January 29, 2025 • 49 mins
Libraries are more than just buildings filled with books - they're vibrant community hubs offering a wealth of resources and experiences. In this episode, we're joined by the book-loving duo from the Medium Lady Reads podcast, Jillian and Erin, to uncover the hidden gems and insider tips for maximizing your library experience.
Jillian O'Keefe is an Instagram content strategist who helps authors and the businesses that serve them gain visibility by embracing and showing their unique story to grow their community on Instagram. Jillian is also the cohost of the podcast Medium Lady Reads where she talks about books and reading as self-care.
Erin Vandeven is the creator of the Medium Lady community and host of two podcasts: Medium Lady Talks and Medium Lady Reads. She helps burnt-out mothers and millennials rediscover themselves and empowers them to find their place in the world. Erin is also the Associate Chief of Nursing Practice at SickKids Hospital in Toronto, where she creates safe spaces for the nursing workforce. She has a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Nursing from the University of Toronto. Erin reads over 100 books a year and is always available for book recommendations!
In this episode, we're discussing:
- Personal journeys into adult reading, including how the pandemic reignited their love for fiction and inspired them to read more diversely.
- Childhood memories of the library, from story hours and talent shows to the unique smells and librarians that left a lasting impression.
- Integrating the library into their children's lives, highlighting the wealth of programs, resources, and digital tools available to foster a love of reading.
- Leveraging digital library resources like Libby and Hoopla, as well as lesser-known offerings such as Chromebook and Wi-Fi hotspot lending, community events, and more.
- Top tips for managing library holds, including the power of the "deep search" feature on Libby and the benefits of requesting books before they're officially cataloged.
Whether you're a lifelong bookworm or just rediscovering the joys of reading, your local library holds a world of possibilities. Tune in to this episode to unlock the secrets of your community's literary treasure trove and find inspiration to make the library an integral part of your reading journey.
CONNECT WITH GUESTS:
Jillian Instagram
Erin Instagram
Medium Lady Reads Podcast
BOOKS/AUTHORS MENTIONED:
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (Amazon)
Running list of books mentioned (Doc)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alesia Galati (00:00):
Get ready to unlock the secrets of your local
library. We're joined by thelibrary aficionados from medium
lady reads to discuss everythingfrom hidden gems to maximizing
your library experience.
Listener discretion is advisedthis podcast contains mature
content intended for adultaudiences only. Jillian Erin, I
(00:22):
am so thrilled to have you onthe medium. Ladies read
podcasters. Jillian, let's startwith you. What did your adult
reading journey look like? So
Jillian O'Keefe (00:39):
I've been reading my whole life, but there
was a span of time where I wasonly reading personal
development business books, andI swore those were the only
books that I was ever going toread, and I had no interest in
fiction. And what was fiction?
Even though my childhood wasfull of fiction, but the
pandemic hit, and I was in needof some entertainment, and a
(01:04):
friend had encouraged me tostart reading some fictional
books. So I grabbed some andpretty much plowed through all
of them, I think that year Istarted maybe reading in May
ish, and I read 50 books, whichI was super proud of, because I
(01:26):
had only read maybe 16 inprevious years. And then since
then, I've been reading about100 a year, and it's been
predominantly fiction, maybe apersonal development or business
book spaced in there, but forthe most part, it's been
fiction, and I've loved it, evenwith the lulls that I hit. It
(01:48):
doesn't stop me from picking upanother book. It's kind of like,
okay, so that book wasn't great.
I didn't really love it, or I'mnot really feeling reading right
now, but I'm still gonna pick upa book. I'm still gonna have a
book in process, and that ispretty much how things are
today. Oh, I
Alesia Galati (02:05):
love that, Erin.
What about you? Yeah,
Erin (02:09):
I mean, not too dissimilar to Jillian's journey as an adult
reader. I've definitely been areader all my life, and also
been a library user my wholelife as well. But I definitely
feel like the last five yearspost pandemic have seen like
exponential growth in myidentity as a reader, my
(02:29):
practice as a reader, how I seereading as a really essential
part of my like day to dayroutine definitely started in
April of 2020, so on mediumlady, which is my Instagram
account, I give myself a monthlyplan, and it's usually for self
care, and it's usually lighthearted things that I feel like
(02:51):
are really going to kind of meetme where I'm at every month. And
in April of 2020, I said,Listen, like we're all at home.
I was at home with two kids, myhusband and my seven month old
son. So full house, kind ofunknown times. What are we
really going to do? And so Ipurposefully said, I'm going to
take a mindset of I'd rather bereading. So April was my month
(03:13):
of like, I'd rather be reading.
And I purposefully set a TBR,which I'd never done in the
past. I'd kind of like, stumbledupon a book here, or someone
had, you know, suggested a bookover there, or perhaps I saw
something in a magazinepromoting a book, or Oprah was
talking about something, and Iwas just kind of stumbling my
way one book to the next, notreally thinking purposefully
about when this book is over,what am I going to read after
(03:35):
that? And so it was really thatApril of 2020, where I picked
four books that I was going toread, and they were not intense.
I think one of them was acookbook. One of them was three
women by Lisa Taddeo. There weretwo other books. And those four
books, I just made my waythrough them in April, and I
realized, like, wow, that feltso good to know what I was going
(03:57):
to read. And then in May of 2020and then following, early June
of 2020, after George Floyd wasmurdered, there was this real
encouragement and call to actionto diversify your reading. And I
reflected in myself, as a whitewoman, that I really had not
been thinking proactively aboutthat at all in my life, but it
(04:19):
was coming on the tail of thispurposeful reading. What that
evolved into was purposefulreading, diversifying my
shelves, diversifying myreading, following creators and
content creators who weretalking about books, talking
about diverse books. And thenthat kind of like one thing led
to another, led to another. NowI track my books. I read over
100 books a year. I lovereviews. I know people are kind
(04:42):
of mixed on reviews. Ipersonally love reviewing a book
after I've read it. I loverecommending books to people. I
love reading broadly. So I readfrom a broad category of genre.
I read from a broad category ofage ranges. I definitely read.
Predominantly fiction. I wouldsay 80% of my reading is
fiction, and this year, about45% of my reading is diverse. So
(05:04):
now I like track mathematicallywhat I'm reading and it and I
cannot live without it. So it'sa huge thing. My kids have grown
up in the last five years.
Seeing me read all the time,it's influencing them, and so
yeah, it's kind of taken on alife of its own. But I wouldn't
be who I am right now withoutthat part of my identity really
(05:27):
intact and really nourished andthriving. Yes,
Alesia Galati (05:31):
oh, it's so powerful. I think reading as an
adult and like coming to lovereading in a different way and
then being like, Oh, wait, Ishould probably be more
intentional about this. Let's goahead and reassess where we're
at. I know I definitely had mymy moment of that as well. Even
as a woman from the biopodcommunity, I was like, wait, I'm
(05:53):
not reading as diversely as Iwant to. It was definitely a
wake up call, and I was reallydisappointed with myself and my
numbers, but it was seeing thosenumbers allowed me to say, How
can I do better? And that'swhere I think tracking our
reading is such a powerful toolto help us be more curated in
and like I'm a mood reader, Icannot set a TVR. I get very
(06:15):
picky about that, but I canstill be really intentional
about what types of authors I'mreading, and, you know,
borrowing from my KindleUnlimited account, but libraries
that is such a powerful tool.
And I don't think I reallyrealized the power of the
library until I was a intern inNew York City. Barely any money.
(06:39):
It was like just neededentertainment, and had no money
to go out and have fun and dostuff. And so we would, me and
my roommate, we'd go to thelocal library, and we would
borrow books, and we wouldborrow movies to watch on a very
old laptop that I had. And likeit was dorm ish living in New
York City. And so that's where Iwas like, Oh man, the library is
(07:03):
so awesome. And then havingkids, and being like, wow, our
library, especiallyhomeschooling our kids, our
library has so many resourcesfor homeschooled kids, so many
resources for little ones. Andso we started going a lot more
regularly, and just absolutelyfell in love with all of the
(07:25):
programs and all of the thingsthey had available to them. And
then realizing in the last yearor so, I would say that wait,
the library also has digitalbooks that I can borrow. I had
no idea before then, and so thatopened up the idea of, oh, wow,
okay, I can borrow books fromthe library, or I can borrow
audio books from the library.
(07:47):
That's really cool, too for meas someone who, even though
behind me you can see hundredsof books really like to read on
my Kindle app, it's a problemseveral hobbies, buying books,
talking about books, and thenreading books. So we're not
going to get into that. Yes,absolutely. But Jillian, we'll
(08:08):
go back to you. What was yourfirst memory of the library, and
when did it really becomesomething that was really
meaningful for you?
Jillian O'Keefe (08:16):
Oh my gosh, I have so many memories of the
library because when we werekids, we went there regularly,
especially during the summer, wewould go and they would have all
sorts of activities. They hadtalent shows and story hours and
all sorts of stuff. I've toldErin this story before. They had
animals, guinea pigs andhamsters and little furry
(08:40):
animals, rodents, essentially,which I would not want to touch.
Now, as a as an adult, but as achild, it was amazing. I think
my for one of my first memories,is probably the story hours
going, and I can still rememberthe smell of the paste that we
used to make whatever artproject we were working on. I
(09:00):
remember the story. Our teacherwas Mrs. Jarvis, and she was so
kind. She always wore, like,very dainty, delicate bracelets
on her wrist. And like, Iremember everything about her,
and it was such a good time togo there. And of course, there
was always books too, but it wasalways more about the social
(09:21):
aspect. I like I mentioned thetalent show going with my sister
and we my cousin. I think it waswe got up on stage and sang a
song that we completely made upand was just, oh my gosh. I
could go on and on about thelibrary. I am truly a library
kid, through and through.
Alesia Galati (09:39):
I love that. What about you? Erin, yeah, I mean,
Erin (09:42):
not dissimilar. I have really strong core memories of
the small branch in my hometown.
