However relevant the stereotypical, silence-enforcing librarian remains in the popular imagination, Mychal Threets wants to dispel any lingering notion of the library as a dry, humorless place, lorded over by rigid pedants.
In fact, Mr. Threets has leveraged the power of social media to show that the public library is as joy-inspiring as it is welcoming, and that librarians — in his case, a 33-year-old man who sports quirky threads, tattoos and an Afro — are “so happy you’re here.”
Mr. Threets has taken on that mission by sharing videos of what he calls “library joy” on TikTok, Instagram and other platforms, telling stories about the everyday happenings at the Fairfield Civic Center Library in Solano County in Northern California, where he is the supervising librarian.
His videos have collectively garnered millions of views and hundreds of thousands of followers across his social media accounts.
