I’ve seen yards with “I ❤️ library” signs and I was wondering how do I get such a sign?

We gave those out as a National Library Week promo last year - and we are thrilled to report that they will return in 2024!

These stylish indicators of good taste will be coming to every LCPL branch beginning the week of April 7 and we'll give them away until we run out.

They're free - all you have to do is visit a branch and ask. Mark your calendar!

sleepwalkerindreamersclothing replied to your post “��Get to know the blogger. List five facts about yourself and then pass…”

Oooh but now I wanna know the story of how you and hubby met! ����

So first I shall direct your attention to my wording first time hubby saw me. We did not in fact meet due to this incident. Second, there is no short way to tell this story so I will say sorry now.

Alright, the year is 2008. I, Lcpl Molly, am a Military Policeman at Marine Corps Air Ground Center(MCAGCC). My job is basically that of a regular cop, just on a Marine Base. It is early on a Monday morning, I’m driving around base in my patrol vehicle Enforcing The Law™. 

Now at the same time a Lcpl Hubby has arrived at the MP station. He is also a MP and has just been reassigned to MCAGCC. Part of starting on a new base is “checking in”. It is a process of going to all the various admin people and then all the way up the chain of command getting signatures and filling out various forms. So he is starting this process of paperwork, waiting about in the admin building. That building with all the admin and boss people is right next to station.

Cut back to me: I Lcpl Molly execute a left hand turn from a stop-sign and T-bone a Marine minding her own business. I wasn’t on my phone or anything, I just failed to see her and ran RIGHT into her. She was fine, I was fine, her car was totaled, the patrol vehicle was totaled, it was super embarrassing and scary. One of the traffic guys gave me a ride back to station where I started in on the stack of paperwork I needed to fill out for destroying government property.

At the same time the Boss whose office Lcpl Hubby is sitting outside of gets the call that Lcpl Molly had wrecked a vehicle. The Boss demanded I present myself for an ass-chewing. 

So little Lcpl Molly walks out of the station, crosses the little garden between the building and enters the admin building. There is a large open area/hallway I had to walk through to get to the Boss. Lcpl Hubby is sitting in one of the chairs in that area. I am in full tunnel vision and march right past him on the way to my death. Lcpl Hubby watches me walk by, having heard the Boss screaming about how expensive vehicles are, fully aware I was about to die. I don’t actually remember what the Boss said, I don’t remember leaving his office or getting back to my own desk. 

I never noticed Lcpl Hubby. We didn’t actually meet officially until months later. The only reason I know he was there at all is because he told me he was after we had been friends for awhile. 

That is the story of my one car accident and the first time Hubby saw me.

Howdy! I live the area and want to know how to best support your library right now amidst all the book bannings and political suppression of library resources nationwide. Other than checking out books and stuff, how best can people support their libraries?

What a lovely question. Thank you for asking.

Of course using the library as you mention is important! But other than that I'm happy to say it's pretty simple. Here are our four top suggestions:

1: Tell your friends how great the library is. It can be as simple as posting your book haul to your blog, wearing a pro-library pin, pestering helping all of your friends and family get library cards, or using the swag we hand out at Farmer's Markets: just little day to day things that spread the word about why libraries are great.

We call this advocating for the library and what it does is build up a strong wall of positive feelings about the library in peoples' minds that can stand up to whatever insidious lies book banners come up with.

If you want to get really extra about it you could write to your local politicians (especially the ones who appoint library board members) or newspapers just singing the library's praises - it's rare for politicians in particular to hear about us unless there's a problem and getting in with some positivity while things are quiet could influence them when things get loud.

2: Pay attention to your library. You, my wonderful anon, have obviously already got this one down, but for the folks in the back - when the beacons are lit and the library calls for aid, we need everyone to answer.

Find out how your local library communicates and tune in. That may mean subscribing to their email newsletter or following them on social media - wherever they're talking, go there and listen. What you've heard about happening in other states can easily happen in yours and this is how you'll know exactly what your library needs when the time comes.

3: Vote in your local elections! Library boards are appointed by elected officials (for example, ours is appointed by various school boards, the Lake County Commissioners, and the Lake County Council). If you want a board that will defend readers against book bans, vote accordingly when the time comes.

4: Say nice things to your librarians, in writing if possible. Are there comment cards at your local library? Fill one out. Is there an online form? (Ours is called Ask a Librarian but it's for comments too!) Submit one telling us about something we're doing right.