There was one big publiclibrary, and then there was a
small neighborhood branch, andthat was where my mom took us. I
think it was like, I'm theoldest of five kids. I think it
was. Because the footprint ofthat library was pretty small,
and she could probably let usroam pretty safely without
(10:04):
losing one of us in the largerbranch. But really great, lovely
children's section, amazingchildren's programming, and just
like Jillian's Mrs. Jarvis, Ialso remember our librarian
Sherry, and Sherry had, this wasthe 80s. She had beautiful, long
hair, like down to her butt, andshe wore long denim skirts. And
I just thought she was, like,the most stylish person I could
(10:27):
ever hope to be someday. And sheworked with books, and she did
the stamp stamp, you know, likenot a lot of like digitized
systems at this time, like avery analog, tactile experience
at the library, teddy bearpicnics and crafts and story
time and all kinds of puppetperformers and things that would
come and like we had reallyamazing access to a lot of
(10:49):
things that just make childhoodfun and inspire creativity and
inspire kids to use theirimaginations and take risks. I
as an early early reader, wasobsessed with books on tape, and
I'm sure that books on tape, inpart, taught me how to read,
because I love to play andfollow along with the words and
read those early readers. Andthen as my reading advanced and
(11:10):
became more sophisticated, Ijust felt like the library was a
place where I felt Rich, Ididn't grow up as like a family
of means. And it certainlywouldn't have been possible. We
were a single family income, bigfamily wouldn't have been
possible for my mom to take meto, you know, Kohl's, which is
the Canadian version of Barnesand Noble at the time, at least,
(11:33):
and say, Hey, Erin, likewhatever books tickle your
fancy. Let's pick those up. Butshe could do that for us at the
library. And once I reallybecame a voracious reader around
the age of 1011 maybe even alittle bit younger 910, 11, I
would take home stacks ofBabysitters Club or Nancy Drew
or Sweet Valley High, orgoosebumps or whatever, and I
(11:54):
would try to, just like, reallyload them up and come home to
the point. At one point, I wasso addicted to Babysitters Club
from the library that my mombanned me for the summer, and
she made me read Jane Eyre, andI wasn't allowed to take out any
more Babysitters Club from thelibrary until I finished Jane
Eyre. And to this day, Iremember the smell of that Jane
(12:16):
Eyre book and the color of itfrom the library. And I was
like, I can't wait to returnthis god awful book to the I
think I was nine. I think I wasI was in grade four, so it was
the summer of grade four, so, sothat just goes to show. I love
teasing my mom about that storynow, but yeah, so like, majorly
significant influence in mylife, not just as a reader of
(12:38):
those bingeable contemporarykids books. But, you know, I got
into the classics a little bitunder duress. Talk about
Alesia Galati (12:47):
duress. I cannot imagine, I have a 10 year old. I
cannot imagine forcing him toread something like Jane Eyre or
any of its counterparts at thisage because he wouldn't stand it
wait. Like that vocabulary isway over his head. Yeah? Oh, my
goodness, yeah. Oh man. And I'mover here. I've got a really
(13:10):
nice version of Jane Eyre andWuthering Heights, yeah? But my
husband got me because I loveWuthering Heights, a huge fan.
So yeah, it's
Erin (13:17):
like the beginning of your romance. Your your love of
romance. Can start with some ofthose Bronte sisters, for sure.
Yeah, yeah,
Alesia Galati (13:24):
that's so powerful, though. Like that you
guys have those core memories,and you can place those people
that were there in thosemoments. Now, both of you are
moms. I'm curious how youintegrate your love of the
library, even now, in gettingyour kids to love the library as
well. Has it worked? Has it notworked? What does that kind of
(13:45):
feel like for you guys,
Jillian O'Keefe (13:47):
we pretty much go to the library once a week
more in the summer. We're moreconsistent come to school year
week less than a bit. But it hasdefinitely helped with emmett's
reading. He would go and hewould grab a stack, a huge stack
of graphic novels and bring themhome and read through them.
Esther, we're still working on.
She still doesn't have the loveof reading. She still says she
(14:09):
hates reading, but I think it'sbecause she's still, you know,
everything is new to her. She'sin third grade, so she's still
technically learning how to readand big words and everything. So
it's a bit of a struggle withher, but she does love being
read, too, and we do read. I doread to her every night. So we
pick up books right now. We'rereally into, like, Sweet Valley
(14:31):
High type books, but they'rethis generation's version of
those. So it has helped. Butwe're it's a we're a work in
progress.
Erin (14:45):
I'm so lucky to live within walking distance to our
local library branch, and I'malso lucky it's a very small
footprint as well. So I alsohave that experience as a mom of
just like, let's go to thelibrary, run loose. I really
don't care what you do so long.
Is you're not being like, loud,disrespectful or dangerous, and
I can keep a very close eye onmy kids. Like the children's
section is probably the samesize as my living room, so it's,
(15:08):
you know, very cozy, amazingchildren's programming. I also
wish we were there more often. Ido find that when we go it's
this very sort of unstructuredpart of their own exploration.
And sometimes when I go I'mlike, being very specific. I'm
picking up my holds, I'mreturning books. I might peruse
(15:28):
the shelves a little bit, butgoing to the library for me has
become like, about efficiency,and going to the library for
them is a lot about, like,exploration and play and fun. So
I often do find I have to checkmyself and kind of temper the
amount of time that I might haveexpected to spend there versus
the amount of time that theymight want to spend there. My
youngest son, Beckett, is areader, but he's kind of a
(15:51):
reader on repeat. He likes thesame book every night before
bed. He loves those sort ofanthologies of superheroes. So
like, it's like, 10 storiesabout Spider Man, or 10 stories
about Star Wars or what haveyou. And he likes to kind of
pick out of the cup the Table ofContents. But those are really
on repeat, and those are oftenthe books that we own, and
(16:12):
they're kind of, you know, thebooks that make you go cross
eyed as a parent. You're like, Ijust can't read about Magneto
one more time. I'm so bored ofthis but, but you do, and that's
also part of like young childrenand their literacy is gaining
comfort with words and cadenceand the oral storytelling time
and time again. They don'talways want that exposure to
novelty the way that I mightwant as an adult, my middle son
(16:33):
Henry is really gotten intochildren's contemporary fiction,
what I would consider middlegrade fiction, so chapter books
that take kids through a plotthat probably has three acts,
maybe altogether. He justrecently finished the wild Robot
series. He's moving on to theone and only Ivan series. Henry
is who I would call my reader,but that's probably just because
(16:56):
he reads in a way that Iidentify with, and so I also
kind of like pay attention tothat as a parent. Now, the other
thing that we talked about thelibrary as like a physical
structure we've benefited fromas a family. The other thing
I've really benefited from as amom is Libby and hoopla, which
are two library apps. They'relicensed library apps. It's
usually Libby. There may beother programs that provide you
(17:18):
licensed book content, digitalcontent, online. And hoopla is
another one. And my son,William, is a voracious reader.
Again. He's like Beckett. He'sgot on repeat the Harry Potter
audio book series, so he hasprobably read on audio the
entire audio book series ofHarry Potter at least four times
through. And this also kind ofdrives me crazy, because I want
(17:42):
him to experience that novelty.
I would also love it if he wouldnot be reading Harry Potter
anymore and he could experiencesome more diverse reading. But
I'm trying, as a mom, to meethim where he's at, and I also am
carrying that experience of JaneEyre and my mom telling me I had
to stop reading BabysittersClub, so I'm also kind of, you
(18:03):
know, trying to mediate that alittle bit, but he wouldn't have
access to those audiobookswithout the library, because
they're audiobooks that areaccessible through those apps.
And so yeah, that's kind of howthe library is helping me raise
readers as a parent. And I dofind that it's sometimes a
little bit less about, like, thephysical structure of the
library the way it was when Iwas a kid, and it is becoming
(18:24):
more about my kids,accessibility to varieties of
content, to varieties of authorsand variety points of view as
they get older.
Alesia Galati (18:32):
So for me as a parent, I have found and my
husband tends to take themduring the week, since he
homeschools them, but when weall go. The first thing they
want to do is they want to go tothe iPad station. Yeah, our
library recently moved to a verylarge place, and so it is like
huge. The whole bottom floor isthe children's section. There
(18:57):
are rooms off to the back whereit's not like one Saturday a
month, they have a service dogcome in and you can read to the
service dog, so you just book a30 minute window, which I think
is really cool and just veryunique. For kids who love pets,
they have a STEM program once amonth. They have a Lego club
(19:19):
once a month, there's so manydifferent resources that I feel
like when we go to the library,it's not even for books anymore,
because we have so many books atour house. Like, when I think
about the average person having12 books in their house, I'm
like, Nope, that's not evenclose to what we have. Between
my own collection and thenlooking at the kids collection
(19:41):
when they were very little, wejoined the Why can't I think of
what it's called the DollyParton railroad reading thing?
Jillian O'Keefe (19:51):
Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I
don't know what it's called
Alesia Galati (19:54):
imagination something anyway. So that's
fantastic if you're a newparent. Check that out. You get
a free book every month for yourkid up until there, I want to
say age five, so highlyrecommend, if you're looking and
there's a really diversecollection that you get, which I
really loved a lot when we weredoing that program. Now our kids
(20:15):
have aged out of it, but we haveall those books still that we
can go back and read myyoungest, who's seven, Joey, he
is autistic. He is delayed withhis reading. And so we do a lot
of audio books or reading tohim. We did listen to the wild
robots book, the first one we'reworking on, the second one. We
(20:36):
listened to the first one beforewe went to go see the movie,
because I was like, the movie'scoming out soon. We gotta listen
to the book. And so being ableto then have the conversation
with the younger one about howdid the book differ from the
movie, and just being able tohave access to that audio book
via Libby was just reallyfantastic. And then there are so
(20:56):
many resources, I think, too,for my husband as he homeschools
our kids at the library. So ifhe knows, hey, this month we're
going to be talking about thistopic, then he can grab all the
books, or even sometimes they'llhave those, like, bins of
collections, which are reallycool for him, that have
resources. And so I love it somuch. And when I think back to,
(21:20):
like, my memories of thelibrary, I don't really think I
ever went to the library a lotwhen I was little, but as I got
older, just being able to haveaccess to books, especially
being in a fundamentalistChristian community that allowed
me to have access to booksoutside of what was quote,
unquote approved, and havingthat access, I think, really
(21:43):
allowed me to be like, Oh, wow,there's a world outside of this
cool that's really good to know,because that was obviously a
problem. So, yeah, I think thatlibraries are just so powerful,
and there's so many differentthings that we can use, like
resources that they have. Erin,you mentioned the Libby app.
(22:04):
What are some of those otherresources that you are finding
really work from the librarylike that?
