subtlefire:

greenchestnuts:

Hey aces, ace-spectrum people, and allies, I have thought of a potential way to further our eeeeeevil asexual agenda!

Next month, the first book about the asexual identity comes out in US markets (I don’t know about international ones). Some parts of the description are giving me pause, but it is by a researcher who has done some thoughtful studies of asexuality, so I hope it will be good. If it is, we should get it disseminated!

Here’s how: most library systems have a way to suggest purchases. Here are examples from Washington University in St. Louis, Berkeley, and the Boston Public Library. Libraries can’t purchase everything that is suggested to them, but encouraging libraries to add this to their collection will help spread fairly accurate knowledge about asexuality to the general public, and especially to those who may be asexual but are looking for the right word. So, if you feel this is a good book for your local public or academic library to have, you can suggest that they purchase it! (However, please don’t submit requests to random libraries that you don’t use or where you don’t live.)

This is an excellent idea! I’ll add two three things:

1. This is actually a better idea than donating a copy. Libraries buy things that they know will get used. Donations that they don’t think will get used go in the book sale rather than spend time and materials putting it on the shelf. (All of that costs money, so it’s not really a free book for them.) And public libraries may not see the need for such a highly academic text on an obscure topic if you just throw one at them. Telling them you really want something is often more effective.
2. While you’re at it, also request Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey, a young adult fantasy/mystery which has an asexual character. You can also put in a word for Dust by Elizabeth Bear, a really wonderful sci-fi novel which has characters of many sexualities and genders and presents all of it as very much just the way things are and charges ahead with the plot. The two main characters are a lesbian and an asexual. And frankly, fiction is much more likely to catch someone’s eye, get read, and send them googling.
3. First check the library catalog for the two novels because there’s a chance they may already have them! Guardian won at least one award and Bear has won several awards for other books, so these aren’t completely obscure. And make sure you check them out when they are available! Then tell all your friends about how awesome they are!