libraries

‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ by E. L. James, in Demand at Libraries (NYT)

by Viviane on 05/21/2024

in libraries

By JULIE BOSMAN

It did not escape the notice of Tim Cole, the collections manager for the Greensboro Public Library in North Carolina, that “Fifty Shades of Grey” was “of mixed literary merit,” as he put it with a heavy helping of Southern politeness.

He ordered 21 copies anyway.

His customers had spoken, Mr. Cole said, and like other library officials across the country, he had gotten the message: Readers wanted the “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy. In recent weeks they have besieged libraries with requests for the books, signaling a new wave of popularity for these erotic novels, which have become the best-selling titles in the nation this spring.

In some cases demand has been so great that it has forced exasperated library officials to dust off their policies — if they have them — on erotica.

In April the trilogy, which includes the titles “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed,” was issued in paperback by Vintage Books, part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, sending sales through the roof when the publisher printed and distributed the books widely for the first time.

That enthusiasm has carried over to libraries. At many, “Fifty Shades of Grey,” by the previously unknown British author E. L. James, is the most popular book in circulation, with more holds than anyone can remember on a single title (2,121 and counting last Friday at the Hennepin County Public Library, which includes Minneapolis, up from 942 on April 9).

But despite misgivings about the subject matter — the books tell the tale of a dominant-submissive affair between a manipulative millionaire and a naïve younger woman — library officials feel that they need to make it available.

“This is the ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ of 2012,” Mr. Cole said. “Demand is a big issue with us, because we want to be able to provide popular best-selling material to our patrons.

Read more: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ by E. L. James, in Demand at Libraries.

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Seeking Sexy Librarians for Sexy Advice

by Jessica Gold Haralson on 05/22/2025

in librarians, libraries, Nerve

shelving in silhouette Seeking Sexy Librarians for Sexy Advice(Photo by Tina Cheng, Arizona State University;
AALL “A Day in the Life of the Law Library Community“)

Carnival-ettes,

Calling all librarians!

I am currently interning for the sex and pop culture magazine Nerve.com, and looking for the librarian folk amongst you who would be willing to be interviewed.

The interview would be for “Sex Advice From,” a popular series in which a select group of folks give their best advice about tricky sex questions. If you happen to blog, we’ll totally put up your links and publicize your projects in any way possible. If you don’t blog, that’s cool too!

Please e-mail jessica at nerve dot com ASAP if you are interested!

-Jessica

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Vienna’s public library raising cash through erotica hotline (Canada.com)

by Viviane on 05/08/2025

in libraries

VIENNA, Austria (AP) – This isn’t the typical whispering you might expect to hear at a library. Vienna’s City Hall has launched a “sex hotline” to raise money for the capital’s main public library, officials said Tuesday.

It’s unusual, but it’s not particularly raunchy: Callers pay 53 U.S. cents a minute to listen to an actress read breathless passages from erotica dating to the Victorian era.

City Hall set up the hotline earlier this month to help the library raise cash for planned remodelling and expansion, Austrian media reported.

Anne Bennent, a famous Austrian stage and film star, reads passages from the Vienna library’s collection of 1,200 works of erotic fiction from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, the library said.

Officials said the hotline would be operational through May 31.

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New York Public Library Acquires Gay Rights Archive

by Viviane on 05/01/2025

in gay, history, libraries, new york

A major archive of papers relating to the early gay-rights movement in America has been donated to the New York Public Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division. The Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay History Papers and Photographs consist of letters, photographs, handbills, manuscripts, publications, and ephemera accumulated over nearly 50 years by the late activist and writer Gittings (1932–2007) and her life partner, photojournalist and author Lahusen.

Gittings’s papers document her activities on behalf of gay and lesbian rights from 1958, when she founded the East Coast chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first national lesbian organization. Her writings influenced the American Psychiatric Association’s December 1973 removal of homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. As a longtime leader of the American Library Association’s Gay Task Force (now the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table), Gittings was influential in developing programs to highlight the availability of gay materials for use in libraries. She was awarded an ALA honorary membership in 2003.

Lahusen’s extensive photographic collection includes images of early protesters, portraits of prominent lesbians, and photos chronicling gay activism through 2005. “Barbara and I always wanted our papers and photographs to be cared for and made available in a secure, world-class repository,” Lahusen said. “And we wanted our letters and photos to be surrounded by those of friends and colleagues in the cause. The New York Public Library’s marvelous archive division was the obvious choice.”

“The collection donated by Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen,” said NYPL President Paul LeClerc, “is a remarkable firsthand chronicle detailing the battle of gays and lesbians to overcome the prejudice and restrictions that were prevalent prior to the activism and protest movements that started in the 1960s.”

[via fellow librarian badfaggot]

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Dad seeks $20,000 compensation for lesbian trauma

by Viviane on 04/23/2025

in censorship, law, libraries, obscenity

felicenewman Dad seeks $20,000 compensation for lesbian traumaA Bentonville, AK resident is suing for trauma allegedly caused when his two sons stumbled across a sex guide book shelved with the military books at the library:

A Bentonville man asked the city to pay his two sons $20,000 and to fire the library director for including what he called “pornography” in the Bentonville Public Library collection.

“The Whole Lesbian Sex Book” by Felice Newman was removed from the library shelf after Earl Adams of Bentonville complained it is “patently offensive and lacks any artistic, literary or scientific value,” according to a letter he wrote and faxed Feb. 16 to Mayor Bob McCaslin.

Adams said his 14- and 16-year-old sons, Kyle and Ryan, looked at the book while the 14-year-old was browsing for material on military academies. He requested the city pay him $10,000 per child, the maximum allowed under the Arkansas obscenity law.

Author Felice Newman said in a press release today:

Boys have been pouring over sexually explicit materials in libraries since – well, since there have been libraries. Why was a copy of my book in the military section? Well, sometimes young people browsing the library shelves will tuck away a favorite book where they can find it later. These two young guys are the very reason libraries must be uncensored, and librarians must be free to order the books they feel will benefit the public.”

I pulled the the Library Journal review off Amazon.com:

Newman’s sex guide for lesbians is superb. Why can’t more heterosexual sex manuals be this good? Newman, who, as the publisher at Cleis Press since 1980 has edited many other sex books, covers oral, manual, anal, and insertive-vaginal techniques with loving care. She includes a whole chapter on breast play, addresses safety repeatedly and thoroughly, and discusses transgender and bisexual orientations, SM, group sex, masturbation, and sex toys–all while acknowledging that some women prefer monogamy, some polygamy. Her bibliography and resource list are simply outstanding. Newman’s work updates and embodies the best of the half -dozen other lesbian sex manuals in print) all acknowledged in her bibliography). Even though this book is aimed at lesbians, it’s extremely suitable for heterosexual women (to enhance their own eroticism) and men (to tell them what turns women on). For all public libraries.
(reviewed by Martha Cornog, Philadelphia. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc)

You can send a message of support to the Bentonville Public Library here.

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Parents alarmed about ‘scrotum’

by Viviane on 02/23/2025

in librarians, libraries, scrotum

  • The Higher Power of Lucky (Amazon)
  • scrotum! (libarian.net)
  • Youth Literature is Filled with Scrotums (Gelf Magazine)
  • My Final Word on ‘That Scrotum Book’, Including How to Lobby Your Library to Carry ‘The Higher Power of Lucky’ If You Don’t Have Time to Write a Letter

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