Erin (22:11):
Oh my gosh, yeah. So I toggle between physical print
copies of books and my Libbyapp. I love to read snippets on
my phone. So that is one of theways I make my way through 100
books a year, is I just have theLibby app on my phone, and when
I have like, a spare fiveminutes, I tap into my book and
I'm reading, I'm trying to trainmyself to tap into my Libby app
(22:35):
before I tap into Instagram, sothat I have that, like, you
know, that instinct to get intomy book. So, and I read a fair
number of books, actually juston my phone, on Libby. So you
can get digital print copies ofbooks. You can also sync those
to your Kindle. Or here inCanada, I have a Kobo, which is
a physical like e reader,digital reader. Or if you have
(22:55):
an iPad, you would just use theLibby app the same way you would
access it on your phone. Alsothrough Libby, you can access
audiobooks. The other thing thathas been really key for me, that
I learned during the pandemic issome libraries have what they
call inter library like Libby,licensing, sharing. So my
library card is for the city ofMississauga, where I live, but
(23:19):
on Libby, my card allows me alimited number of books to
borrow from libraries thatsurround my area and are
actually within the province ofOntario. So my one library card
actually allows me access to thecatalog of six different
libraries, which also helps mein the context of how long I'm
waiting for a book on hold,whether I can get that book in
(23:42):
different formats, like a audiobook, for example, it allows me
to tag books that are cominginto the catalog. So sometimes
you might see books upcoming twomonths from now, hop into the
catalog, tag it, and then Libbywill send you a notification
when that book has actually beenadded to the catalog, so that
you can go ahead and get anearly jump on placing a hold on
(24:03):
it. The other thing that I loveda lot I haven't been using it as
much, is using Libby formagazines. So I don't know if,
like, magazines are dead, butevery now and then, I love to,
just like, binge through acouple of magazines on the Libby
app, and you can get access toso many niche magazines, you
know, like, if you have, like,very sub specific quilting for
(24:27):
cats, there's probably aquilting for cats magazine. You
can just really drill down andfind things that meet your
interests where you're at. Andthen the other thing that I
would say also is in terms ofaccessing more diverse books
than what you might find printedin your physical library. So a
(24:48):
lot of the books that might beprinted from indie authors or
books that are maybe going tocome in small print batches and
might not be available, or theremight not be a lot of copies
available in your library, youcan. Find books like that. I
read a really interestingtranslated book this year that I
couldn't find in my physicallibrary, but I found it on
hoopla, so I was able to read atranslated book on hoopla.
(25:10):
Hoopla is similar to Libby. Itallows you access to books
within the hoopla licensedcatalog. You can read them
within the hoopla app, and youcan also find many other things
on hoopla, like movies, somedigital courses. You can also
find through hoopla and yourlibrary probably also has access
(25:31):
to some other canopy is anotherone that has courses and movies
within a limited library, buthonestly, you can only watch one
thing at a time. So, you know, Ithink, I think we, we sometimes
see like, oh, what's on Netflixisn't here, or it didn't have
this one specific thing that Iwanted. I think it's more about
being able to broaden yourhorizons and look for many
(25:53):
things that might suit yourinterests, rather than that one
super hot thing, you know, like,if I'm gonna go to Libby and I
want the brand new Emily Henrybook, I'm going to wait probably
12 weeks, right? But if I wantto go and read something from
the back catalog, from a bookthat I missed way back when, or
that a book that didn't catch myeye, from a diverse author, I'm
(26:14):
probably going to be able to getit in Libby today. That's the
one thing that I just really,really love about Libby,
specifically, overdrive is sortof the general software that
drives that for libraries, andyour library pays a fee to be
able to access that catalog, andI think that it's really opened
up reading for me in more thanjust physical print copies of
(26:35):
books.
Alesia Galati (26:36):
It makes it really accessible for people who
are like, I know one woman whospecifically cannot read
physical or digital because ofsomething with her eyes like she
can see, but when it comes tofocusing on words or focusing on
a page, it's really difficultfor her, and so Having access to
(27:00):
audiobooks that you don't haveto pay premium prices for
Amazon, prices for us. Havingaccess to that, I think, really
allows us to broaden ourhorizons and see other things.
Jillian, what about you? Whatare some of the resources? And
you can tell you, tell us howyou use Libby as well. I know
that's like a big one that a lotof people use, or if you have
(27:20):
any additional ones, I
Jillian O'Keefe (27:21):
actually have to say that I don't use Libby a
whole lot. I really prefer aphysical book. But I will say
that as my eyes worsen, I amenjoying e reader books better,
because you can make the lettersize whatever you want it to be.
So I probably will startutilizing Libby a bit more than
(27:42):
I have been but outside of that,we like to go to the library and
use especially in the summer.
Not so much during the schoolyear, but during the summer,
they have activities where youcan, you know, take part in
them. So we missed it. We therewere too many people signed up,
but they had one for TaylorSwift, where they had the kids
come and they can makefriendship bracelets and listen
(28:02):
to Taylor Swift music. Mydaughter wanted to go so badly,
and I Dilly dallyed and nevermade the appointment on time, so
we they ran out of space. But welike to do those types of
things, where we'll go and havepaint classes and the story
hours, although both of my kidshave aged out of story hours
now, but they still have thestory hours. And every week, the
(28:25):
library that we go to, thelocation we go to, has an arts
or craft out on a table that thekids can color. You can take it
home during the pandemic becausekids weren't really coming in,
or they weren't really lettingpeople into the library, you
could just come in and get apacket, and they had the whole
arts and crafts thing packagedup for you that you could take
and go, which my kids absolutelyloved at the time. And then they
(28:48):
have lots of other things thatwe don't really take advantage
of, where you can borrow Wi Fihotspots and Chromebooks and
different board games and allsorts of things that we don't
even take advantage of, that areall available to people there
that maybe if we didn't haveenough board games of our own,
(29:09):
we would take advantage of. Butwe seem to have whatever comes
out. We're like, Yeah, let'sgive it a try. But yeah, I think
our favorite is definitelytaking part in those activities
that they put on in thesummertime. Mainly, yeah,
Alesia Galati (29:24):
I love the library for that. Ours recently
started offering where you couldborrow puzzles, and I thought
that was such a unique thingthat I don't think I've seen
before. And they were asking fordonations. And I was like, Man,
if I didn't Mod Podge all of mypuzzles that I do, then I would
totally donate them, but they'restuck to walls. So too bad I
(29:48):
love I just love sitting. Andthis is something that I was
actually telling my husband thismorning, something I wanted to
do this weekend, to justrecharge, reset, have a moment
of doing. Something that I loveto do, and I plan on listening
to a Kennedy Ryan book while Ido 1000 piece puzzle. Come
bother me. It's fine. Soundslike heaven. But yes, libraries
(30:11):
have so many resources that wecan use, and I think that they
really allow communities to cometogether in an impactful way as
well, like I think about thesummer bash that our library
does every beginning of summer,where they start their summer
programs, and they always somany people show up, and they're
trying to get people involvedand get people backed into
(30:33):
reading, and also being able to,like, take my kids and say, Hey,
I'm gonna work for an hour. Yougo ahead and play on the iPads
or go look at the books and sitdown in color or read, and
giving them that space to beable to, like, get outside of
the house and do somethingdifferent and be around other
people, I think, really helps.
And then also giving that, likeI said, sense of community, but
(30:58):
then also being able to havediverse conversations and seeing
other people rather than justseeing people that are in our
circle and people that are partof our community. What are some
of those lesser known resourcesthat you have found that your
library offers?
Jillian O'Keefe (31:16):
I think the biggest one that I found
recently is that they are nowlending out Chromebooks and
hotspots. And I know I justmentioned this, but that to me,
if they had that, thankfully,during the pandemic, we had
access to Wi Fi and Internet,and we were fine, but I know
that a lot of people would havebenefited from having that
(31:36):
access during the pandemic,because with everybody in
homeschool, not everybody hadaccess to Wi Fi and or internet
and were lost. You know at howto go through school. I know
some libraries in our area dolend out tools as well, which is
(31:58):
neat, but I don't think ourlocation does, and I don't
really venture into the otherones I could. I'm surrounded by
three or four that aretechnically in my neighborhood,
my, you know, immediate area.
But I just like our I like theone we go to, so
Alesia Galati (32:16):
I stick to it.
What about you, Erin? What aresome of those lesser known
resources that you found?
Erin (32:23):
Well, I mean, just for fun, to be able to answer this
question, I subscribe to mylibrary newsletter, which I
would recommend to anybodylistening. If you're like, not
really sure if your libraryoffers the things that we're
talking about, subscribe totheir newsletter, and you're
going to probably get a biweekly or a monthly newsletter
that's like, hey, here are somethings that we want our library
(32:44):
patrons to understand is comingup and things that we know. So
here's something I got thisemail yesterday. These are some
of the things happening in mylibrary. I do live in a pretty
large urban city, but that beingsaid, there is a Comic Expo
that's going to be happeningnext weekend. There is an author
Talk series. The author istalking about his novel, which
(33:07):
is about history and examininghistory. So if you're into
history and you want to hear anauthor, you could go there's
programs for teens created byteens. So there's some teen
programming by the teen advisorygroup. I didn't know the teen
advisory group was a thing. I'mnot a parent to teenagers yet,
but maybe that is actuallysomething I should know about as
my kids get older, right? Wetalked about our kids aging out
(33:29):
of the storybook programming.
Turns out the library doesn'tforget about you once you get
too old for story time. There'salso a library pop up. So
they've created a library in aspace that doesn't usually have
a library, and I actually happento know that this is an area of
the city that has been affectedby construction of another
library, so they've created apop up. So didn't you know,
(33:49):
access? And then there's someother things about community and
getting out of the house andmaybe meeting some people who
have a different livedexperience than you, or who have
a shared lived experience thanyou, and you don't have to feel
so lonely about your livedexperience, or you don't have to
feel like you're navigatingchallenges alone. The library
can be a huge hub for that. Iknow, after the events of this
(34:09):
week, one of the calls to actionI've heard time and time again
in terms of the events thisweek, we're recording the week
of the US election, but thatbeing said, one of the calls to
action has really been to getout there and get into your
community. Your library can bethe gateway for how you do that,
and if you're like, I don't knowhow to get into my community. I
don't know how to find spacesthat feels scary and
(34:30):
intimidating. Think about goingto your library. My Library has
a manga book club. Who knew mylibrary also hosts a wellness
series for newcomer women.
Newcomer women to Canada. Whatan amazing thing for newcomer
women and in my community, tohave a wellness series provided
by the library. So again, andthat's just from one email
(34:52):
update. And I'm sure there'smore things that I'm not even
aware of, and so I guess maybein terms of the things that.
Your library is doing, the skyis probably the limit, and
borrowing books is the least youcan do at the library, and the
most you can do probably dependson what season of life you're
in, what your needs are, and howwilling you are to sort of let
(35:15):
your library meet you whereyou're at. I
Jillian O'Keefe (35:18):
actually had a reminder I was just looking at
my library website, because Idon't know if we have a library
newsletter, so I'm trying tofind out if we do. But I was
reminded that we also cansuggest a purchase. It's super
simple, where you just go in andyou give your library ID number
and the title of the book, theauthor, the ISBN number and
(35:42):
where you want to pick it up.
Most of the time they approvethem. I think our library does
within three years. If the bookis older than three years, they
won't buy it. But if it's olderthan three years and they can't
find it, you usually can dointerlibrary loan then. So that
was another one that I justreminded myself of another
service. Yeah,
Alesia Galati (35:59):
speaking of holds and loans and requesting books.
Let's talk tips, tricks, thingsthat are really working for you
guys to be able to do that,because I know a lot of people
might go to their website andthink, What am I looking for?
