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Librarians are sharing the most unhinged promotional videos and people can't get enough

Unexpectedly dark, but hilarious.

Photo credit: Canva

Librarians are far funnier than people might guess.

Is there any greater proof of humanity’s amazingness than public libraries? No, there isn’t. Creating spaces where people can find and borrow books for free, not to mention all the other offerings libraries have these days? Epically amazing. Well done, humans.

Of course, such awesome places naturally have fabulous people working at them. Librarians might have a reputation for being serious and no nonsense, but just as you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t judge a person by their job title. Sure, there may be some stuffy, stodgy librarians out there, but if you spend any amount of time with librarians, you’ll see some things that might surprise you.

Case in point: The librarians at New Berlin Public Library in Wisconsin, who created and shared a hilariously unhinged promotional video that has been viewed by millions. It was so unexpectedly dark, but in the most delightful way, and it had people howling.

The promo begins with two older women, one standing with her arms outstretched, ready to catch the other woman in a trust fall. But at the last second, the woman in the back steps to the side as the woman in front falls backwards, and as the camera follows the would-be catcher, we hear a thud off screen.

“You can’t trust everybody,” the woman says to the camera, “but you can trust the New Berlin Public Library to give you access—for free—to hundreds of books, great programming, and resources."

Then the camera pans back to the other woman sprawled on the ground while another librarian looks on in horror. And people are rolling.

"I am hollering!!😂😂😂😂 I’m coming there to get a book right now," wrote one commenter.

"I live in New Berlin and have never been to the library here, and this is my introduction to it 😂," wrote another. "I'll be stopping by for sure!"

"“Whoever is running this account needs a raise 😂😂😂," wrote another.

Seriously effective marketing, eh? But New Berlin isn’t the only library to post a cheeky promo video. It appears to be a trend, and we are here for it. Check out the North Little Rock Library's video about people "literally knocking down" their door to get a library card.

As one person wrote in a comment, "This is the second SAVAGE library ad I’ve seen in the last 5 minutes here…I hope this is a trend specific to libraries."

Another agreed: "Algorithm, give me all the unhinged library content."

New Little Rock Libraries is on a roll with their "unhinged" content. Here's another that people are delighting in:

This kind of silliness from public libraries is exactly what some of us need to be hit with, especially if we tend to doomscroll. The fact that these are just local folks having fun in their jobs trying to get people to do the most wholesome thing in the world—frequent the public library—is so heartwarming. Will more libraries get in on the cheeky action? Let's hope so.

After all, how often do you get to see a librarian violently swipe a water bottle out of someone's hand, like they did at the Marysville Public Library?

Here's to librarians, literacy, books, humor, and the overall awesomeness of humanity. If we ever forget what makes us great, we can all just head to our local public library and get a wonderful reminder.

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LeVar Burton steps in to help a beloved California library reopening after devastating fires

The adage "never meet your heroes" is usually pretty sound advice, but not so for LeVar Burton.

Images via Kathryn Ross

Two months after the Eaton Fire, Altadena Library hosts community event with legend LeVar Burton

As California continues to recover from devastating wildfires, a beloved library in Altadena hosted a grand reopening event coordinated by Altadena Library director Nikki Winslow. The event took place outdoors in the library's parking lot complete with food, crafts, face painting, free books, and a reading from none other than literacy advocate and legend LeVar Burton.

Best known as the beloved host of Reading Rainbow, for playing Kunta Kinte in the 1977 television adaptation of Alex Haley's groundbreaking 1976 novel Roots, and as Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Burton's career spans nearly five decades.

I got to sit down with Burton minutes before the event and chat about the importance of libraries in our communities and how we can support them, especially in times of tragedy.


- YouTubewww.youtube.com


The adage "never meet your heroes" is usually pretty sound advice, but not so for LeVar Burton. I had the privilege of growing up on Reading Rainbow, first watched Roots in school, and enjoyed an Earth Day marathon or two of Captain Planet over the years. In short, Burton has been a big part of my life, and having the opportunity to meet and talk with him was equal parts humbling and exhilarating.

"Hey!" Burton said as he walked in and offered a fist bump. "I just saw you outside!" A little earlier as I'd walked to the library, Burton drove past in a dark car with the window down and called out, 'Hello! Thanks for coming out!" Immediately my nervousness about interviewing such a tremendous figure disappeared, and it didn't return as we sat together on opposite sides of a table in an empty room near the library's entrance.

