Welcome back to Wednesday Links! While these posts are a nice round up of interesting things we’ve seen online, it’s also a nice little midday reminder to take a break. Get a coffee or tea! Grab a snack! Get some fresh air! Sneak in a power nap!
You know the drill by now, so let’s get into it.
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If you love librarians in romance, author Rosanna Leo wrote a lovely tribute to those characters in romance, complete with reading recommendations. Who are your favorite librarians in romance?
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Have an adorable dog? We have a special offer from BarkBox: get 50% off your first month of dog treats, toys, and canine mayhem when you subscribe to a multi-month package.
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If you love across the pond, I’m jealous because you get things like ceramic dildo decorating classes:
So how did the dildo decorating classes come about? “I feel empowered by what I do,” says Adele Brydges, “so I wanted to open that up to other women. The creative process is sensual, and people who don’t work in the creative sector, don’t get the opportunity to play and explore their sexuality and sensuality through another kind of medium. I think the creative process is more than creating artwork — it’s a powerful vehicle for change.
“The workshops are an opportunity to get people talking about female sexuality, and to look at that in a slightly different way.”
The finished products look absolutely gorgeous.
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Broadly has started a stock photography collection with trans and non-binary models. As of right now, there are over 180 images and they’re free to the public.
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This is such an important Twitter thread on the relationship between libraries and publishers:
So here's the thing–I am worried that publishing is killing libraries, and that will, in turn, kill publishing.
— Jennifer Anne (@kidsilkhaze) April 8, 2019
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Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
Favorite librarian in a romance is definitely Evelyn ‘Evie’ (Carnahan) O’Connell from The Mummy movies. She’s awesome, even if she does almost cause the end of the world!
This choreography cover of the Billie Eilish & Khalid song ‘lovely’ by NCT’s Ten and Winwin is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in a very long time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ovHSQwp1n0
Thanks for featuring Broadly’s Gender Spectrum Collection – it’s such a beautiful collection of stock photos and a great resource. I feel like a lot of them could become covers for queer romances.
Who are your favorite librarians in romance?
Cidra Rainforest from Jayne Ann Krentz’s SWEET STARFIRE. Because she was (is/will be) a librarian in space.
Someone started a twitter thread about the ways stories begin in cultures around the world (e.g., “Once upon a time…”) this is a pdf of the answers of the people that replied:
http://www.chitrasoundar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/StoryStartersFromLandsFarAway.pdf
The actual twitter thread is here: https://twitter.com/csoundar/status/1114461222336913410
Customer Service Wolf was recently featured by BBC online, and I link it here for your delectation –
http://customerservicewolf.com/
Hilarious that the dildo decorating classes are held in Hackney Wick (think British rhyming slang)!
I checked out Jennifer Anne’s twitter feed and now have a better understanding of my library’s ebook policies. I never seemed able to check out anything from the hoopla account except way early in the morning (like 4:30am!) but would get a message that the library had reached its limit of daily checkouts. Now I know why.
One point in the long twitter discussion was a question how long does a book last/how many circulations can it last before “wearing out”. I have an answer…more than you can imagine. It all depends on the quality of the paper. I have many 20-30 year old used paperbacks in my personal collection but due to the high acid content of the cheap paper are browning and brittle and barely readable. BUT,When I worked at a large public library we bought some hardcover editions of classic Mills and Boone romances at my insistence. Some library staff scoffed until we checked on them during a book evaluation for discard about 5 years later. Many of them had been checked out over 100 times! A few never were on the shelves…they were found by readers on the carts before they were reshelved. Some had been borrowed by other libraries all over the country through interlibrary loan. Hardback books can stand a lot of use and be re-bound to be used many years.
I wish libraries made the terms and costs of their various digital options more transparent via their websites and published some patron best practices. I have active accounts at 6 different library systems and use them almost exclusively for digital loans. Since reading here that Hoopla is a per-loan cost to the library, I have made an effort never to borrow anything “on spec,” but only borrow an item when I am absolutely sure I am ready to read/listen to it immediately. My overdrive loans are considerably messier, since I can’t predict when my turn will come in the hold queue. My accounts are set to borrow the book automatically when it becomes available, but if I know I’m not in the right mood to read it, I return it at the first opportunity and get back in queue. My concern had been that I didn’t want to inconvenience other patrons. Now I worry that pointless checkout is ticking the counter toward the library having to repurchase the license.