What am I doing? I've got theLibby app, but I want to be able
to figure out more. Jillianfirst, what are some very quick
(36:21):
and easy ways that youpersonally use the tools that
you have to be able to manageyour holds and borrow books and
all that fun stuff.
Jillian O'Keefe (36:29):
So my favorite tip that I learned from
Instagram is that when you wanta book, like a brand new book is
coming out, and you're maybethree months out from it being
published. You can go to yourlibrary, most libraries anyway,
and you can request that bookbefore it's even in their
catalog. Like most books, orrather, most libraries will have
(36:49):
a placeholder for that book thatyou can then request it ahead of
time and bump shoot at the topof the line. You still may have
a small weight, but you won'thave have as much of a weight as
if you wait until the book comesout and then you're putting your
name in there. Now that is awonderful thing, because then
you get the new book, and youget that new book smell, and you
(37:12):
don't have to deal with thesmell of other people's hands
all over the books, but at thesame time Erin's laughing so
hard, because this comes up inour podcast a lot, because I
really cannot stand the smell ofother people's hands on the
books, which is like, Why do youlove the library so much? Most
of the time, if you get a bookthat has been used frequently,
(37:33):
you run into this, but a lot ofthe books don't if they're not
read regularly, then they justsmell like the shelves anyway.
This is a wonderful thing too,but it also can run into issues,
because then if the book comesin at the same time as others,
you find yourself with a wholestack of books coming in at the
same time, and then you have tofigure out which ones you're
(37:55):
going to read before you returnthem. That is my absolute
favorite trick, and I share itwith everyone that I can,
because not everybody knowsabout it, and it's saves you
time, like in the long run, whenyou get that book to finally
come in. Yeah,
Alesia Galati (38:10):
so good. What about you, Erin? What's your
favorite tip or trick that youuse for the library that maybe
people don't even realize?
Erin (38:19):
Yeah, my favorite tip is a Libby tip. So Libby has not just
a search, but they also havesomething they call the Deep
Search. And you can use thisagain to find books that the
library will probably buy, notthat they've bought yet, not
that they have a licenseddigital copy of yet, but a copy
that they will probably beadding in. And you can, if you
(38:41):
use deep search, place a hold ona book well before its
publication date. So forexample, and I apologize, I
really wanted to think of adiverse author, but the first
book that came to my mind isOnyx storm by Rebecca yaros,
which is the third book in thefourth wing trilogy. This is the
third book. This book is peopleare going to go bananas for this
(39:02):
book, who knows if it's going tobe good or not. But I've been
able to now put a hold on theaudiobook copy using the deep
search. When I used regularsearch, when I searched Onyx
storm, regular search, I didn'tfind it. You do have to scroll
down in your search function.
Scroll down in your searchresults, tap deep search. It
usually shows up at the bottomof your search. Sometimes it's
(39:23):
not available in all libraries,but if your library has the deep
search function, then you canuse that, and you can really get
what feels like first in line,premium access to some of those
very, very hot off the shelvesbooks. Yeah,
Alesia Galati (39:40):
I don't think anybody like I've seen people
mention deep search, but I'venever had anyone Express
actually how to get to it's likethe dark web. No one knows how
to get there unless you know howto get there. So I love that you
gave us that tip, because that'sreally helpful for sure. Thank
you so much. What about loaningbooks? I know you both go pick
(40:01):
up books that you're like, nope.
These are ones that I am goingto borrow and put them on hold.
How do you go about doing that?
I'm guessing it's probably notthrough the Libby app. Is it
through an app with yourlibrary, or through the website?
Or what does that kind of looklike?
Jillian O'Keefe (40:14):
I do it through the library website. We don't
have an app. I don't believethey obviously the Libya. We do
have Libby and we have hoopla,but we don't have an app itself
for the requesting of books, butit's it is mobile friendly. So I
do use my phone a lot, and Ijust go in and search up the
book that I want, and then onthe side of the screen there is
(40:39):
a little down arrow that pops upa different options. You can
request the book. I think one isemail it the details. And then
there's one other option that Idon't know. And so I just always
tap on request book, and then itpops up a little screen, and
it'll say, where do you want topick this up? And mine auto
fills with my location, myfavorite library location. And
(41:00):
then you just click okay, andyou're good to go. And then you
wait, depending on if it's a newrelease or an older book, you
wait and see how long it's goingto take to get to you. Most of
the time, if it's a new release,you're going to have a long
wait. And you can tell that howlong your wait is by going into
your account and into holds andthen scrolling to where your
(41:23):
book is, and it'll say on theside, it'll say it doesn't give
a weeks at my library, it maybeit doesn't Libby, but physical
books, it'll tell you whatnumber you are in line. So I'm
waiting on the wedding people,and I've been waiting on that
one for a long time, and I'mlike 95 now out of when I first
signed up for it, I was like 170somethings. It's slowly ticking
(41:46):
down.
Erin (41:47):
I feel really lucky. My Library recently released an
app, and it feels similar to thebrowser, web browser experience,
so I can't put any physicalholds through Libby. Libby is
exclusively my digital readingexperience, and then I use my
Library app, but it's very easy.
It basically tells me I have,like, a little dashboard. It
tells me how many books areoverdue, how many are due soon.
(42:10):
I like that because it helps memanage my TBR, if I know what's
going to be due soon, then Ibump it up in the reading list.
It also tells me how many booksare on hold that are waiting for
me at the library and ready forpickup, and it also tells me if
I have fees due. Now, my libraryis fine, free, but there are
sometimes fees associated stillwith using the library. Maybe if
(42:30):
I lost a book and I need toreplace it, for example. The
other thing that I love about myLibrary app is that you may have
found yourself like in Barnesand Noble or a bookstore, an
independent bookstore, andyou're like, you know what? I
think I'm going to look for thatbook at the library that looks
really interesting, but I'm notgoing to buy it. You make a
(42:51):
conscious decision not to payfor it. You want to find it in
your library, My Library app. Sonormally, what I would do is
take a picture of the cover,right? Take a picture of the
cover and let it languish inyour photo role until you never
think about it again, and you'rejust trying to create space on
your phone, and you delete it,and you never get to that book.
So my Library app in the searchhas a search function, but it
(43:13):
also has this little barcode. IfI tap on the barcode, it opens
up a camera that my camera appand my camera can scan the book
barcode and search my librarycatalog for the book in real
time. So like, if that's not agateway drug, I don't know what
is in terms of borrowing booksat the library, but I am really,
really proud and really excitedabout what our library is doing.
(43:37):
I feel like this is a verycontemporary library experience
in this app. And I appreciatethat.
Alesia Galati (43:44):
Oh, that's so fun. I like that. Using the
storygraph app for that when I'mat a at Barnes and Noble and I'm
like, am I gonna this book? Andthen I can scan it, yeah, and
see what the mood is of it. Isit something I'm gonna lag? And
then they have the AI generatedsection where it'll tell you,
Hey, you read similar books. Ifyou like these, then you'll
(44:07):
enjoy this book. Or you said youdon't like informative books.
People have said this isinformative. So it might be
something you're interestedbecause of this, but you might
be outside of the realm ofsomething you want. And so I
really like the story graph appfor that. But now I want to
check and see if my library hasan app. Because they're they've
got so many resources andthings. I'm like, you gotta have
(44:29):
an app now, guys, come on. Yeah,I think it would be so good. So
before we say goodbye, tell us abit about your podcast. Tell us
how it started what people canexpect from your guys' show.
Erin (44:44):
Yeah, so medium lady reads is a spin off of my single one
woman show podcast called mediumlady talks. And I had a couple
seasons of medium lady talksrunning, and I found that every
quarter I had a really heftyamount of book content that I
wanted. To share with theaudience, and it just kind of
became clear to me that I hadenough to actually spin off and
(45:05):
create a reading centric podcastwithin the medium lady universe.
And I call myself medium ladybecause I'm not an old lady and
I'm not a young lady, I'm smackin the middle. I'm a medium
lady, and Jillian and I havebeen book besties for a long,
time. And so I approached herand said, Listen, I'm thinking
of doing this spin off podcast.
I really need a co host, and Ithink you would be perfect.
(45:27):
Would you please, please,please, please, please, consider
doing it with me. Andthankfully, Jillian said yes,
and she was very excited. So,yeah, we're in our second
season. We have over 30 episodesat this point when you're
listening, listeners probablyupwards of maybe 50 episodes for
you to catch on to. And we lovethe library. We really emphasize
(45:47):
reading as self care. We talkoften about how we're using the
library and what we're puttingon hold and what we're
returning, and it's often a bigpart of our conversation. We're
consuming books 90% of the timethrough the library, and then we
also love to dive into bookconversations. So what are the
hot takes out there in terms ofbook culture? You know, lot of
(46:09):
hot takes right now about whoshould and shouldn't be reading,
smut Alesia, a lot of hot takeson like, do we police what women
read what women don't read? Soyeah, we get into those kinds of
topics over there. And it's areal joy for me, specifically to
sit down every two weeks andjust talk books. We both try to
bring reviews to the show ofwhat we've read recently. We try
(46:32):
to make apt recommendations forwhy you might like it, why you
might want to pass and yeah, wefeel like the listener is the
third person at the table whenthey listen to Jillian and I
chat back and forth about books,we want you to feel like you're
also you're also there with yourtea and your books, and you're
like, oh my gosh, yeah. Or no,never. Or as adding to my TBR
immediately. You know, we oftenhear that from our listeners
(46:54):
that they're chiming in as thethird person on Mike, so, yeah,
Jillian, I don't know what wouldyou add? I
Jillian O'Keefe (47:01):
will add that when Erin asked me if I would do
the podcast with her, I wasbeyond excited, because I had
been going back and forth in myhead that maybe I wanted to
start a podcast about books, butI wasn't really sure what
direction to go in and I didn'tknow if I really wanted to do it
myself, and it was absolutelyperfect timing, so I was very
excited to jump on the bandwagonand do this with her. Yes,
Alesia Galati (47:26):
I love you guys' show. I love that I was able to
be on to talk about our bipocchallenge. Are doing it again in
2025 as well. So that was somuch fun. And I appreciate you
guys for allowing me to be inyour space where you guys
haven't really had any guests,so appreciate that. No, so much.
Yes, love it, and then I woulddefinitely wanted to
(47:49):
reciprocate, because you guysunderstand the point of this and
the point of having theseconversations, and how this can
be a really valuable resourcefor other people who care about
these things but maybe feel alittle alienated, or are just
there for the scroll onInstagram and don't really
(48:10):
realize a lot of theconversations that those of us
in the bookish space are havingin the DMS, right? So I wanted
to create space for that, and soI appreciate you guys for being
on the show. Thank you so much,Jillian. Where can people find
you? Get to know you, hang outwith you.