Tell us how much you love the last event you went to, or how thrilled you were to find a certain book on our shelves, or how much you liked that Pride Month display. I don't care how small it is, if it made you happy we want to hear it.

These kinds of things are lovely to receive and a huge morale booster - and they are also direct, quantifiable evidence that we WILL print out and stack up in front of the board of trustees, politicians, the local news, the pope and/or Dolly Parton. As needed.

Those are our top tips! They seem suspiciously easy, right? Don't underestimate how helpful they are - and how helpful YOU are.

This is probably a stupid question, but does using Libby and/or Hoopla help your numbers? Like obviously physically going to my local branch would probably be better, especially for showing that a specific branch is being utilized, but ebooks can be more convenient (if for no other reason then if I need to look up a word lol) and I recently discovered I can stay mostly focused on audiobooks if I up the speed (yay!). I do love libraries (I was actually a page for years) and want to support them more, but I don’t usually have a reason to physically visit.

That's not a stupid question at all, and the answer is good news - YES, your use of our digital/streaming collections helps our numbers!

Both Libby and Hoopla give us numbers on checkouts that we include in our report to the state library every year (Anonymous numbers! We can see how many times a title has circulated but we don't know who is checking out what.)

Going to a library in person is, of course, great, but we're under no illusions that everyone can physically get to us. Don't feel guilty about being a digital-only user - you are not alone by a long shot. That's why we have those collections!

Of course, if you want to help your library even more here are three neat things you can do that probably don't require setting foot in a building (they don't for us, but your library may vary):

Convince your friends to sign up for library cards. Even if they don't plan to use them (we'll hook them eventually). For us, you can sign up for a card entirely online. And being able to go to our politicians and say "Look, 90% of people in our district have a library card!" would be a dream come true.

Attend virtual events from home! I don't know if your library still offers them, but we sure do and attendance is... well, kinda sad. We don't want to stop offering them because we know there are people who rely on them, but it's hard to justify when only one or two people come. You can see our virtual events on our calendar using the filter Event Type: Virtual

Use a database! Database is a stupid word and most of our patrons glaze over and tune out as soon they hear it, but these are tools that we pay a bunch of money for that do really cool things. For cardholders in our district, we provide online access to things like Creativebug, Ancestry, EBSCO, LinkedIn Learning, The New York Times, and about a hundred more all sorted into neat categories right here. You just log in with your card from home. If you find your local library's databases and start poking around and exploring, you will make a reference librarian cry tears of joy. We have to report use numbers on these, too, and getting people to understand how cool and useful they are is an uphill battle!!

So those are my 'How to love your library from a distance' tips. I hope they're helpful, and thank you very much for your ask - and for using your library!

Hi hi! I'm getting so tired of people trying to make arguments against libraries saying that by using a library you're failing to support the authors (monetarily). Like... do they think libraries are just stealing all these books without paying for them?? Any suggestions on how to set the record straight for these confused booklovers?

You betcha!

Point the First: As you rightly point out, libraries purchase these books that we are lending out.

What's more, we purchase them for more than what you pay when you purchase them from the retailer of your choice (especially if that retailer is Amazon.) We pay extra for library binding and then when the books fall apart after too much use, we pay again to buy replacement copies. And don't even get me started on the extortionate highway robbery er, *rather high* prices libraries pay for ebooks and e-audiobooks we lend out.

Point the Second: Well, maybe I'm biased. I'm a library after all. Let's ask the authors whose pockets we're supposedly picking.

Here's over 1000 authors who signed a petition supporting libraries when publishers and trade associations, in an attempt to defend their behavior toward libraries, tried to make a very similar argument to the one you mentioned.

(And, I know he doesn't have any social media and doesn't speak for all authors, but sometimes a specific example is better than a mob of over 1000: @neil-gaiman has long been vocal about his support of libraries. Here he is in The Guardian, far more eloquent than I have thus far been, on why libraries are deserving of your support as well.)

Point the Third: Libraries serve as points of discovery.

Maybe you don't want to take a risk on a new author. You can pick up the book at your library, discover you love it, and buy the entire rest of the 19-book series, and tell all your friends and your book club to read it, too. That supports an author far more than if you never read the book in the first place because you didn't want to pay for something you might hate.

(But LCPL, you say, I could just pirate it and eliminate the risk that way! Oh straw man, I say, did you not read point #1 in this excessively long response?)

(But LCPL, you moan, You don't have every book I want to read! Oh straw man, get thee to the purchase request page. If a library doesn't have the book, they'll have a way to get it. We here at LCPL can fill requests ~99% of the time, and that certainly puts more money in the pocket of an author than pirating the book.)

