Frankly, I'm a Reference Librarian, not a Cataloger. If you're really interested in a more technical answer, I can find out for you. Just send me an email.

You might also try a title or author search. And then check the subjects. If you're using a web-based catalog, you can usually click on the subject headings at the bottom of the title or author page to find similar titles. So try Brown, Rita Mae or Garden, Nancy and see if you have Bingo or Annie on my Mind. I mention these titles because they were released by main stream presses and thus are a little more likely to be in any given collection.

Now that you know what's there, ask yourself:

What books would you like to see there?

Draft a list of titles you would like to see and include:

title
author
publisher
copyright year
ISBN

Certainly include one or two of your favorite authors, however, also consider including bestselling les/bi fiction titles from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Award-winning titles: GCLS Literary Awards, Lambda Literary Awards, Publishing Triangle Awards, American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gitting Literature Awards. Include any titles that are set locally or written by local authors. By local, I mean state. This is a common subject heading, i.e., Colorado -- fiction. And many library systems collect local authors and might have a special local subject for this, i.e., Tennessee authors. You'll want to make a note of this information on your list. If the title has been reviewed somewhere, you might print or copy that review for inclusion as well. Be aware that if a title is not readily available at Amazon or your local bookstore, the library might not be able to get a copy via their distributor. (See note about donations below.)

I would not go in with more than five titles at a time. However, it is not unreasonable to ask how many titles would be considered at a given time and whether there is a better time to request titles (first of the year, monthly, etc).

Next find out, how does your library work?
Speak to the reference or information services staff and ask how they go about their collection development. Explain why you're asking: "I'd like to request some titles for inclusion in the collection. What's the best way to do that?" Some systems may have a handout or a link on their web page about their collection development policy. Ask, "Is there someone I may speak to directly?"

Ask these kinds of questions:

• Is it centralized? Or done locally? (If you are going to a one location, say a city library, just ask who does the collection development ordering.)
• May you request titles?
• How likely are they to order requested titles?
• How long before you'll know if the title has been ordered? (Ask to place a hold on the title, this way, it will appear on your record and you'll know when it has been added to the collection.)
• Do they accept donations for inclusion into the collection?

It's worth asking. However, be aware that it is not uncommon for donations of books to go directly into the Friends of the Library book sale and thus generate money for the library. This is because the cost of cataloging a title must be weighed against the cost of purchasing partially processed books from the distributor. It is often more cost efficient to order a new copy than to have a cataloger process a title.

They MIGHT accept a donation of a title that they are unable to access via their distributor, if you make a case for its inclusion. If you provide a hard copy donation, be aware that a large library system might gladly accept two copies, and ask how many they'd like. (If you provide more than one copy, make sure it is the same edition -- the same ISBN -- to facilitate their unique cataloging.)

Final option:
Most libraries will allow you to purchase a "memorial" book via a monetary donation and designate a title. Thus you may be able to give a donation to purchase a book in memory of L. J. Maas, Tee Corinne, that high school gym teacher, etc. Check to make sure the library is willing to purchase the title you're requesting. Make sure it's readily available, etc.

It is possible that you'll run into some hesitation. Ask why. After all, you are a patron and you are asking for these titles. Within reason, the library should reflect your interests and needs.

Follow up.

Wait a month and check the catalog.

Check out the titles, even if you've already read them. One of the standards for maintaining a title in a library collection is circulation. Are people reading it? If a title sits on a shelf for two years, and hasn't been checked out, then staff may consider removing it. Shelf space is a premium. Having said that, one of the things about GLBT titles is that they might be read at the library. Some patrons might feel uncomfortable checking the title out, such as a 14-year old who might not feel safe taking a title home, or a heterosexually married person who might not be ready to out their les/bi-sexual identity to their spouse.

If you do develop a comfortable rapport with someone on staff, you might point this out -- That titles might not circulate, but if they look "read" then they are being used in the library and should be kept in the system, regardless of their check out history. It is possible that this is more true of non-fiction titles, however, it should be remembered in general.

There you have it. Go forth and request books!

-MJ Lowe

When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began.