Jillian O'Keefe (48:29):
I am predominantly on Instagram, and
my handle there is at Jillianfinding happy if you want to
join and follow the podcast thatis at medium lady reads, and
that's where we post all sortsof different funny reels. Erin
is such a guru when it comes toposting these funny reels. She's
so good at it. So we have abunch of funny reels, but we
(48:52):
also have things about thecontent and our episodes. And so
you can follow us over there tohear more about the podcast. And
Alesia Galati (48:58):
Erin, where can they connect with
Erin (49:00):
you, yeah, so you can connect with me on Instagram.
I'm at medium dot lady, and I doa little bit of book content
there, but I do a lot ofmotherhood millennial content
there, really trying to fightthat upward climb, against
burnout and live as mindfully aspossible. So yeah, if you want
to connect, we would love toknow that you came from the
(49:22):
show, so please hop in our DMS.
Send us a message if you heardthis episode. And Bucha friends
are the best friends, so we'rehappy to meet more readers.
Unknown (49:37):
Ya.
Get ready to unlock the secrets of your local
library. We're joined by thelibrary aficionados from medium
lady reads to discuss everythingfrom hidden gems to maximizing
your library experience.
Listener discretion is advisedthis podcast contains mature
content intended for adultaudiences only. Jillian Erin, I
(00:22):
am so thrilled to have you onthe medium. Ladies read
podcasters. Jillian, let's startwith you. What did your adult
reading journey look like? So
Jillian O'Keefe (00:39):
I've been reading my whole life, but there
was a span of time where I wasonly reading personal
development business books, andI swore those were the only
books that I was ever going toread, and I had no interest in
fiction. And what was fiction?
Even though my childhood wasfull of fiction, but the
pandemic hit, and I was in needof some entertainment, and a
(01:04):
friend had encouraged me tostart reading some fictional
books. So I grabbed some andpretty much plowed through all
of them, I think that year Istarted maybe reading in May
ish, and I read 50 books, whichI was super proud of, because I
(01:26):
had only read maybe 16 inprevious years. And then since
then, I've been reading about100 a year, and it's been
predominantly fiction, maybe apersonal development or business
book spaced in there, but forthe most part, it's been
fiction, and I've loved it, evenwith the lulls that I hit. It
(01:48):
doesn't stop me from picking upanother book. It's kind of like,
okay, so that book wasn't great.
I didn't really love it, or I'mnot really feeling reading right
now, but I'm still gonna pick upa book. I'm still gonna have a
book in process, and that ispretty much how things are
today. Oh, I
Alesia Galati (02:05):
love that, Erin.
What about you? Yeah,
Erin (02:09):
I mean, not too dissimilar to Jillian's journey as an adult
reader. I've definitely been areader all my life, and also
been a library user my wholelife as well. But I definitely
feel like the last five yearspost pandemic have seen like
exponential growth in myidentity as a reader, my
(02:29):
practice as a reader, how I seereading as a really essential
part of my like day to dayroutine definitely started in
April of 2020, so on mediumlady, which is my Instagram
account, I give myself a monthlyplan, and it's usually for self
care, and it's usually lighthearted things that I feel like
(02:51):
are really going to kind of meetme where I'm at every month. And
in April of 2020, I said,Listen, like we're all at home.
I was at home with two kids, myhusband and my seven month old
son. So full house, kind ofunknown times. What are we
really going to do? And so Ipurposefully said, I'm going to
take a mindset of I'd rather bereading. So April was my month
(03:13):
of like, I'd rather be reading.
And I purposefully set a TBR,which I'd never done in the
past. I'd kind of like, stumbledupon a book here, or someone
had, you know, suggested a bookover there, or perhaps I saw
something in a magazinepromoting a book, or Oprah was
talking about something, and Iwas just kind of stumbling my
way one book to the next, notreally thinking purposefully
about when this book is over,what am I going to read after
(03:35):
that? And so it was really thatApril of 2020, where I picked
four books that I was going toread, and they were not intense.
I think one of them was acookbook. One of them was three
women by Lisa Taddeo. There weretwo other books. And those four
books, I just made my waythrough them in April, and I
realized, like, wow, that feltso good to know what I was going
(03:57):
to read. And then in May of 2020and then following, early June
of 2020, after George Floyd wasmurdered, there was this real
encouragement and call to actionto diversify your reading. And I
reflected in myself, as a whitewoman, that I really had not
been thinking proactively aboutthat at all in my life, but it
(04:19):
was coming on the tail of thispurposeful reading. What that
evolved into was purposefulreading, diversifying my
shelves, diversifying myreading, following creators and
content creators who weretalking about books, talking
about diverse books. And thenthat kind of like one thing led
to another, led to another. NowI track my books. I read over
100 books a year. I lovereviews. I know people are kind
(04:42):
of mixed on reviews. Ipersonally love reviewing a book
after I've read it. I loverecommending books to people. I
love reading broadly. So I readfrom a broad category of genre.
I read from a broad category ofage ranges. I definitely read.
Predominantly fiction. I wouldsay 80% of my reading is
fiction, and this year, about45% of my reading is diverse. So
(05:04):
now I like track mathematicallywhat I'm reading and it and I
cannot live without it. So it'sa huge thing. My kids have grown
up in the last five years.
Seeing me read all the time,it's influencing them, and so
yeah, it's kind of taken on alife of its own. But I wouldn't
be who I am right now withoutthat part of my identity really
(05:27):
intact and really nourished andthriving. Yes,
Alesia Galati (05:31):
oh, it's so powerful. I think reading as an
adult and like coming to lovereading in a different way and
then being like, Oh, wait, Ishould probably be more
intentional about this. Let's goahead and reassess where we're
at. I know I definitely had mymy moment of that as well. Even
as a woman from the biopodcommunity, I was like, wait, I'm
(05:53):
not reading as diversely as Iwant to. It was definitely a
wake up call, and I was reallydisappointed with myself and my
numbers, but it was seeing thosenumbers allowed me to say, How
can I do better? And that'swhere I think tracking our
reading is such a powerful toolto help us be more curated in
and like I'm a mood reader, Icannot set a TVR. I get very
(06:15):
picky about that, but I canstill be really intentional
about what types of authors I'mreading, and, you know,
borrowing from my KindleUnlimited account, but libraries
that is such a powerful tool.
And I don't think I reallyrealized the power of the
library until I was a intern inNew York City. Barely any money.
(06:39):
It was like just neededentertainment, and had no money
to go out and have fun and dostuff. And so we would, me and
my roommate, we'd go to thelocal library, and we would
borrow books, and we wouldborrow movies to watch on a very
old laptop that I had. And likeit was dorm ish living in New
York City. And so that's where Iwas like, Oh man, the library is
(07:03):
so awesome. And then havingkids, and being like, wow, our
library, especiallyhomeschooling our kids, our
library has so many resourcesfor homeschooled kids, so many
resources for little ones. Andso we started going a lot more
regularly, and just absolutelyfell in love with all of the
(07:25):
programs and all of the thingsthey had available to them. And
then realizing in the last yearor so, I would say that wait,
the library also has digitalbooks that I can borrow. I had
no idea before then, and so thatopened up the idea of, oh, wow,
okay, I can borrow books fromthe library, or I can borrow
audio books from the library.
(07:47):
That's really cool, too for meas someone who, even though
behind me you can see hundredsof books really like to read on
my Kindle app, it's a problemseveral hobbies, buying books,
talking about books, and thenreading books. So we're not
going to get into that. Yes,absolutely. But Jillian, we'll
(08:08):
go back to you. What was yourfirst memory of the library, and
when did it really becomesomething that was really
meaningful for you?
Jillian O'Keefe (08:16):
Oh my gosh, I have so many memories of the
library because when we werekids, we went there regularly,
especially during the summer, wewould go and they would have all
sorts of activities. They hadtalent shows and story hours and
all sorts of stuff. I've toldErin this story before. They had
animals, guinea pigs andhamsters and little furry
(08:40):
animals, rodents, essentially,which I would not want to touch.
Now, as a as an adult, but as achild, it was amazing. I think
my for one of my first memories,is probably the story hours
going, and I can still rememberthe smell of the paste that we
used to make whatever artproject we were working on. I
(09:00):
remember the story. Our teacherwas Mrs. Jarvis, and she was so
kind. She always wore, like,very dainty, delicate bracelets
on her wrist. And like, Iremember everything about her,
and it was such a good time togo there. And of course, there
was always books too, but it wasalways more about the social
(09:21):
aspect. I like I mentioned thetalent show going with my sister
and we my cousin. I think it waswe got up on stage and sang a
song that we completely made upand was just, oh my gosh. I
could go on and on about thelibrary. I am truly a library
kid, through and through.
Alesia Galati (09:39):
I love that. What about you? Erin, yeah, I mean,
Erin (09:42):
not dissimilar. I have really strong core memories of
the small branch in my hometown.
There was one big publiclibrary, and then there was a
small neighborhood branch, andthat was where my mom took us. I
think it was like, I'm theoldest of five kids. I think it
was. Because the footprint ofthat library was pretty small,
and she could probably let usroam pretty safely without
(10:04):
losing one of us in the largerbranch. But really great, lovely
children's section, amazingchildren's programming, and just
like Jillian's Mrs. Jarvis, Ialso remember our librarian
Sherry, and Sherry had, this wasthe 80s. She had beautiful, long
hair, like down to her butt, andshe wore long denim skirts. And
I just thought she was, like,the most stylish person I could
(10:27):
ever hope to be someday. And sheworked with books, and she did
the stamp stamp, you know, likenot a lot of like digitized
systems at this time, like avery analog, tactile experience
at the library, teddy bearpicnics and crafts and story
time and all kinds of puppetperformers and things that would
come and like we had reallyamazing access to a lot of
(10:49):
things that just make childhoodfun and inspire creativity and
inspire kids to use theirimaginations and take risks. I
as an early early reader, wasobsessed with books on tape, and
I'm sure that books on tape, inpart, taught me how to read,
because I love to play andfollow along with the words and
read those early readers. Andthen as my reading advanced and
(11:10):
became more sophisticated, Ijust felt like the library was a
place where I felt Rich, Ididn't grow up as like a family
of means. And it certainlywouldn't have been possible. We
were a single family income, bigfamily wouldn't have been
possible for my mom to take meto, you know, Kohl's, which is
the Canadian version of Barnesand Noble at the time, at least,
(11:33):
and say, Hey, Erin, likewhatever books tickle your
fancy. Let's pick those up. Butshe could do that for us at the
library. And once I reallybecame a voracious reader around
the age of 1011 maybe even alittle bit younger 910, 11, I
would take home stacks ofBabysitters Club or Nancy Drew
or Sweet Valley High, orgoosebumps or whatever, and I
(11:54):
would try to, just like, reallyload them up and come home to
the point. At one point, I wasso addicted to Babysitters Club
from the library that my mombanned me for the summer, and
she made me read Jane Eyre, andI wasn't allowed to take out any
more Babysitters Club from thelibrary until I finished Jane
Eyre. And to this day, Iremember the smell of that Jane
(12:16):
Eyre book and the color of itfrom the library. And I was
like, I can't wait to returnthis god awful book to the I
think I was nine. I think I wasI was in grade four, so it was
the summer of grade four, so, sothat just goes to show. I love
teasing my mom about that storynow, but yeah, so like, majorly
significant influence in mylife, not just as a reader of
(12:38):
those bingeable contemporarykids books. But, you know, I got
into the classics a little bitunder duress. Talk about
Alesia Galati (12:47):
duress. I cannot imagine, I have a 10 year old. I
cannot imagine forcing him toread something like Jane Eyre or
any of its counterparts at thisage because he wouldn't stand it
wait. Like that vocabulary isway over his head. Yeah? Oh, my
goodness, yeah. Oh man. And I'mover here. I've got a really
(13:10):
nice version of Jane Eyre andWuthering Heights, yeah? But my
husband got me because I loveWuthering Heights, a huge fan.
