Dear Enthusiasts,
I write to you today as a concerned citizen.
Many aren’t brave enough to say it, but the time has come. So, I will say it:
Librarians are dangerous.
(Dramatic music should be playing in your head right now.)
You thought they were just keepers of the quiet. Guardians of the “shhh.”
The ones who handed you a dusty book and pointed to a beanbag chair.
Wrong.
Let’s look at the facts.
Sure, they sit there … calmly. Quietly. With their little computers and Dewey Decimal Systems. But make no mistake …. these are not peaceful people.
Some think they’re just shelving books. No!
They’re plotting …
Plotting the overthrow of ignorance.
As a kid, my idea of danger was eating Pop Rocks and Coke at the same time. At no point did I look at the librarians in my life and think, “Now that’s someone who could dismantle society using nothing but a hardcover and a knowing glance.”
But I should have.
Because librarians are dangerous.
Not in a “leap-out-of-the-shadows” kind of way. More in a “mercenaries of media literacy-knowers of where things are – masters of organized rebellion” way.
They can look at you and hand you a book that will COMPLETELY DESTROY YOUR WORLDVIEW… but… like… in a gentle, respectful, and possibly laminated way.
Let me be clear: these modern librarians are not the nostalgic memory you may have of a woman with a bun and a stamp. Today’s dangerous librarians are much more. They are part educator, part tech wizard, part data analyst, and part myth-slayer.
They can code. They can curate. They can find a book you only remember as, “blue, with a sad fox, maybe?”
They host storytimes, teach kids about misinformation, explain how to 3D print a prosthetic hand, and calmly help a grown man named Todd recover his Gmail password for the seventh time. All before lunch.
WHO DOES THAT? Librarians do that.
These dangerous folks believe in wild things like access. They believe in stories. They believe in you. They even believe in me.
My books wouldn’t have found nearly as many people without them. WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS? What is in it for them?!?!
They believe that every student…. no matter who they are or where they’re from… deserves to find a book that says, “You belong here.” They give access to stories that whisper, “You matter. You’re not alone.” And … I mean, COME ON. This is all obviously emotional destabilization through narrative arc.
Librarians are dangerous and fearless.
Many have tried to stop them. Yet, they stare down budget cuts, criticism, rowdy teenagers, and that one weird smell in the YA section without flinching. They do their librarian things with such a gracious sort of grit that it’s terrifying.
And let me tell you something:
Do not try to debate a librarian.
You will not win.
You’ll walk in confident. Sure.
You’ll leave, though, with a tote bag and a brand-new worldview.
They don’t just help students find books. They help them find themselves.
So take note. This is your warning:
Librarians are dangerous.
They are dangerous to:
-
Misinformation
-
Censorship
-
Outdated printer settings
-
Small thinking
-
apathy
-
loneliness
-
Silence where there should be a story
-
Anyone who underestimates a kid with a library card
They do not just guard books. They unleash them. And when a kid finds the right book… the one that makes them feel seen, understood, alive… dangerous librarians know what it can do.
They are not just keepers of knowledge. They’re igniters of minds. Builders of empathy. Activists with a barcode scanner. Architects of a freer, wiser, kinder world.
They are the reason so many kids will grow up and realize the world is bigger, messier, and more beautiful than their textbooks ever admitted.
So next time you walk past a library and think,
“Oh look, a quiet place for quiet people doing quiet things…”
Think again. I want you to remember that librarians aren’t just standing behind a desk. They stand dangerously at the frontlines of curiosity, creativity, compassion, and the fight for a better tomorrow through what we imagine today.
So go ahead. Underestimate them, but do so at your own peril.
Because librarians know: The right book, in the right hands, at the right moment,
can change everything.
And thank goodness for that.
To every librarian reading this:
Stay dangerous.
(Also… sorry about all the late books.)
