The whole time Mychal Threets has been a phenomenon I have been asked about or made aware of his online videos about libraries and the things that happen in them. Most of those messages start the same way: “I’m sure you’ve seen this, but…” Of course I have. Black librarians only make up 7% of the field. If a Black male librarian garners a huge social media following off of being a librarian, every librarian is going to know. He’s a textbook unicorn, and that was before you consider his tireless positivity.
Speaking of his messages, I am not the primary audience for Threets’ videos. He is talking to people who need encouragement, and children, and spreading the message that libraries are fundamental to communities in more ways than reading material. I am generally well off in the encouragement department, I am not a child, and I’ve been working in public libraries for 28 years – almost the entire time Threets has been alive. I am, however, a recipient of Threets’ campaign for library joy. He makes people consider and engage libraries in ways that library associations would kill for. He has changed what is possible for libraries in the digital era, many of whom are using their platforms in ways that distinctly drive people away from libraries. His message and impacts are simple, but powerful.
Even though Threets has not stated that he would stop making videos, his leaving a day-to-day gig as a frontline librarian is a blow to the field. It’s rare that anyone breaks through the noise to make a case for literacy. A librarian is even rarer. We are often buried in red tape for even the simplest program proposal. Just like lots of other fields, we are generally understaffed, and have to spread our focus across several services at any given moment. We are beholden to chains of command because so much of our funding depends on public perception. It’s not easy being a public librarian (which is why I do more literacy modeling off the clock than on). Which is another reason why Mychal Threets is such a force within the industry of libraries: he makes the case for libraries in their traditional form. His presentation floats over the hurdles that librarians hear all the time: “We don’t have the money.” “We don’t have the staff.” “It’s not clear that there is an audience for your ideas.” Mychal Threets turned on his phone, made a video, and told stories about working in a library to whoever would listen. Turns out, everybody was listening.
Mychal Threets isn’t the only person who could become a sensation making positive library story videos, but he’s the only one I know that could do it. Most of the librarians I know are too tired, traumatized, or overwhelmed to go in the paint like that. In fact, I don’t know if any of Threets posts resonated with me more than his farewell note pointing out that people come into libraries having bad days, and that librarians catch the heat of those moments a lot. Now, THAT one was for the librarians. Threets’ ability to find the positive lining in even the harshest moment is perhaps a lesson I was in fact looking for, which is to say, I may have been his audience all along.
I can’t put any words in Mychal Threets mouth, but I think it’s safe to say that this most recent row with ill-meaning social media personalities looking to get an easy hit off him was likely more of a “last straw” situation than a shock to the system. He gets negative comments all the time. He is constantly being tagged in random nasty things. Do I have to point out how much of that reaction was likely racist? As someone who has occasionally gone viral, I know how it is to have thousands of people liking you, and yet that one jerk in the back sticks in your mind. Even when they’re handled (by you or well-meaning followers), the moment remains. It consumes your bandwidth. It decimates all of the good around it. It’s hard to shake. At a million followers, I don’t even want to think about how that much nonsense affected someone of Threets’ constitution. There isn’t a lot to like about the internet. If I didn’t have to use it, I wouldn’t. I’d write my books and go to poetry readings. The only videos you’d be getting from me are shots of me going to the bank.
Mychal Threets will land on his feet just fine. From here he can write his own ticket, and that is amazing. I want that for him so badly. But the truth remains that being out there for the world to consume is tough. Making videos is easy, but the reaction – both good and bad – is a lot to deal with. Even the overwhelmingly positive reactions can be too much. People do not get that overwhelming someone with positive stuff seems nice, but usually has more to do with the person posting it than its intended target. I know people were showing up at his job, taking huge blocks of time to talk to him while he’s trying to work. I’d bet a dollar that random people were calling his job with some regularity. I know because it happens to me, and I don’t have one percent of his following. I can’t even imagine the number of requests he gets just to show up somewhere, or how many meetings he had with superiors about all the fuss, none of which is what he signed up for. Even if all the fallout from his videos was 100 percent positive, it would be a lot.
If Threets never made another video, I’d be okay with that. He gave us more than we deserved. All anyone has a right to hope for is that he comes out the other side of this healthy and still a delight.
From one librarian to another, good luck, Mychal.
Scott Woods Makes Lists 
Love this essay.