So yeah, it's
Erin (13:17):
like the beginning of your romance. Your your love of
romance. Can start with some ofthose Bronte sisters, for sure.
Yeah, yeah,
Alesia Galati (13:24):
that's so powerful, though. Like that you
guys have those core memories,and you can place those people
that were there in thosemoments. Now, both of you are
moms. I'm curious how youintegrate your love of the
library, even now, in gettingyour kids to love the library as
well. Has it worked? Has it notworked? What does that kind of
(13:45):
feel like for you guys,
Jillian O'Keefe (13:47):
we pretty much go to the library once a week
more in the summer. We're moreconsistent come to school year
week less than a bit. But it hasdefinitely helped with emmett's
reading. He would go and hewould grab a stack, a huge stack
of graphic novels and bring themhome and read through them.
Esther, we're still working on.
She still doesn't have the loveof reading. She still says she
(14:09):
hates reading, but I think it'sbecause she's still, you know,
everything is new to her. She'sin third grade, so she's still
technically learning how to readand big words and everything. So
it's a bit of a struggle withher, but she does love being
read, too, and we do read. I doread to her every night. So we
pick up books right now. We'rereally into, like, Sweet Valley
(14:31):
High type books, but they'rethis generation's version of
those. So it has helped. Butwe're it's a we're a work in
progress.
Erin (14:45):
I'm so lucky to live within walking distance to our
local library branch, and I'malso lucky it's a very small
footprint as well. So I alsohave that experience as a mom of
just like, let's go to thelibrary, run loose. I really
don't care what you do so long.
Is you're not being like, loud,disrespectful or dangerous, and
I can keep a very close eye onmy kids. Like the children's
section is probably the samesize as my living room, so it's,
(15:08):
you know, very cozy, amazingchildren's programming. I also
wish we were there more often. Ido find that when we go it's
this very sort of unstructuredpart of their own exploration.
And sometimes when I go I'mlike, being very specific. I'm
picking up my holds, I'mreturning books. I might peruse
(15:28):
the shelves a little bit, butgoing to the library for me has
become like, about efficiency,and going to the library for
them is a lot about, like,exploration and play and fun. So
I often do find I have to checkmyself and kind of temper the
amount of time that I might haveexpected to spend there versus
the amount of time that theymight want to spend there. My
youngest son, Beckett, is areader, but he's kind of a
(15:51):
reader on repeat. He likes thesame book every night before
bed. He loves those sort ofanthologies of superheroes. So
like, it's like, 10 storiesabout Spider Man, or 10 stories
about Star Wars or what haveyou. And he likes to kind of
pick out of the cup the Table ofContents. But those are really
on repeat, and those are oftenthe books that we own, and
(16:12):
they're kind of, you know, thebooks that make you go cross
eyed as a parent. You're like, Ijust can't read about Magneto
one more time. I'm so bored ofthis but, but you do, and that's
also part of like young childrenand their literacy is gaining
comfort with words and cadenceand the oral storytelling time
and time again. They don'talways want that exposure to
novelty the way that I mightwant as an adult, my middle son
(16:33):
Henry is really gotten intochildren's contemporary fiction,
what I would consider middlegrade fiction, so chapter books
that take kids through a plotthat probably has three acts,
maybe altogether. He justrecently finished the wild Robot
series. He's moving on to theone and only Ivan series. Henry
is who I would call my reader,but that's probably just because
(16:56):
he reads in a way that Iidentify with, and so I also
kind of like pay attention tothat as a parent. Now, the other
thing that we talked about thelibrary as like a physical
structure we've benefited fromas a family. The other thing
I've really benefited from as amom is Libby and hoopla, which
are two library apps. They'relicensed library apps. It's
usually Libby. There may beother programs that provide you
(17:18):
licensed book content, digitalcontent, online. And hoopla is
another one. And my son,William, is a voracious reader.
Again. He's like Beckett. He'sgot on repeat the Harry Potter
audio book series, so he hasprobably read on audio the
entire audio book series ofHarry Potter at least four times
through. And this also kind ofdrives me crazy, because I want
(17:42):
him to experience that novelty.
I would also love it if he wouldnot be reading Harry Potter
anymore and he could experiencesome more diverse reading. But
I'm trying, as a mom, to meethim where he's at, and I also am
carrying that experience of JaneEyre and my mom telling me I had
to stop reading BabysittersClub, so I'm also kind of, you
(18:03):
know, trying to mediate that alittle bit, but he wouldn't have
access to those audiobookswithout the library, because
they're audiobooks that areaccessible through those apps.
And so yeah, that's kind of howthe library is helping me raise
readers as a parent. And I dofind that it's sometimes a
little bit less about, like, thephysical structure of the
library the way it was when Iwas a kid, and it is becoming
(18:24):
more about my kids,accessibility to varieties of
content, to varieties of authorsand variety points of view as
they get older.
Alesia Galati (18:32):
So for me as a parent, I have found and my
husband tends to take themduring the week, since he
homeschools them, but when weall go. The first thing they
want to do is they want to go tothe iPad station. Yeah, our
library recently moved to a verylarge place, and so it is like
huge. The whole bottom floor isthe children's section. There
(18:57):
are rooms off to the back whereit's not like one Saturday a
month, they have a service dogcome in and you can read to the
service dog, so you just book a30 minute window, which I think
is really cool and just veryunique. For kids who love pets,
they have a STEM program once amonth. They have a Lego club
(19:19):
once a month, there's so manydifferent resources that I feel
like when we go to the library,it's not even for books anymore,
because we have so many books atour house. Like, when I think
about the average person having12 books in their house, I'm
like, Nope, that's not evenclose to what we have. Between
my own collection and thenlooking at the kids collection
(19:41):
when they were very little, wejoined the Why can't I think of
what it's called the DollyParton railroad reading thing?
Jillian O'Keefe (19:51):
Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I
don't know what it's called
Alesia Galati (19:54):
imagination something anyway. So that's
fantastic if you're a newparent. Check that out. You get
a free book every month for yourkid up until there, I want to
say age five, so highlyrecommend, if you're looking and
there's a really diversecollection that you get, which I
really loved a lot when we weredoing that program. Now our kids
(20:15):
have aged out of it, but we haveall those books still that we
can go back and read myyoungest, who's seven, Joey, he
is autistic. He is delayed withhis reading. And so we do a lot
of audio books or reading tohim. We did listen to the wild
robots book, the first one we'reworking on, the second one. We
(20:36):
listened to the first one beforewe went to go see the movie,
because I was like, the movie'scoming out soon. We gotta listen
to the book. And so being ableto then have the conversation
with the younger one about howdid the book differ from the
movie, and just being able tohave access to that audio book
via Libby was just reallyfantastic. And then there are so
(20:56):
many resources, I think, too,for my husband as he homeschools
our kids at the library. So ifhe knows, hey, this month we're
going to be talking about thistopic, then he can grab all the
books, or even sometimes they'llhave those, like, bins of
collections, which are reallycool for him, that have
resources. And so I love it somuch. And when I think back to,
(21:20):
like, my memories of thelibrary, I don't really think I
ever went to the library a lotwhen I was little, but as I got
older, just being able to haveaccess to books, especially
being in a fundamentalistChristian community that allowed
me to have access to booksoutside of what was quote,
unquote approved, and havingthat access, I think, really
(21:43):
allowed me to be like, Oh, wow,there's a world outside of this
cool that's really good to know,because that was obviously a
problem. So, yeah, I think thatlibraries are just so powerful,
and there's so many differentthings that we can use, like
resources that they have. Erin,you mentioned the Libby app.
(22:04):
What are some of those otherresources that you are finding
really work from the librarylike that?
Erin (22:11):
Oh my gosh, yeah. So I toggle between physical print
copies of books and my Libbyapp. I love to read snippets on
my phone. So that is one of theways I make my way through 100
books a year, is I just have theLibby app on my phone, and when
I have like, a spare fiveminutes, I tap into my book and
I'm reading, I'm trying to trainmyself to tap into my Libby app
(22:35):
before I tap into Instagram, sothat I have that, like, you
know, that instinct to get intomy book. So, and I read a fair
number of books, actually juston my phone, on Libby. So you
can get digital print copies ofbooks. You can also sync those
to your Kindle. Or here inCanada, I have a Kobo, which is
a physical like e reader,digital reader. Or if you have
(22:55):
an iPad, you would just use theLibby app the same way you would
access it on your phone. Alsothrough Libby, you can access
audiobooks. The other thing thathas been really key for me, that
I learned during the pandemic issome libraries have what they
call inter library like Libby,licensing, sharing. So my
library card is for the city ofMississauga, where I live, but
(23:19):
on Libby, my card allows me alimited number of books to
borrow from libraries thatsurround my area and are
actually within the province ofOntario. So my one library card
actually allows me access to thecatalog of six different
libraries, which also helps mein the context of how long I'm
waiting for a book on hold,whether I can get that book in
(23:42):
different formats, like a audiobook, for example, it allows me
to tag books that are cominginto the catalog. So sometimes
you might see books upcoming twomonths from now, hop into the
catalog, tag it, and then Libbywill send you a notification
when that book has actually beenadded to the catalog, so that
you can go ahead and get anearly jump on placing a hold on
(24:03):
it. The other thing that I loveda lot I haven't been using it as
much, is using Libby formagazines. So I don't know if,
like, magazines are dead, butevery now and then, I love to,
just like, binge through acouple of magazines on the Libby
app, and you can get access toso many niche magazines, you
know, like, if you have, like,very sub specific quilting for
(24:27):
cats, there's probably aquilting for cats magazine. You
can just really drill down andfind things that meet your
interests where you're at. Andthen the other thing that I
would say also is in terms ofaccessing more diverse books
than what you might find printedin your physical library. So a
(24:48):
lot of the books that might beprinted from indie authors or
books that are maybe going tocome in small print batches and
might not be available, or theremight not be a lot of copies
available in your library, youcan. Find books like that. I
read a really interestingtranslated book this year that I
couldn't find in my physicallibrary, but I found it on
hoopla, so I was able to read atranslated book on hoopla.