Altadena is a historically Black neighborhood and has been something of a haven to African American residents for generations. Rampant redlining in the 1960s and 70s blocked Black families and business owners from securing homes and property in other parts of California, but Altadena, nestled at the base of the San Gabriel mountains, is where many Black families achieved homeownership and were able to begin building generational wealth. These homes stayed in their families for generations, but many were lost as the Eaton Fire blazed. Severely damaged by the catastrophic fire, Altadena has been fighting for relief and recovery.

According to the Altadena Libraries website, the Altadena Library district began as a single bookshelf in 1908, but grew into an independent special district in late 1926. In 1967, the main library, designed by architect Boyd Georgi, opened on Mariposa Street—Altadena's historic Christmas Tree Lane—where it stands today.

The Altadena Libraries (including the Bob Lucas branch on Lincoln Avenue), closed in mid April 2024 to begin extensive renovations, with the website providing updates on its progress through September 2024. During the fire, the main library thankfully remained structurally in tact and operated as a hub for first responders to access supplies and shelter. On March 4, it officially reopened to the public.

We jumped right into my first question: "Why was it important for you to be a part of the library's grand reopening?" I asked. "How did this all come about?"

Burton sat thoughtfully for a moment. 'Well...when tragedies like this happen, I know I'm sitting on a resource that could be of value," he said.

He then relayed how his involvement began in internal talks at his company, LeVar Burton Entertainment, when he got a call from a friend, writer and Altadena resident Katherine Beattie, who wrote one of the NCIS: New Orleans episodes Burton directed in 2019. In 2014, Burton published his children's book, The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, with fellow writer Susan Bernardo through Reading Rainbow. The book features a story within a story, where a young mouse named Mica is comforted by her Papa reading a story about a rhino who loses everything he loves in a storm and embarks on a journey toward healing. Beattie wanted to know if she could get a hold of some copies of Rhino to donate to families impacted by the Eaton fire.

That led to a conversation at Burton's company's weekly team meeting, which led to Burton's agent, William Morris Endeavor (WME) and their impact team getting involved.

"I'm getting emotional," Burton said as his voice broke. He continued, "Other people started stepping forward volunteering goods and services...and the initial impetus was just to, you know, donate books, to donate as many copies as we could...that was our original intention: 'get these copies to Los Angeles and get them to the Altadena Library.' And then...yeah...shit blew up."

Burton bursts into laughter while wiping his eyes. His emotional response made me wonder whether, beyond the tragedy, Burton has a personal connection to the city of Altadena given its history for Black Angelenos.

"I'm from Sacramento," he began, "where we don't have an 'Altadena.' However, I've lived in Southern California since 1974 and I recognize the value and the unique spirit of Altadena and places like it in these United States...well," he paused sadly, "these formerly United States." Taking a beat he exhaled and said, "This is important to me."

I told him I understood exactly what he meant, and after a moment, we moved on to my next question: "How can we best support local libraries and their communities especially after a disaster like this one?"

"By visiting them, right?" Burton replied. "The [Altadena] library has been open, but this is a sort of a public awareness celebration of the fact that this community resource is available...so, go to your public library! Engage the librarians who are national treasures and check out books and expand your reading horizons, indulge in your reading proclivities. Just...go to the library."

He sat back in his chair and smiled, his eyes still a little misty. I smiled and nodded, soaking it all in.

LeVar Burton, Reading Rainbow, Star Trek, Roots, Captain Planet, living legendCaptain Planet Stitcher GIF by LeVar BurtonGiphy


"So," I said. "Millions of people can attribute their love of reading to you and Reading Rainbow. Can you share a meaningful interaction you've had with a fan or viewer of the show?"

With a quick laugh, Burton launched into a story:

"So, pulling up here this morning," he said with a smile, "I got out of the car and I started walking and there was a little girl. Her name is Mariah and she's about that big—" he held his hand barely three feet above the ground, "—and her mom said, 'Oh! Is that LeVar?' I turned around and I said, 'Hi!' and Mariah lit up. She said, 'Hi, LeVar!'" It turns out Mariah's mother has been showing her daughter Reading Rainbow episodes for just three weeks. "She ran and jumped into my arms! Now," Burton said, his voice breaking with emotion again, 'that made my day. It made my day."

I then asked how it feels to know his work has spanned generations of people.

Burton said, "Well, it's wild...I am acutely aware that I have been blessed with what I consider the three tentpoles of my career—I call them the jewels in my crown: Roots, Star Trek and Reading Rainbow."

"Wow," I whispered.

"I know, right?" Burton said. We laughed. "And this work has enabled me to be able to touch multiple generations of human beings and that's not only rare...um, it continues to blow me away. I don't know that I have words, Kat," he said. "Really, honestly. I recognize that I have been continually, remarkably blessed in my life and I come from a family for whom service is critical—key—to being a human being. And I have found this life of mine to enable me to be of service."

