Hi, Miss Julie

But you don’t have to take my word for it (although I could tell you some real upsetting stories.) Talk to anyone who is not white, cis-het, able-bodied, and neurotypical how they feel about libraries, either as a user or an employee.

No matter how many posters you put up, no matter how many hollow DEI statements you write, no matter how many trainings on serving the unhoused, the mentally ill, the disabled (often presented by questionable authorities) you make your staff watch, libraries won’t and can’t be for everyone until the most powerful people in libraries look around and admit who they’re not seeing and who they’re not listening to.