Last week was National Library Week! I had the privilege of speaking at the Garland County Library in Hot Springs, Arkansas, during their Children’s Librarian Workshop. Librarians and library staff from across the state gathered to share ideas and inspiration for serving young readers. Here’s a picture of me and some of their team:
After several weeks of travel, this was my final stop before heading home and it was the perfect place to conclude refreshed and encouraged. Nothing beats being in a room full of great humans like these. So grateful for these amazing librarians who very much embody the danger I wrote about above.
ALSO! VERY IMPORTANT ENTHUSIAST ALERT! I want to spotlight Beth Quarles, a third-grade teacher and the owner of the incredible indie bookstore Paper Hearts Bookstore in Little Rock, Arkansas. I signed copies of Fail-a-Bration!, The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination, The Circles All Around Us, and Becoming Better Grownups for her store. She still has several in stock! Go buy them out!
Consider supporting Beth, her team, and this wonderful shop. You can purchase signed copies from her here: Paper Hearts Bookstore
Next week, I’m back in Michigan for the Curiosity in Action Conference. It’s happening April 26. Some tickets still available! I’d love to see you there!
As always, thank you for reading! Thanks for sharing! Thanks for supporting!
40 Comments
lysace
I really loved the local library in the 80s/very early 90s (as a kid without network access). I probably spent like 20-25 hours per week there.
Now when I visit it's always meh. They have sacrificed breadth and density for "curation" and "experience spaces".
The space between the book shelves seems to have almost doubled. Why?
Bring back super high dense book shelving filled with interesting stuff.
lightedman
Librarians are wonderful. I married one.
makeitdouble
Indeed
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_War
Joking aside, librarians have always been facing so much. Kids and parents are a whole topic, but many adults coming to a public library aren't just there to spend some time, they can be at a pivotal time in their life with a specific need, and getting enough info or access to the proper resources is so critical.
I still remember a clerk at our public library talking to an old lady who's husband was hositalized, and trying to guess what medical book covered the proper stuff.
irrational
I expected this to be about the Brandon Sanderson teen series that starts with Alcatraz vs The Evil Librarians.
mrits
I've been working in the space the last few years and what I've gathered is Librarians themselves often hate what libraries have become. The ones working in University libraries seem to enjoy their job a lot more than the ones in large cities that act as homeless shelters.
jadar
The tragedy of the modern library is that no one has the attention span for good books. Libraries are getting rid of the classics to make room for new books, the majority of which are not worth the paper they’re printed on. We would do well to heed C.S. Lewis’ call to read more old books for every new book that we read.
kmoser
I thought this was going to to be about how librarians were instrumental in forming the OSS, which helped the US win WWII (yes, this is real).
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/book-and-dagger-elyse…
romaaeterna
I have begun taking my children to the local library, and I am shocked at how bad the selection is. There are very few books of lasting value in any part of the library. Nothing of serious or intellectual interest. And were I to give a factual description of the childrens and teens sections, I would get banned by dang. This is wildly different from the collections that I grew up with, in libraries trashed now by standard publishing spam, despite having vastly more money and space than they did when I was a kid.
Poorly curated libraries (though often staffed to the gills with "librarians") are a gaping cultural void and vacuum, while well-curated libraries are an important treasure. Good curation has little or nothing to do with "battling" misinformation/censorship, which in practice always seems to be about librarians championing a very bland and particular political monoculture. Good curation is the art of discerning the important, the unique, and the interesting, and avoiding the vast flows of spam that overwhelm everything these days.
delichon
Ideas are dangerous, librarians just stockpile and distribute them. In terms of potential energy books are more disruptive than nukes. The keepers who wrangle their power should have proportional status.
elashri
I used to skip school for at least two days to go to the big library in my city. I taught myself a lot of things. Did have access to books and high speed internet (by this era standards anyway) that I couldn't have or afford at home.
I wouldn't encourage people to skip school to do that of course. But I owe this period of my life a lot of what I am today. Someone with interest in science and tech. I have known some of the people working there and they were happy helping me navigating the library (and grap books for the short boy who is too short for most of the shelves).