--Rita Mae Brown

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Alison Bechdel
Houghton Mifflin
www.hmco.com
0618477942, $19.95

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is the latest work from the highly skilled, insightful, neurotic and wry-humored pen of Alison Bechdel, best known for her "Dykes to Watch Out For" comic strip. (One of the longest-running queer comic strips, "Dykes to Watch Out For" is over 20 years old, has been syndicated in hundreds of papers, released in over 10 books, and is available online via the author's website.) Fun Home is Bechdel's graphically rendered account of growing up in rural Pennsylvania in the 1960s and 70s with a particular focus on influences of her father's life and death.

Beginning with some of Bechdel's earliest memories of her father, readers meet a man who was an intelligent, emotionally distant yet volatile, narcissistic perfectionist who struggled with secrets. Trapped in the town not only of his youth but that of his ancestors for several generations, Bechdel's father worked in the family business, a funeral home (known in the family as the "Fun Home") established by her great-grandfather in the 19th century. In addition to his interest in local history and historic preservation, Bechdel's father was a closeted gay (or bisexual) man who had a string of affairs, primarily with younger men, throughout his life.

Divided into seven chapters, each of which deals with particular themes in her childhood, Fun Home contains a strong emphasis on literary references. Chapters weave back and forth in time, revealing aspects of Bechdel's childhood and details of her father's death. Books and literature were an important influence in Bechdel's life growing up. Her father taught English Literature at the local high school while her mother studied theater and performed in community plays. The gothic revival home the family lived in (and which her father had restored) boasted a library. At one point Bechdel admits, "I employ these [literary] allusions … not only as descriptive devices, but because my parents are most real to me in fictional terms" (66). It becomes apparent that literary discussion was one of the primary modes of communication between herself and her father.

Bechdel came out to her parents via a letter in the spring of 1980. Her declaration prompted her mother to point out to Bechdel that her father had been having affairs with men for years. Initially, this information appears to have been news to Bechdel, who reflects, "I'd been upstaged, demoted from protagonist in my own drama to comic relief in my parents' tragedy" (58). This "upstaging" is revealed as a theme in Bechdel's life as childhood milestones, such as her menarche, were overshadowed by the family preoccupation with and response to her father facing charges of "contributing to the delinquency of a minor." Apparently, her father's extramarital activities added strain to the family. Her coming out was further upstaged when her father died in a questionable "accident" (it may have been suicide) just four months after her letter.

Bechdel spent years feeling shut down yet very guilty regarding her coming out and how it may have influenced her father's death. Fun Home details the results of Bechdel's intellectual and emotional processing of her father's death, and her relationship with this complex, intelligent, conflicted, and often remote man. A powerful example of her self awareness includes her admission, "[evidence that he was considering suicide months before Bechdel came out] would only confirm that his death was not my fault. That, in fact, it had nothing to do with me at all. And I'm reluctant to let go of that last, tenuous bond" (86).

Book-length graphic stories are not a mainstay of this reviewer's reading. However, Bechdel's clean, distinctive illustration style with its wry observations and amusing details is fun to read and examine, and drew this reader into her story quickly. Indeed, it's regrettable that this review can only include quotations and not excerpts of Bechdel's drawings. Several delightful and revealing images are included, such as her grandmother chasing a "piss-ant," her early identification with Wednesday Addams, the summer of the locusts, her teenaged diary entries, and several aspects of her own adolescent self-discoveries. One cannot help but identify with Bechdel. However, despite the pain and struggle Bechdel has had facing her father's life and death, the book is neither morose nor depressing. The author has found peace with herself in regard to her father, her childhood, and who she is today. As she says in the dedication (to her mother and brothers) " We did have a lot of fun, in spite of everything."

Fun Home is a wonderful graphic memoir that is engaging, heartrending, funny, and thoughtful. Readers will definitely want to stop by the Fun Home for this viewing.