(25:10):
Hoopla is similar to Libby. Itallows you access to books
within the hoopla licensedcatalog. You can read them
within the hoopla app, and youcan also find many other things
on hoopla, like movies, somedigital courses. You can also
find through hoopla and yourlibrary probably also has access
(25:31):
to some other canopy is anotherone that has courses and movies
within a limited library, buthonestly, you can only watch one
thing at a time. So, you know, Ithink, I think we, we sometimes
see like, oh, what's on Netflixisn't here, or it didn't have
this one specific thing that Iwanted. I think it's more about
being able to broaden yourhorizons and look for many
(25:53):
things that might suit yourinterests, rather than that one
super hot thing, you know, like,if I'm gonna go to Libby and I
want the brand new Emily Henrybook, I'm going to wait probably
12 weeks, right? But if I wantto go and read something from
the back catalog, from a bookthat I missed way back when, or
that a book that didn't catch myeye, from a diverse author, I'm
(26:14):
probably going to be able to getit in Libby today. That's the
one thing that I just really,really love about Libby,
specifically, overdrive is sortof the general software that
drives that for libraries, andyour library pays a fee to be
able to access that catalog, andI think that it's really opened
up reading for me in more thanjust physical print copies of
(26:35):
books.
Alesia Galati (26:36):
It makes it really accessible for people who
are like, I know one woman whospecifically cannot read
physical or digital because ofsomething with her eyes like she
can see, but when it comes tofocusing on words or focusing on
a page, it's really difficultfor her, and so Having access to
(27:00):
audiobooks that you don't haveto pay premium prices for
Amazon, prices for us. Havingaccess to that, I think, really
allows us to broaden ourhorizons and see other things.
Jillian, what about you? Whatare some of the resources? And
you can tell you, tell us howyou use Libby as well. I know
that's like a big one that a lotof people use, or if you have
(27:20):
any additional ones, I
Jillian O'Keefe (27:21):
actually have to say that I don't use Libby a
whole lot. I really prefer aphysical book. But I will say
that as my eyes worsen, I amenjoying e reader books better,
because you can make the lettersize whatever you want it to be.
So I probably will startutilizing Libby a bit more than
(27:42):
I have been but outside of that,we like to go to the library and
use especially in the summer.
Not so much during the schoolyear, but during the summer,
they have activities where youcan, you know, take part in
them. So we missed it. We therewere too many people signed up,
but they had one for TaylorSwift, where they had the kids
come and they can makefriendship bracelets and listen
(28:02):
to Taylor Swift music. Mydaughter wanted to go so badly,
and I Dilly dallyed and nevermade the appointment on time, so
we they ran out of space. But welike to do those types of
things, where we'll go and havepaint classes and the story
hours, although both of my kidshave aged out of story hours
now, but they still have thestory hours. And every week, the
(28:25):
library that we go to, thelocation we go to, has an arts
or craft out on a table that thekids can color. You can take it
home during the pandemic becausekids weren't really coming in,
or they weren't really lettingpeople into the library, you
could just come in and get apacket, and they had the whole
arts and crafts thing packagedup for you that you could take
and go, which my kids absolutelyloved at the time. And then they
(28:48):
have lots of other things thatwe don't really take advantage
of, where you can borrow Wi Fihotspots and Chromebooks and
different board games and allsorts of things that we don't
even take advantage of, that areall available to people there
that maybe if we didn't haveenough board games of our own,
(29:09):
we would take advantage of. Butwe seem to have whatever comes
out. We're like, Yeah, let'sgive it a try. But yeah, I think
our favorite is definitelytaking part in those activities
that they put on in thesummertime. Mainly, yeah,
Alesia Galati (29:24):
I love the library for that. Ours recently
started offering where you couldborrow puzzles, and I thought
that was such a unique thingthat I don't think I've seen
before. And they were asking fordonations. And I was like, Man,
if I didn't Mod Podge all of mypuzzles that I do, then I would
totally donate them, but they'restuck to walls. So too bad I
(29:48):
love I just love sitting. Andthis is something that I was
actually telling my husband thismorning, something I wanted to
do this weekend, to justrecharge, reset, have a moment
of doing. Something that I loveto do, and I plan on listening
to a Kennedy Ryan book while Ido 1000 piece puzzle. Come
bother me. It's fine. Soundslike heaven. But yes, libraries
(30:11):
have so many resources that wecan use, and I think that they
really allow communities to cometogether in an impactful way as
well, like I think about thesummer bash that our library
does every beginning of summer,where they start their summer
programs, and they always somany people show up, and they're
trying to get people involvedand get people backed into
(30:33):
reading, and also being able to,like, take my kids and say, Hey,
I'm gonna work for an hour. Yougo ahead and play on the iPads
or go look at the books and sitdown in color or read, and
giving them that space to beable to, like, get outside of
the house and do somethingdifferent and be around other
people, I think, really helps.
And then also giving that, likeI said, sense of community, but
(30:58):
then also being able to havediverse conversations and seeing
other people rather than justseeing people that are in our
circle and people that are partof our community. What are some
of those lesser known resourcesthat you have found that your
library offers?
Jillian O'Keefe (31:16):
I think the biggest one that I found
recently is that they are nowlending out Chromebooks and
hotspots. And I know I justmentioned this, but that to me,
if they had that, thankfully,during the pandemic, we had
access to Wi Fi and Internet,and we were fine, but I know
that a lot of people would havebenefited from having that
(31:36):
access during the pandemic,because with everybody in
homeschool, not everybody hadaccess to Wi Fi and or internet
and were lost. You know at howto go through school. I know
some libraries in our area dolend out tools as well, which is
(31:58):
neat, but I don't think ourlocation does, and I don't
really venture into the otherones I could. I'm surrounded by
three or four that aretechnically in my neighborhood,
my, you know, immediate area.
But I just like our I like theone we go to, so
Alesia Galati (32:16):
I stick to it.
What about you, Erin? What aresome of those lesser known
resources that you found?
Erin (32:23):
Well, I mean, just for fun, to be able to answer this
question, I subscribe to mylibrary newsletter, which I
would recommend to anybodylistening. If you're like, not
really sure if your libraryoffers the things that we're
talking about, subscribe totheir newsletter, and you're
going to probably get a biweekly or a monthly newsletter
that's like, hey, here are somethings that we want our library
(32:44):
patrons to understand is comingup and things that we know. So
here's something I got thisemail yesterday. These are some
of the things happening in mylibrary. I do live in a pretty
large urban city, but that beingsaid, there is a Comic Expo
that's going to be happeningnext weekend. There is an author
Talk series. The author istalking about his novel, which
(33:07):
is about history and examininghistory. So if you're into
history and you want to hear anauthor, you could go there's
programs for teens created byteens. So there's some teen
programming by the teen advisorygroup. I didn't know the teen
advisory group was a thing. I'mnot a parent to teenagers yet,
but maybe that is actuallysomething I should know about as
my kids get older, right? Wetalked about our kids aging out
(33:29):
of the storybook programming.
Turns out the library doesn'tforget about you once you get
too old for story time. There'salso a library pop up. So
they've created a library in aspace that doesn't usually have
a library, and I actually happento know that this is an area of
the city that has been affectedby construction of another
library, so they've created apop up. So didn't you know,
(33:49):
access? And then there's someother things about community and
getting out of the house andmaybe meeting some people who
have a different livedexperience than you, or who have
a shared lived experience thanyou, and you don't have to feel
so lonely about your livedexperience, or you don't have to
feel like you're navigatingchallenges alone. The library
can be a huge hub for that. Iknow, after the events of this
(34:09):
week, one of the calls to actionI've heard time and time again
in terms of the events thisweek, we're recording the week
of the US election, but thatbeing said, one of the calls to
action has really been to getout there and get into your
community. Your library can bethe gateway for how you do that,
and if you're like, I don't knowhow to get into my community. I
don't know how to find spacesthat feels scary and
(34:30):
intimidating. Think about goingto your library. My Library has
a manga book club. Who knew mylibrary also hosts a wellness
series for newcomer women.
Newcomer women to Canada. Whatan amazing thing for newcomer
women and in my community, tohave a wellness series provided
by the library. So again, andthat's just from one email
(34:52):
update. And I'm sure there'smore things that I'm not even
aware of, and so I guess maybein terms of the things that.
Your library is doing, the skyis probably the limit, and
borrowing books is the least youcan do at the library, and the
most you can do probably dependson what season of life you're
in, what your needs are, and howwilling you are to sort of let
(35:15):
your library meet you whereyou're at. I
Jillian O'Keefe (35:18):
actually had a reminder I was just looking at
my library website, because Idon't know if we have a library
newsletter, so I'm trying tofind out if we do. But I was
reminded that we also cansuggest a purchase. It's super
simple, where you just go in andyou give your library ID number
and the title of the book, theauthor, the ISBN number and
(35:42):
where you want to pick it up.
Most of the time they approvethem. I think our library does
within three years. If the bookis older than three years, they
won't buy it. But if it's olderthan three years and they can't
find it, you usually can dointerlibrary loan then. So that
was another one that I justreminded myself of another
service. Yeah,
Alesia Galati (35:59):
speaking of holds and loans and requesting books.
Let's talk tips, tricks, thingsthat are really working for you
guys to be able to do that,because I know a lot of people
might go to their website andthink, What am I looking for?
What am I doing? I've got theLibby app, but I want to be able
to figure out more. Jillianfirst, what are some very quick
(36:21):
and easy ways that youpersonally use the tools that
you have to be able to manageyour holds and borrow books and
all that fun stuff.
Jillian O'Keefe (36:29):
So my favorite tip that I learned from
Instagram is that when you wanta book, like a brand new book is
coming out, and you're maybethree months out from it being
published. You can go to yourlibrary, most libraries anyway,
and you can request that bookbefore it's even in their
catalog. Like most books, orrather, most libraries will have
(36:49):
a placeholder for that book thatyou can then request it ahead of
time and bump shoot at the topof the line. You still may have
a small weight, but you won'thave have as much of a weight as
if you wait until the book comesout and then you're putting your
name in there. Now that is awonderful thing, because then
you get the new book, and youget that new book smell, and you
(37:12):
don't have to deal with thesmell of other people's hands
all over the books, but at thesame time Erin's laughing so
hard, because this comes up inour podcast a lot, because I
really cannot stand the smell ofother people's hands on the
books, which is like, Why do youlove the library so much? Most
of the time, if you get a bookthat has been used frequently,
(37:33):
you run into this, but a lot ofthe books don't if they're not
read regularly, then they justsmell like the shelves anyway.