Anyhow. This answer has gone on quite long enough, and I thank you for reading this far. Here's the tl;dr: If you can buy a book and want to do so, fantastic! Do it! But don't feel guilty about using your library.

I heard something about an Indiana Digital Library but I don’t know much about it. Can you tell me a bit about it?

Sure can!

The Indiana Digital Library is a consortium, which means it's a collection shared by many different libraries across Indiana. This particular collection is entirely on Libby/Overdrive. Here it is!

To access the collection, you have to be a cardholder at a participating library. Libraries can only join this consortium if they have a service population of fewer than 150,000 people. That rules out us here at LCPL, but is great news for people in smaller library districts that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford a large digital collection!

(LCPL maintains our own excellent Libby/Overdrive collection, never fear.)

You can see a list of all the IDL member libraries here. If you have a card with one of those libraries, then you should be able to access the Indiana Digital Library - but check with your home library for details.

How would one who is out of the district get a lcpl card?

Ah! You have Options!

I live in Indiana, but not in LCPL's district:

If you're in Indiana, you can get a free limited access card that lets you check out most of our physical collection - books and DVDs and that sort of thing (no video games, though.)

To get this card, just fill out our online application (you can also do this at the library) and bring in a photo ID with your current address along with your library card in good standing from the library district you DO reside in. If your photo ID doesn't have your address, we've linked to other forms of suitable identification on the application page.

But I want access to the ebooks and streaming (or: I don't live in Indiana):

Anyone can purchase an in-district card (also called a library subscription or a full access card) regardless of where you live. This card gives you access to absolutely everything our taxpayer residents get, including but not limited to video games, Libby, the Libratory, and research databases.

At the moment (April 2024), this card is $55 for a year of access (which breaks down to about $4.58 a month - cheaper than Netflix, though you do have to pay for the full year at once.)

The price is regulated by Indiana Code 36-12-2-25 (d). Which is to say, we're not totally in control of that price and it could change - so if you're reading this from the future, double check!

Details on how to sign up for this card, how to pay, and the current price are on www.lcplin.org/library-subscription

I go to school or teach in your district, but live elsewhere:

If you're a high school student or a teacher who goes to school/teaches in our district but lives outside of our district, you can have a free digital access card! That gives you access to our streaming/downloadable collections, research databases, that sort of thing. You can upgrade it to check out physical items as well - also for free - by coming in to a branch with an ID (details here (PDF))

Your school should have given you a card at the beginning of the school year. If they didn't, get in touch with our reference desk and we'll see why that might be and if we can fix it.

I hope one of those options will work for you! If you need more details on any of them, or if you have a unique situation not covered here, feel free to ask!

I was wondering if you can help me find a book I read many years ago. I don’t remember much about it unfortunately, but I believe it was a YA book and the main girl was taught plumbing by some relative (maybe dad or grandpa or someone like that). I think she was in high school, and I vaguely recall her struggling financially (I can’t remember if her parents were around and they were all struggling or if she was on her own for some reason, or maybe she had a younger sibling?). I do recall that at one point she bid on a job that she was really hopeful for but doesn’t get picked because her bid was incredibly low compared to everyone else (and the fact that she was a teenager probably didn’t help). Any idea what this book could be?

This is a tricky one. So far no luck, but we've put the question out to a few groups we're in and will update this post if we find an answer.

In our search, we came across two books that are probably not what you're looking for, but just in case:

Pretend Plumber by Stephanie Barbé Hammer - but it was published just last year. However, time is fake, so maybe??

Karen, the Girl that Would Be a Plumber by Petra Ceason - This one is older, but unless you forgot the whole murder subplot... probably not.

We'll keep an eye on the other inquiries we put out but in the meantime:

Here's a Goodreads group that might be able to help.

Goodreads not your thing? There's also a subreddit.

Of course, if anyone here on tumblr dot com has an idea, please do chime in! And anon, if you remember any other details, even what color the cover was, feel free to write in again!

EDIT: The asker found the book! It was Pretend You Love Me by Julie Anne Peters

I just saw your comments on a post about libratory services about turning old films into digital. Can you expand on that? Like does it have to be like old film or like a vhs etc? Is it at any branch or only certain ones? I didn’t know you guys offer that. I know my dad has sent things out in the past and paid to have that kind of thing done, but I love supporting libraries and am always amazed at your services when I learn about a new one. I hope you have a lovely day!