-MJ Lowe

Hot & Bothered 3: Short Fiction of Lesbian Desire

Karen X. Tulchinsky, editor
Arsenal Pulp Press
1551521024

From the skillful editing of Karen X. Tulchinsky comes Hot and Bothered 3: short short fiction of lesbian desire. Think of this collection of over 69 stories as a table spread with delicious finger foods. The limitation of length (1000 words or less) requires the writers to select their words carefully and results in an almost poetic quality to many stories. Although some of these stories are definitely arousing, please note this is not a volume of erotica, but of desire in its many flavors. Tulschisky has assembled a buffet of writers. Some writers are well known and others are new "chefs," offering their first sales.

Savor the imagery of that perfect autumn afternoon in Leslea Newman's "One Fine Day" which brought a smile to this reader and had her humming a tune for hours. Or nibble at the poignant stories like "Sunsets." Written by Denise Seibert, from the view point of a paraplegic, it is a very touching example of a couple connecting despite barriers to communication. While "Holding Hands" from Jean Taylor expands the definitions of making love. Or Michelle Rait's "Dinner with Jane," which evokes tempting a dieter with a decadent dessert as Regina considers the consequences of time spent with Jane.

There are a number of bittersweet tastes to sample such as "The Phase" where Susan Lee reflects on returning to the city of her youth and first lesbian love; or K. Lee's "Don't Tell" which is a letter written by a teen to her "best friend;" or the passing-for-straight coworker in Stephanie Schroeder's "Goodbye Joanna."

A porta-potty setting does nothing for this reader's palate, yet "Porta-Potty Passion" by Sarah Wiseman does have the quirky, amusing quality of forbidden, preservative and sugar laden junk food. While Cara Bruce's adult encounter with Barbie puts a whole new spin on the idea of playing with your . . . uh, food. These are just a few of the tasty treats for readers to enjoy.

Sometimes one is tempted to read short stories in quick secession, like popcorn. This reader found greater pleasure in reading only one or two of these stories at a time and suggests you do the same. Let them melt on the tongue of your mind a bit. Savor the images these writers create before you wander back to the table. There's something here to whet a range of lesbian appetites.

-MJ Lowe

It Takes One to Know One

Kate Allen
New Victoria Publishers
093467874X,

The third installment in Kate Allen's Allison Kaine mystery series, It Takes One to Know One, continues to be my favorite. Allison, a Denver police officer and her best friend, Michelle, travel south to spend a peaceful, long, working retreat weekend on womyn's land near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The weekend takes several unexpected turns as Stacy, Allison's girlfriend and a professional dominatrix, shows up to make peace after a recent argument. Uninformed of the commune's strict rules, Stacy and her best friend, Liz set up "Fun Camp" outside the Land. Well provisioned with caffeine and alcohol, they become the local entertainment and outlet for the less pure retreat members. Predictably, arguments concerning feminism and the leather community flare up in the desert heat.

Despite their differences, or perhaps because of them, Stacy and Allison still manage to find time for a heated power exchange. Allison and company do a wonderful job of humanizing that feminist taboo- s/m. In depicting intelligent, caring women with ordinary jobs (except for Stacy . . .), bills, and pets, Allen creates cognitive dissidence for people who demonize the leather community.

Allison and Stacy aren't the only ones indulging their erotic affections. Away from the strain of domestic life with her girlfriend and their colicky baby, Michelle is expressing more than a professional interest in Persimmon, a fellow glass artist, and one of the commune sponsors.

Soon, Sarah Embraces-All-Things, the commune spiritual leader, a bully, and possibly a fraud, is discovered dead in the sweat lodge. Allison, suffering from a recently diagnosed chronic illness, struggles to sort out her professional responsibility as a police officer and her role as a supportive lesbian. Several members of the retreat appear happy to call Sarah's death an accident. Are they protecting a murderer?

Allen succeeds in poking fun at all the complexities and contradictions of the lesbian, gay, and feminist community without being malicious -- a great temptation, particularly over some of the issues -- and conveys intelligent ambivalence over controversial issues. As the characters struggle with their interactions, political views, and the question of Sarah's death, Allen points out how very funny lesbians can be while she consistently displays compassion for the women that make up our community. All of Allen's novels are intelligent, humorous, and worth buying but Takes One to Know One is still my favorite to date.

-MJ

BN: All of Kate Allen's titles are still available via www.bellabooks.com