This brought us to my penultimate question: "How can we better promote literacy in diverse and inclusive spaces?"

"Well, first of all, I think we need to promote literacy in all spaces. Especially in those spaces that are not diverse and inclusive," noted Burton. He continued, "Because reading promotes empathy. And in the current climate today, it is those who are trying to dismantle inclusion and diversity that need to read more."

Here Burton paused for a moment before adding, "That's all I'm gonna say about that," with a meaningful look.

I took his lead and zeroed in on my final question of the morning: "Considering what's happened here in Altadena, do you think promoting empathy through reading will help those who are very far away from this tragedy feel it themselves? We see these things happen in other parts of the world and, unfortunately, they don't hit as close as when they're right near you."

At this, Burton leaned forward:

"We're at ground zero as we sit here," he said. "Driving in this morning, it's the first time I've been in the neighborhood since the fires were put out. I don't actually know if this event today will have any far-reaching impact beyond Southern California. We are still very much acutely aware of and carry with us on a daily basis the impact of this tragedy... And I know that the world is busy...at the speed of which the world is moving we are, all of us, engaged in the business of living on a daily basis. There isn't always enough time or opportunity to step outside of ourselves and focus on these moments of tragedy beyond the immediacy of the events themselves, the incident itself, right?

"So, it was obvious we had the attention and the compassion of the world community because this is a global story. And so is Israel and Palestine," Burton added soberingly. "And I know that my attention isn't always on that. I know there's a place in my heart, but my focus isn't always there because...Monday through Friday? I got shit to do."

I nodded as we sat in that moment together, our thoughts suddenly far from the library and the fair going on outside.

"But I hope," Burton continued, "that if word of this event gets out that it's a reminder of, hey, you know, this community is recovering and recovery will take a long time and if you can spare a moment for a thought or a prayer...please do. I really do believe that, at least for me, my focus today is on this community. I'm a firm believer in doing what I can from where I stand today. And today, I stand in Altadena."

With that, our conversation was over. We stood up as I thanked him, took a picture together that I'll cherish forever, and he gave me a tight hug. In an hour's time, Burton read to a crowd of nearly 500, made up of kids, parents, adults, volunteers, and visiting public officials. At one point the crowd sang the Reading Rainbow theme song to Burton, and as he read from his book, listeners were delighted by his animated, silly voices and his impactful reading pace that brought the gravity of the story home.

LeVar Burton, Reading rainbow, interview, altadena library, literacy, library eventMeeting LeVar.Image from Kathryn Ross

So, do meet your heroes if you get the chance. Sometimes it can be the experience of a lifetime—but don't take my word for it.

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Barbershop pays kids $3 to read books out loud while they get their haircut

It's all about boosting kids' confidence, says City Cuts founder Jon Escueta.

Courtesy of City Cuts/Instagram

Kids at City Cuts read to their barbers out loud.

Jon Escueta was coaching youth basketball—teams of 5th to 8th graders—when he noticed that a lot of the kids struggled to talk to one another. "My players were afraid to communicate with each other and speak publicly during practice and in games," he tells Upworthy. So, he prioritized helping the kids build those speaking skills one by one during huddles and active practice.

Seeing those kids blossom, Escueta thought, "How can I implement this in my barbershop?"

Escueta is a licensed barber who owns City Cuts, a barbershop in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, that's all about "Giving back. Doing the right thing. Creating a community. Caring about each other." Wanting to help the kids who come into the barbershop build confidence in themselves beyond just getting a good haircut, Escueta started the Books by Kids initiative.

The concept is simple: While kids are getting their haircut, they read a book out loud to their hairdresser—and they get $3 as an incentive to do so. Here's what it looks like in action:

Escueta says it's all about boosting their confidence in speaking to strangers.

"Kids can start as young as pointing at picture books of certain cartoon characters, colors, animals or whatever they would like to look at," he tells Upworthy. "Even just a few words or sentences—it’s the effort of trying and eventually will turn into chapters and louder voices."

It's a brilliant tactic, as having a book in hand removes some of the pressure kids can feel in new social situations and gives them something specific to talk about. Barbers can ask them questions about their books, and reading out loud also helps kids practice speaking loudly and clearly.

In 2019, Escueta shared with CNN that he struggled with socializing when he came to the U.S. at age 8 from the Philippines. “I didn’t know English and that was a lot,” he said. “I felt like I was being judged.” So the kids who come into his barbershop feeling hesitant to talk have a special place in his heart.