This is a wonderful thing too,but it also can run into issues,
because then if the book comesin at the same time as others,
you find yourself with a wholestack of books coming in at the
same time, and then you have tofigure out which ones you're
(37:55):
going to read before you returnthem. That is my absolute
favorite trick, and I share itwith everyone that I can,
because not everybody knowsabout it, and it's saves you
time, like in the long run, whenyou get that book to finally
come in. Yeah,
Alesia Galati (38:10):
so good. What about you, Erin? What's your
favorite tip or trick that youuse for the library that maybe
people don't even realize?
Erin (38:19):
Yeah, my favorite tip is a Libby tip. So Libby has not just
a search, but they also havesomething they call the Deep
Search. And you can use thisagain to find books that the
library will probably buy, notthat they've bought yet, not
that they have a licenseddigital copy of yet, but a copy
that they will probably beadding in. And you can, if you
(38:41):
use deep search, place a hold ona book well before its
publication date. So forexample, and I apologize, I
really wanted to think of adiverse author, but the first
book that came to my mind isOnyx storm by Rebecca yaros,
which is the third book in thefourth wing trilogy. This is the
third book. This book is peopleare going to go bananas for this
(39:02):
book, who knows if it's going tobe good or not. But I've been
able to now put a hold on theaudiobook copy using the deep
search. When I used regularsearch, when I searched Onyx
storm, regular search, I didn'tfind it. You do have to scroll
down in your search function.
Scroll down in your searchresults, tap deep search. It
usually shows up at the bottomof your search. Sometimes it's
(39:23):
not available in all libraries,but if your library has the deep
search function, then you canuse that, and you can really get
what feels like first in line,premium access to some of those
very, very hot off the shelvesbooks. Yeah,
Alesia Galati (39:40):
I don't think anybody like I've seen people
mention deep search, but I'venever had anyone Express
actually how to get to it's likethe dark web. No one knows how
to get there unless you know howto get there. So I love that you
gave us that tip, because that'sreally helpful for sure. Thank
you so much. What about loaningbooks? I know you both go pick
(40:01):
up books that you're like, nope.
These are ones that I am goingto borrow and put them on hold.
How do you go about doing that?
I'm guessing it's probably notthrough the Libby app. Is it
through an app with yourlibrary, or through the website?
Or what does that kind of looklike?
Jillian O'Keefe (40:14):
I do it through the library website. We don't
have an app. I don't believethey obviously the Libya. We do
have Libby and we have hoopla,but we don't have an app itself
for the requesting of books, butit's it is mobile friendly. So I
do use my phone a lot, and Ijust go in and search up the
book that I want, and then onthe side of the screen there is
(40:39):
a little down arrow that pops upa different options. You can
request the book. I think one isemail it the details. And then
there's one other option that Idon't know. And so I just always
tap on request book, and then itpops up a little screen, and
it'll say, where do you want topick this up? And mine auto
fills with my location, myfavorite library location. And
(41:00):
then you just click okay, andyou're good to go. And then you
wait, depending on if it's a newrelease or an older book, you
wait and see how long it's goingto take to get to you. Most of
the time, if it's a new release,you're going to have a long
wait. And you can tell that howlong your wait is by going into
your account and into holds andthen scrolling to where your
(41:23):
book is, and it'll say on theside, it'll say it doesn't give
a weeks at my library, it maybeit doesn't Libby, but physical
books, it'll tell you whatnumber you are in line. So I'm
waiting on the wedding people,and I've been waiting on that
one for a long time, and I'mlike 95 now out of when I first
signed up for it, I was like 170somethings. It's slowly ticking
(41:46):
down.
Erin (41:47):
I feel really lucky. My Library recently released an
app, and it feels similar to thebrowser, web browser experience,
so I can't put any physicalholds through Libby. Libby is
exclusively my digital readingexperience, and then I use my
Library app, but it's very easy.
It basically tells me I have,like, a little dashboard. It
tells me how many books areoverdue, how many are due soon.
(42:10):
I like that because it helps memanage my TBR, if I know what's
going to be due soon, then Ibump it up in the reading list.
It also tells me how many booksare on hold that are waiting for
me at the library and ready forpickup, and it also tells me if
I have fees due. Now, my libraryis fine, free, but there are
sometimes fees associated stillwith using the library. Maybe if
(42:30):
I lost a book and I need toreplace it, for example. The
other thing that I love about myLibrary app is that you may have
found yourself like in Barnesand Noble or a bookstore, an
independent bookstore, andyou're like, you know what? I
think I'm going to look for thatbook at the library that looks
really interesting, but I'm notgoing to buy it. You make a
(42:51):
conscious decision not to payfor it. You want to find it in
your library, My Library app. Sonormally, what I would do is
take a picture of the cover,right? Take a picture of the
cover and let it languish inyour photo role until you never
think about it again, and you'rejust trying to create space on
your phone, and you delete it,and you never get to that book.
So my Library app in the searchhas a search function, but it
(43:13):
also has this little barcode. IfI tap on the barcode, it opens
up a camera that my camera appand my camera can scan the book
barcode and search my librarycatalog for the book in real
time. So like, if that's not agateway drug, I don't know what
is in terms of borrowing booksat the library, but I am really,
really proud and really excitedabout what our library is doing.
(43:37):
I feel like this is a verycontemporary library experience
in this app. And I appreciatethat.
Alesia Galati (43:44):
Oh, that's so fun. I like that. Using the
storygraph app for that when I'mat a at Barnes and Noble and I'm
like, am I gonna this book? Andthen I can scan it, yeah, and
see what the mood is of it. Isit something I'm gonna lag? And
then they have the AI generatedsection where it'll tell you,
Hey, you read similar books. Ifyou like these, then you'll
(44:07):
enjoy this book. Or you said youdon't like informative books.
People have said this isinformative. So it might be
something you're interestedbecause of this, but you might
be outside of the realm ofsomething you want. And so I
really like the story graph appfor that. But now I want to
check and see if my library hasan app. Because they're they've
got so many resources andthings. I'm like, you gotta have
(44:29):
an app now, guys, come on. Yeah,I think it would be so good. So
before we say goodbye, tell us abit about your podcast. Tell us
how it started what people canexpect from your guys' show.
Erin (44:44):
Yeah, so medium lady reads is a spin off of my single one
woman show podcast called mediumlady talks. And I had a couple
seasons of medium lady talksrunning, and I found that every
quarter I had a really heftyamount of book content that I
wanted. To share with theaudience, and it just kind of
became clear to me that I hadenough to actually spin off and
(45:05):
create a reading centric podcastwithin the medium lady universe.
And I call myself medium ladybecause I'm not an old lady and
I'm not a young lady, I'm smackin the middle. I'm a medium
lady, and Jillian and I havebeen book besties for a long,
time. And so I approached herand said, Listen, I'm thinking
of doing this spin off podcast.
I really need a co host, and Ithink you would be perfect.
(45:27):
Would you please, please,please, please, please, consider
doing it with me. Andthankfully, Jillian said yes,
and she was very excited. So,yeah, we're in our second
season. We have over 30 episodesat this point when you're
listening, listeners probablyupwards of maybe 50 episodes for
you to catch on to. And we lovethe library. We really emphasize
(45:47):
reading as self care. We talkoften about how we're using the
library and what we're puttingon hold and what we're
returning, and it's often a bigpart of our conversation. We're
consuming books 90% of the timethrough the library, and then we
also love to dive into bookconversations. So what are the
hot takes out there in terms ofbook culture? You know, lot of
(46:09):
hot takes right now about whoshould and shouldn't be reading,
smut Alesia, a lot of hot takeson like, do we police what women
read what women don't read? Soyeah, we get into those kinds of
topics over there. And it's areal joy for me, specifically to
sit down every two weeks andjust talk books. We both try to
bring reviews to the show ofwhat we've read recently. We try
(46:32):
to make apt recommendations forwhy you might like it, why you
might want to pass and yeah, wefeel like the listener is the
third person at the table whenthey listen to Jillian and I
chat back and forth about books,we want you to feel like you're
also you're also there with yourtea and your books, and you're
like, oh my gosh, yeah. Or no,never. Or as adding to my TBR
immediately. You know, we oftenhear that from our listeners
(46:54):
that they're chiming in as thethird person on Mike, so, yeah,
Jillian, I don't know what wouldyou add? I
Jillian O'Keefe (47:01):
will add that when Erin asked me if I would do
the podcast with her, I wasbeyond excited, because I had
been going back and forth in myhead that maybe I wanted to
start a podcast about books, butI wasn't really sure what
direction to go in and I didn'tknow if I really wanted to do it
myself, and it was absolutelyperfect timing, so I was very
excited to jump on the bandwagonand do this with her. Yes,
Alesia Galati (47:26):
I love you guys' show. I love that I was able to
be on to talk about our bipocchallenge. Are doing it again in
2025 as well. So that was somuch fun. And I appreciate you
guys for allowing me to be inyour space where you guys
haven't really had any guests,so appreciate that. No, so much.
Yes, love it, and then I woulddefinitely wanted to
(47:49):
reciprocate, because you guysunderstand the point of this and
the point of having theseconversations, and how this can
be a really valuable resourcefor other people who care about
these things but maybe feel alittle alienated, or are just
there for the scroll onInstagram and don't really
(48:10):
realize a lot of theconversations that those of us
in the bookish space are havingin the DMS, right? So I wanted
to create space for that, and soI appreciate you guys for being
on the show. Thank you so much,Jillian. Where can people find
you? Get to know you, hang outwith you.
Jillian O'Keefe (48:29):
I am predominantly on Instagram, and
my handle there is at Jillianfinding happy if you want to
join and follow the podcast thatis at medium lady reads, and
that's where we post all sortsof different funny reels. Erin
is such a guru when it comes toposting these funny reels. She's
so good at it. So we have abunch of funny reels, but we
(48:52):
also have things about thecontent and our episodes. And so
you can follow us over there tohear more about the podcast. And
Alesia Galati (48:58):
Erin, where can they connect with
Erin (49:00):
you, yeah, so you can connect with me on Instagram.
I'm at medium dot lady, and I doa little bit of book content
there, but I do a lot ofmotherhood millennial content
there, really trying to fightthat upward climb, against
burnout and live as mindfully aspossible. So yeah, if you want
to connect, we would love toknow that you came from the
(49:22):
show, so please hop in our DMS.
Send us a message if you heardthis episode. And Bucha friends
are the best friends, so we'rehappy to meet more readers.
Unknown (49:37):
Ya.
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