I wasn't happy with how it turned out the last year when I visited.
tianqi
A fun fact that please excuse me if off-topic: Mao Zedong was a librarian before he started the Bolshevik Revolution in China, and then he changed all of China. So it's often said in China that it's really dangerous to upset a librarian.
charlieyu1
I’ve moved to UK and I’m annoyed by lack of STEM books in libraries.
dijit
I always found it interesting how hacker culture is largely propped up on the protections society has carved out for librarians following world war 2 (where certain sections of society had been identified based on what books they had looked at).
The hacker culture of “information wants to be free” is largely predicated on the librarian mantras of the same sentiment and only given protection by western europe after clear and serious abuse.
Librarians are the very forefront of information access and the privacy of looking up certain information, we owe them a lot.
SamLL
It seems relevant to this article, and its portrayal of librarians as dangerous, that the national Institute for Museum and Library Services was recently essentially destroyed by Presidential executive order and DOGE, probably illegally, its grants largely or entirely revoked, and its employees laid off.
See, e.g.,
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/11/trum…
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/l…
paleotrope
My local libary is great for me at the point I am at life. Clean bathrooms, 3d printers and laser cutters, video conference rooms, free videos to watch, comfy chairs, a huge manga section. Not a lot of physical books anymore. I guess I can just use an e-reader and check one out that way. No more discovery.
jruohonen
So I kind of hastily posted this one as a follow-up:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43737275
While librarians can be "dangerous", libraries can be extremely beautiful (or vice versa, who knows…?). When traveling, I often try to visit ones, and, of course, we have some iconic photographs of them too.
frostyel
[dead]
cs702
Indeed. Power-hungry authoritarians, demagogues, and ideologues of all stripes (ethnic, religious, etc.) have always viewed books as dangerous.
Just look at the long list of major book-burning incidents throughout history:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_book-burning_incidents
Books are dangerous, because knowledge is dangerous — dangerous to ignorance, censorship, and misinformation.
mpalmer
Look, I love the sentiment, and the illustrations are charming.
Unfortunately, the writing.
It's…stilted.
It's presented as a letter/email, but it reads as though the author wants you to hear someone with good comedic timing… DELIVERING IT LIKE STANDUP!
But ellipses…do not translate to funnier text. The text just has to be funny! "Pauses" only enhance what's already there!
> write a quippy, funny letter from a "concerned citizen" to their community highlighting the "danger" posed by librarians. said "danger" is their vendetta against ignorance, illiteracy. style should involve SUDDEN CAPS FOR EMPHASIS, ellipses…for…artificial comedic timing. But there's something more important to the style. Something being demonstrated in this very sentence. Yes – it's *short, narration-like rhythms". These shorter sentences should occupy their own paragraph.
If you can replicate a blog post with a single LLM prompt, you start to wonder whether the author had the same thought.
tonymet
Treating “knowledge” in the abstract is dangerous. “Knowledge” consists of manuscripts . A book store or library is merely a curation of those manuscripts (or their copies).
Librarians actually are dangerous, in that they present “knowledge” as neutral, and “more knowledge” as an unquestionable good. Nearly all librarians and book store clerks share a skewed ideology.
Everyone expects a Christian, Muslim or Jewish book store to be filled with a tailored curation of books. Libraries and book stores are ironically treated as neutral “knowledge repositories”.
My point is that every collection is curated according to the taste and the agenda of the curator or librarian.
It is the quality of the collection that makes it good, not the volume. Librarians are dangerous because they’ve convinced the public that they are gatekeepers of knowledge, when they are actually just curators.
StefanBatory
Because I saw others here speak about their libraries, I will too.
I'm Polish, I live in a big city. My libraries around, are, to say it mildly, awful. At best, they'll contain old school readings, some history book from communist period and old tech manuals (old as in, Win 95 guides or for tech that is no longer used).