“The ones who are timid—I gravitate toward those kids.” he said. “I know what it feels like and try to make them feel good about themselves.”

According to Escueta, approximately 75% of adults experience a phobia or anxiety related to public speaking, and the objective of Books by Kids is to increase kids' self-assurance through reading aloud.

People love the idea of combining reading with a trip to the barbershop:

"Goes to show that no matter what your job is , you can make a difference for others."

"This is amazing! This is how you change the world."

"Absolutely wonderful…such positive results and a 'win' for both!"

"I love that his barber is correcting his pronunciation and keeping an eye on the book while he cuts."

"This is such a fantastic initiative! It's wonderful to see a business not only providing a service but investing in the community and fostering a love of reading in young people. What a creative way to build confidence and encourage literacy!"

Parents who bring their kids to City Cuts appreciate it, too. One parent wrote in a comment that their child had "become more confident reading in front of people…..which has led to him being more confident in front of groups of people. You guys do something pretty amazing with these kids and it doesn’t go unnoticed."

Another parent told CNN that she would drive 20 minutes to take her son to get his hair cut there because the kind barbers and the reading program have helped him build trust and become more comfortable.

It truly is a win-win when a business has happy customers who return again and again because they're getting a little something extra, and in this case that something extra is truly an extraordinary gift for kids and parents like.

You can follow City Cuts on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

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People are raving about how much easier it is to read with 'bionic reading' font

This viral tool could be a game-changer for some.

Photo via Canva, @WhattheADHD/Twitter

The 'bionic reading' font is designed to help keep you focused and read faster.

Reading is a fundamental tool of learning for most people, which is why it's one of the first things kids learn in school and why nations set literacy goals.

But even those of us who are able to read fluently might sometimes struggle with the act of reading itself. Perhaps we don't read as quickly as we wish we could or maybe our minds wander as our eyes move across the words. Sometimes we get to the end of a paragraph and realize we didn't retain anything we just read.

People with focus or attention issues can struggle with reading, despite having no actual reading disabilities. It can be extremely frustrating to want to read something and have no issues with understanding the material, yet be unable to keep your mind engaged with the text long enough to get "into" what you're reading.

But what if there were a font that could help you stay focused? That could help you not only read faster but better retain what you've just read?

That's what the creators of Bionic Reading claim is possible with their font tool."Bionic Reading revises texts so that the most concise parts of words are highlighted," the Swiss company's website reads. "This guides the eye over the text and the brain remembers previously learned words more quickly."

Give it a try:

@WhattheADHD/Twitter

The gist is that our eyes don't need to focus on the entire word because our brains can fill in the rest for us. By bolding the first part of the word, we're more quickly able to move from word to word.

"Bionic Reading aims to play a supporting role in the absorption of volume text," states the website. "We see technological progress as an opportunity for all those who want to increase the pleasure of reading in a noisy and hectic world in a focused way and without distraction."

While there are no studies cited on this method of reading, there are plenty of anecdotes about it being helpful. The example shared by @WhattheADHD on Twitter got people's attention and many people responded with enthusiasm at how much easier the bionic reading text was for them to read.

"This is amazing! I have ADHD and I didn’t even realize that I was having trouble fixating when I read," wrote one person. "My eye latches right on to the bold face. Can’t wait to try reading a book again. It’s been all audiobooks for a while."

"It's incredible how reading this feels like finally unlocking 100% of your brain," wrote another.

@juanbius/Twitter

However, not everyone was impressed or thrilled with the sample. Some people said that they had a harder time reading the bionic text or that it distracted or slowed them down. Both positive and negative responses came from a diverse pool of people. Some who described themselves as neurodivergent said that they loved it and some said it was harder. The same went for people who said they were neurotypical, so it's hard to say who this tool may specifically help the most. Everyone's brains work differently, and different people will find different things helpful.

Bionic reading might be a game-changer for some, but it's not the only tool of its kind. There are speed-reading programs that train you to stop reading each word and allow your brain to read visually instead of auditorily. There are also various methods of making reading easier by adjusting how your eyes move across the text.

For instance, check out this "space reading" technique:

@uxjavi/Twitter

Bionic Reading has a free text converter on its website that you can use to try out its font changes. A YouTube clip from the company also shows possibilities for how the font can be adjusted to individual preferences, making more or less of the initial letters bolded.

And again, if this doesn't work for you, then it's probably not made for you. For people who struggle with reading, something like Bionic Reading could make a huge difference.

Three cheers for technology being used to help people overcome difficulties and make learning easier and more efficient.


This article originally appeared on 5.30.22.

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