DELIGHTED to expand on that!

First things first, before we get too far in: My previous post emphasized that this is free, and it is - as long as you live in our library district OR have volunteered enough to earn a gold or silver card. We have to keep up with demand from our taxpayers first because alas, we are not well-funded enough to digitize the world's archives. Goals, though <3

Now the fun part:

We have at the Merrillville Branch a room that we call the Libratory.

It's full of technology (and a recording booth, which is that big black box at the back) including but not limited to lots of wonderful specialized devices that will convert:

VHS

Betamax

camcorder tapes

photographs

audio cassettes

vinyl records

35mm slides

35mm film strips

8mm film

Super8 film

...there may be other things we can handle. Our libratorians sometimes get up to stuff and don't tell me about it.

Libratory services are available only at Merrillville Branch (because that's where we had space for it!) You can convert your stuff yourself, or use our drop-off service and pick it up later :)

Here's our website, which will tell you how to get started.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

Hi, I use Libby but I'm not sure I'm returning the books right. So what I do is borrow -> send it to kindle -> read in my Kindle -> go to Libby app and return early. But then on the date it was due I still get emails from Amazon saying that my loan has expired. Is that normal or do I need to return the book somehow through kindle too?

Hello! Don't worry, this is totally normal.

Returning early on Libby releases the title for others to check out on Libby (and allows you to check out another title if you were at your limit), but it doesn't update your Amazon account - so Amazon still thinks you have the book checked out. It doesn't impact the book's availability on Libby and you don't need to do anything else, but thank you for checking!

If the emails are annoying you, though, you can also 'return' the books from your Amazon account when you're finished with them. Just sign in to Amazon, go to Content and Devices, choose Books, and select 'Return this book' for the titles you want to return. That should stop Amazon from emailing you on the original due date.

Again, though, that's not necessary for anything other than stopping the emails. Your books really are being returned when you use return early on Libby, even if Amazon didn't get the memo!

I just saw that some of your branches are offering teleconference services. That’s so cool! Even though I have no need for that service, I always get so happy when I see you guys offer something that I know others will use and appreciate. I just love libraries and all of their services!

What a delightful ask to receive :D :D Heart, warmed. Thank you, anon!

And for those who haven't heard, yes: tele-conference (also called tele-appointment) services are now available at Lake Station-New Chicago and Griffith-Calumet! Basically, we set you up with an iPad Pro with a data plan in a small meeting room so you can make Zoom/Teams/whatever video calls.

We made it available at the branches where we see the most need, but if there is demand we may be able to expand it to other branches, too!

Anon who had asked about donating a series, the series is Chronicles of Alsea by Fletcher Delancey; it consists of 10 books, the finale of which was published in 2020. It’s a sci-fi series mostly taking place on the planet Alsea where the inhabitants are empaths (they have various strengths of ability, but it’s very rare for them to not have any empathic ability). They discover they’re not alone in the universe when a space ship crashes onto their planet and find out that besides not being alone, there’s basically two factions of humans that are in the middle of a war. I think the world building is really impressive, and I really appreciate how much thought was put into thinking about how much being an empath and being able to sense if someone was lying could shape a society. Also, I’m always a sucker for characters who have really strong senses of right and wrong and do their best to stand up for what’s right and protect those weaker than themselves. It’s been a while since I’ve watched it so I may be misremembering some of the details, but I saw an interview with the author where she said she was inspired by Star Trek’s Prime Directive; she said it always bothered her because you could have an advanced civilization who just hasn’t quite figured out faster than light travel who were just as advanced, if not more so, in other areas, but since they weren’t quite there with one aspect that the Federation deemed necessary they couldn’t join and therefore the gap in knowledge between them and the Federation would only expand since everyone else was sharing info. Anyway, while Alseans don’t have faster than light travel, both their healing and nanotechnology are more advanced than either of the groups of regular humans, which causes them to have to reassess their assumptions and prejudices they hold for the worlds that aren’t part of their groups. Also, in later books, Alseans end up questioning their own assumptions/traditions regarding empathic strength and castes (basically their career options of which there are 6 but high level empathy only have an option of 2 due to “need”). I’ve probably rambled enough for the middle of the night, and while part of me thinks I should have waited til morning so it would be more coherent/well thought out, the rest of me knows that with how excited I get about this series, more coherence is definitely not guaranteed. I hope you all have a swell day!

Well, there you have it folks! Empaths! Space wars! Inspired by Star Trek! Who's going to give this series a shot?