I really envy Americans in this aspect.
gbolcer
That was enjoyable. And the artwork doubled it.
lurk2
This reads like the sort of self-congratulatory articles journalists were fond of writing about themselves in the late-2010s, just as public trust in journalism was reaching an all-time low.
I suspect the same thing is happening with librarians as they’ve begun to abandon all pretence of being impartial guardians of information in favor of larping as members of The Resistance. Ironically, the experts never seem to learn that you can only play this game for so long before no one cares what you have to say anymore.
trollbridge
I wish much of the lore about librarians were actually true, but these days they seem to be mostly focused on either filling up dumpsters full of old books for sale (why are they getting rid of all of the old books), stocking the shelves with DVDs (why are libraries in the movie-rental business?), or else organising things that seem to be quite tangentional to being a "library". For example, I think it's fine to take family photos or ID photos for kids… but is this really the primary mission of a library?
When I need an inter-library loan of a hard-to-find book, they say they can't do it since the Amazon price of the book is over $1,000. (Of course, we all know the Amazon prices are basically made up – offering books for sale that aren't in stock, and on the chance they get an order at an outrageous price, go try and find it cheap on the secondary market.)
Nonetheless, they're always asking for money – whether applying for grants, putting property tax levies on the ballot, attempting to raise sales taxes, despite the ever-decreasing levels of service, alongside requisite threats "If we don't pass this item, the library will close!!!"
I view librarians as ones that completely missed the boat when it comes to their traditional domain of organising indexes to literature, which has been eclipsed first by Google, and now by AI in general.
Peteragain
Awwe! I teared up! 'cause it's true!!!
lr4444lr
I miss the days when they shushed people. Nowadays, librarians where I go (to several local libraries) are invariably the loudest, most shameless talkers in the place.
patcon
Holy shit librarians are fucking wonderful.
Many of my coolest collaborators have been library science or information studies people. They are just the people I trust the most to have a sensible balanced worldview between theory and action, and with enough distance to understand the false idols of capital and power.
I feel librarians so often get to be the sort of people that teachers wish they could be, if those teachers weren't so micro-managed by the state and the system
Peteragain
Okay. The point is that someone, yes, SOMEONE, needs to make the call as to what goes on the shelves. Mien kampf? The Anachist's Cook Book? Lady Chatterley's Lover? Is is librarians who make the decision AND IT IS NOT THE SAME FOR EVERY LIBRARY GOER!!!! Yep. They consider who's asking and why. They are some of the few remaining trusted professionals, and they remain so because we think they're harmless drudges. Power to 'em!
electrosphere
Just a comment that the library has become my "third space" these days.
I am sooo grateful my local University library is open for public visitors. I visit every weekend and enjoy fast internet, a pleasant and quiet environment and can plug my laptop into one of many large desktop monitors here.
kleiba
On my campus, almost all institutional libraries have been closed down over the course of the last 20 years. There's still the main campus library and I went there quite a few times to work in peace and quiet. However, I have to admit that I never needed any of their books.
lurk2
This reads like the sort of self-congratulatory articles journalists were fond of writing about themselves in the late-2010s, just as public trust in journalism was reaching an all-time low.
I suspect the same thing is happening with librarians as they’ve begun to abandon all pretence of being impartial guardians of information in favor of larping as members of The Resistance. Ironically, the experts never seem to learn that you can only play this game for so long before no one cares what you have to say anymore.
This comment got flagged within minutes after I had originally posted it, which is an indication of how seriously freedom of information is valued by those on the other side of this issue.
alganet
Ah! It makes a reference to Rose, the Hat (character in the Doctor Sleep movie). "My head is a library […] you're just a fucking child". Hence the drawings looking like children homework.
So, if it is an AI that wrote it, maybe it has movie script training. That would be a smart move. Movies themselves draw specific personas to the foreground of a human mind and could put them in specific moods.
