Mychal Threets - Fall 2024 - Washington Square: The Magazine

ALUMNI IN ACTION

A Story of Library Joy

By Julia Halprin Jackson Photography by Jim Gensheimer

When I interview someone, I am the observer, the journalist, the mirror reflecting back their achievements, curiosities, questions and desires. But sometimes, something else happens. Sometimes the people I meet strike such a resonant chord that it’s impossible to separate their story from my own.

That was my plan when I scheduled an interview with librarian and literacy advocate Mychal Threets, ’18 MLIS, but something else happened when his face appeared on my computer screen. I am one of the more than 800,000 Instagram followers tuning in to Threets’ weekly and sometimes daily videos, eager to hear his stories of library joy. I love his colorful shirts, many of them bearing messages from LeVar Burton or Fred Rogers. I love his encyclopedic knowledge of WNBA basketball stars (“I already bought a Valkyries sweatshirt!” he says of the new Bay Area team), his megawatt smile and his insistence on promoting library joy, in spite of and thanks in part to challenges with anxiety and depression.

I first discovered Threets on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, when I was juggling full-time work with an infant and a small child and all too familiar with the need to escape into a good book — or better yet, an entire library of books, educational resources, toys, resources, weekly story times and other services provided by places like San José State’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.

His viral videos sharing stories of “library kids” and “library grown-ups” offered new insight into the behind-the-scenes work of library workers and librarians, including efforts to include and support unhoused people, expand conversations about mental health inside and outside library spaces, and highlight work by diverse writers and artists. His unbeatable enthusiasm has attracted the attention of , , , , , PBS Kids, and the American Library Association (ALA), to name a few. A recipient of the ALA’s 2024 I Love My Librarian Award, Threets partnered with advocate and author Blair Imani to host the at the Solano County Library in Fairfield, Calif. — an event that celebrated Black hair and reinforced inclusivity in books, libraries and the community at large.

And yet when Threets and his cat Kissin’ Kat Barlow appeared on my screen, in my cubicle, before my face, I was overcome with unspeakable emotion. Here he was: hope incarnate, book evangelist and champion of all things literacy, in real time. It took me a moment to find the words before we started at square one: library joy.

“My objective right now is to try to find out what brings as many people as possible library joy.”

— Mychal Threets

“For me, library joy means there’s something for everybody,” says Threets. “Everybody should be able to feel seen, to feel valued, to feel like they belong in libraries. I love that so much; that’s my library joy. Library joy is something for everybody to define for themselves. I’m on a mission. My objective right now is to try to find out what brings as many people as possible library joy.”

A native of Solano County, a region encapsulating the green-orange hills of Fairfield, the marshes of Suisun, the egrets of the San Joaquin river delta and the criss-crossing freeways that march toward the San Francisco Bay, Threets was homeschooled and spent countless hours in his local library, befriending the characters he met in the stacks. Though the library made him feel safe, he didn’t always see himself represented in books. And yet the characters he met — Beverly Cleary’s Ramona Quimby, Marc Brown’s Arthur, Louis Sachar’s Stanley Yelnats (of “Holes”), all of the adventurers in C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” — left a lasting impact.

“In the library, you don’t have to tell the person at the desk who you are,” he adds. “You don’t have to say anything. You don’t even have to have a library card. You can just come in and be. When people see the library, they know they can become anything; just like the ‘Reading Rainbow’ theme song: ‘I can be anything. I can go anywhere.’ That’s essentially the library. You can be exactly who you want to be. You can be loved for who you are.”

“[In the library], you can be exactly who you want to be. You can be loved for who you are.”

— Mychal Threets

It was this love of reading and libraries that inspired Threets to volunteer, then work at various libraries in Solano County, eventually earning a master’s degree in library and information science. During his four semesters at 91��, he developed his passions for children’s literature and librarianship, as well as his predilection for social media as it supports literacy.

“Mychal was enthusiastic about serving children, books and reading during his time at San José State working on his library degree,” says Penny Peck, ’77 MLIS, instructor at 91��’s School of Information. “This ‘library joy’ outlook has been with him since his youth. Lucky for us, he found the right career as a children's librarian, where he can bring that energy and positivity about libraries to kids!”

Threets completed his degree while working as a library associate. When he uploaded his first video to Instagram in 2018, he hoped it would gain a thousand views. He first went viral in 2020, when he led a campaign to launch a Scholastic Book Fair for adults. Since then, his stories of library joy have been viewed and shared millions of times on various social platforms.

The newfound acclaim has clarified Threets’ goals as a librarian and literacy champion. Though he is thrilled to see his positive impact, the attention has been overwhelming. Much of Threets’ appeal is his authenticity and transparency about his own struggles with panic attacks, nightmares, anxiety and depression. He shares that his videos, typically shot on his iPhone in his apartment, outside or on walks, serve as a reminder to celebrate the joy in small moments.

“Mychal was enthusiastic about serving children, books and reading during his time at San José State working on his library degree."

— Penny Peck

“My hope is that people will see themselves and know that they have a story to tell.”

— Mychal Threets

“Living with depression and anxiety, at some point I started to lose my memories,” he explains. “I started to share these stories to have a record to return to whenever I have a dark day. They help me go back and remember. I take as much joy in these library stories as anybody else.”

In spring 2024, he resigned from his position as the supervising librarian at Solano County Library to focus on his mental health — as well as to fully embrace his new role as the. While he hopes to return to work in a physical library in the future, Threets is as focused on his own well-being as he is on that of his countless readers, followers and fans.

“My hope is that people will see themselves and know that they have a story to tell,” Threets says. “Their voices deserve to be heard. I’m aware that I love libraries probably more than a good chunk of people do — I’ve got a library card tattooed on me — but more than anything, I love what the library represents. It is those voices, oftentimes the unheard ones, the people who think their stories are not valuable, the anxious people, the depressed people, the panicking people — the library is a place where people can be exactly who they are.”

And it is this message, this core belief in the relationship between reading and being, that makes me burst into tears the moment I bid Threets a digital farewell. Because few things are more vital to this writer than the knowledge that the words we use, the identities we claim and the spaces we occupy matter. Next time I doubt this core truth, I’ll remember this conversation with a librarian named Mychal.

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A Story of Library Joy

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