yeah okay lmao im gonna tell a librarian about my trauma so they can advise me about what books might trigger me. sure. makes sense.

elfwreck:

dragonmuse:

thelibrarina:

“Hi, I’m looking for a book with adventure, but no graphic violence.”

“I’m interested in a thriller that doesn’t have any rape scenes.”

“I want a gay main character but I don’t want it to be a coming-out story. And no anti-gay violence.”

“Oh, no, murder’s fine, but no animal cruelty.”

All separate reader’s advisory questions that I’ve answered, and successfully. I don’t know why any of these people asked for those specific parameters, and I didn’t ask, because it’s not my fucking business. And it’s no one else’s business, either–up to and including the government.

Librarians don’t make you reveal your trauma in order to justify what you read or write. You may be confusing us with, uh… *checks notes* …fandom.

We are literally trained not to ask. Any halfway decent reference professor nails it into you. Even if it would help you answer a question, you never ask a patron why they need something.

Some librarians will ask why you want it (because they don’t all get the same training) – but they don’t mean, “why the hell would you have an interest in this?” They mean, “is this for you, or for a school assignment, or to share with someone else,” which helps them figure out what range of similar books you might be interested in.

If it’s for you, you want books with those exact restrictions–but possibly any length, any author, including short stories as well as novels.

If it’s for an assignment, you may need to use recent books, or a specific range of authors, or only one genre.

If it’s to share with someone else, you may be looking for books within a particular age range, or books with a particular gender of protagonist, or books that are currently trendy enough that you’d’ve heard of them and offered to find one.

They DO NOT CARE what you like to read; all the books in the library are there to be read. They just want to help you find the book you’re looking for. 

If a librarian (or bookstore employee, or anyone else) asks why you want a book, don’t tell them why you care about the contents; just say what you want to do with it – to read it; to study for a project; to give as a gift; to fill out a collection, or whatever.