Or is it a human who wrote it? Maybe it was an angel.
—
Ok, no movie business. Is there a difference between biblioteconomist and librarian? I think one is more akin to that notion of classifying without curating or censoring that so many here aluded to.
In practice, I wouldn't know! (fun oversharing fact: I actually considered biblioteconomy as a degree).
I think the post is good and kind for a general audience. It's a good message that I truly believe in.
But I believe it could be harmful for those diagnosed with conditions such as Havana Syndrome, Schizophrenia and similar disorders. That is due to the fun ambiguous tone of "dangerous", which could have unexpected effects in someone going through a psychotic episode (I had one once, not a pleasant experience). There must be a better, less snarkier way of promoting literacy without creating those potential side effects.
edverma2
Why do people speak online as if the library is a place anyone goes to? I understand some people still go to libraries, but this cannot be considered a commonplace activity like it once was. Librarians do not hold any meaningful position in society because so few people come in contact with them.
riffraff
I love libraries and I credit the library of my home town for being who I am.
I don't remember much that the actual people in the library did for me, beyond letting me take books at a time than was allowed.
But still, they did let me do that, and asked me for books to buy.
Maybe they did more for me than I thought.
puppycodes
long live librarians
phendrenad2
I thought this was going to be about how librarians are exposed to raw knowledge that is true goes against the current-year narrative, a.k.a. "malinformation", and librarians should be monitored for signs of wrongthink.
ZoomZoomZoom
It's interesting to note that at the core of Asimov's Foundation (spoiler: Va n frafr, ng gur pber bs obgu bs gurz.) was a bunch of librarians that were supposed to help restore the galaxy to order after a prolonged period of decline brought by disintegration of the galactic Empire.
casey2
I really dislike fiction where the author tries to convince you it's real but has so many holes that it reads like more like a hastily conceived debate premise than a real work.
In reality libraries are one of the most conservative classes of people, especially odd the distinction since I'm sure there are plenty of progressive minded librarians. Doesn't help that the average age gap between a reader and their librarian is greater than average life expectancy.
ThinkingGuy
This is consistent with my experience. One of the most impressive and inspiring presentations I saw at last year's HOPE conference [1] was from members of the Library Freedom Project [2].
1. https://hope.net
2. https://libraryfreedom.org
cagey
Ebooks and Internet sources of all forms of media have rendered public libraries moot as book providers: every person alive (in the US) has a cell phone, and most have laptops, and can with a modicum of bootstrapping access these sources, without having to travel to a special building (partially) filled with paper books, to obtain a copy of almost any book in existence.
> Today’s dangerous librarians are much more. They are part educator, part tech wizard, part data analyst, and part myth-slayer.
> They host storytimes, teach kids about misinformation, explain how to 3D print a prosthetic hand, and calmly help a grown man named Todd recover his Gmail password for the seventh time. All before lunch.
> [Librarians] are dangerous to: Misinformation, Censorship, Outdated printer settings, Small thinking, apathy, loneliness
Who asked them to play these roles? If the public school system has failed to the extent that people are incapable of using online methods to find books or other resources, or login to their Google account, why is it the role of a librarian to backfill these gaps (and for taxpayers to be forced to fund such a peculiar backfilling approach)?
And some of the touted roles ("dangerous to: Misinformation, Censorship, Small thinking, apathy") are clearly social activist in nature; the meaning of all of these is in the eye of the beholder. So why are taxpayers obligated to (unquestioningly) fund people who clearly perceive their role, at least in part, as activist in nature? IMO you are welcome to engage in activist activities on your own dime, not mine.
So I certainly wonder where the value is in "libraries" since, say, 2010 (and yes, I read the article). If not for "book banning" stories, I doubt librarians would be a topic of conversation. Libraries and librarians are like some weird 20th century anachronism which persists into the 21st century largely because it's part of a (by definition well-established) bureaucracy (and lobby/union).