Also, just because I know our audience here on tumblr dot com: I took a look at the first book in the series on Goodreads and people do have it shelved in queer, lgbt, and lesbian. Having not read it myself, I can't speak to how big a role that rep plays but 👀

Thank you for the ask, anon - we love seeing readers passionate about the books they love.

(Here's the previous ask, for anyone else wondering about donating/purchase requests/getting your fav books in the library.)

I have a question: my favorite series is not in your collection. Is there a way for me to donate it in the hopes that someone else will read it? (I just want people to give it a chance so badly!) I already have the books (both ebook and physical copies), so it seems weird to request them when I have zero reason to check them out myself. And I know you accept donations, but I think those are generally for selling and not for the collection…although I could be wrong about that. Thanks for any information you can provide.

A very good question! The answer is: it depends on the series. If it's an older series - older than 2020, say - submitting a purchase request will probably just get you an Interlibrary Loan copy, which wouldn't help in your situation (though it always depends, there are always exceptions, etc etc.) Newer than that, though, and I'd say there's nothing wrong with submitting a purchase request even if you own the book! Just be aware that there's always a chance it'll be ILL'd instead. If it was me, I'd hedge my bets and start there - ILL costs you nothing. If your book does end up ILL'd, you can simply return it and, if you wish, proceed with the donation option. Now, you are correct that, for the most part, donated books are used in our book sale except in special cases (like if the author is local, or if we desperately need more copies because the holds list is out of control). However, since you asked, if you wanted to donate the series I would suggest bringing it in in person and telling the staff when you hand it over that you would like it to go to Technical Services to be considered for the collection. If you have to, say you talked to someone from the library on social media and they said we'd take a look (I'll back you up on that!) Now, that's not a guarantee anything you donate will be added to the collection. I certainly don't want you to waste your money purchasing the series again thinking this is a sure thing. We do have to run everything through our collection development criteria, which means inspecting the quality of the item, examining professional reviews, and considering the reputation of the publisher, among other things. The items may end up in the book sale anyway. I wish I had better news for you. But feel free to let us know what the series is and why you love it - we always answer asks publicly and maybe someone will see it and pick it up! Maybe you'll kickstart the fandom!

Alternatively, everyone put in the replies your fav underloved series so that anon here doesn't have to expose themselves if they don't want :) Good luck!!

Hey, have any of you read the book House of Leaves? If so, what do you think? (If not, you should- it’s a book both about a man piecing together a research/horror book about a house that is bigger on the inside, and the house that’s bigger on the inside)

On our whole team, only Sean has read it and... ah, sorry, he gave up about half way through. Here's what he has to say:

It's a hard book to categorize. It's written in a very unique style and everyone I know who has read it comes out with a different conclusion on what the book meant to them. I liked it but at the time I tried to read it I didn't need a book that was going to challenge me on how I read a novel. I learned about the book from a podcast and they praised it as the most unique novel experience they ever had. I just happened not to agree and gave up lol

Fair enough! You know we support the right of every reader to hit the bricks if they aren't having a good time - and at 700 pages, this book had better be a good time.

Chris (who has not read it) has the following advice for anyone interested but perhaps daunted by its bulk:

The rating on Goodreads is impressive - averages 4.09 stars with 150,000+ ratings and 14,000+ reviews. But, from the real-people reviews, it seems readers either love or hate it. It's either a masterpiece or a pretentious and failed attempt to be a masterpiece. My advice is to give it 40 pages and bail if you don't love it by then.

But, that's just us. Who else out there has read House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski? (Not to be confused with Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, to spare you my own baffled moment of trying to work out how I'd forgotten any horror themes in those poems and whether the bigger on the inside house was a metaphor.) What did you think?

Someone mentioned LCPL had a reddit account, and I was incredibly excited until I realized it was Lake County, not Lawrence County (all the way down the other end, near Bloomington)

Either way, keep up the good work! Hoosiers stick together!

Sorry to disappoint! I'm afraid there's even more bad news. We don't have a reddit account, at least as far as I know. Maybe it's another Lake County Public Library? There are a really astonishing number of Lake Counties in different states!

Anon who’s looking for the teen plumber book here, I found it! It’s called Pretend You Love Me by Julie Anne Peters. It occurred to me that I might have read it as an ebook, and after scrolling past at least several hundreds of titles I’ve read in the last decade, I found it!

Ooo, delighted to hear you found it!

Good work! We'll update the other post :D Thanks for letting us know!