Hi everyone! One *extremely meaningful* thing you can do to fight back is to join library boards. Usually this is an appointed position, not elected. The time commitment for most public library board members is 1-2 hours monthly.
I'm a former library director. Ask me anything.
Professional skills are always in demand. Leadership/management; math and accounting; editing and writing; project management; administration; communication; art and design... Anything that will help you set policy and goals for a cultural institution. Though 1/
People who want to volunteer at the library because they love books and helping others -- they have a role too, and that's with the Friends of the Library. That's still important to helping libraries meet their goal. But that's a less direct path to stopping right-wing takeovers
Very useful thank you! I'm a professor who does some of that for a living but I was never quite sure if I had the necessary skills to be useful in this type of role. I may start with friends of the library work.
If you have gone through the academic rigor necessary to become a professor, I *promise* you have skills and perspectives that will benefit any library board. Plus also I just stalked your profile and I think you should join one if you can.
Friends of the Library is a great to start with though.