To read more about TinyCat’s Library of the Month feature, visit the TinyCat Post archive here.

Our May Library of the Month goes to the first independent women’s history lending library in the U.S., the Gal’s Guide Library based out of Noblesville, Indiana! It was a joy to have Founder and Executive Director Leah Leach answer my questions this month:

Who are you, what is your mission—your “raison d’être”, and what’s something interesting about how you support your community?

We are the Gal’s Guide Library, and our mission is to provide an independent women’s history library to preserve, collect, share, and champion women’s achievements and lessons learned. We are also the first lending library in the United States dedicated to women’s history where you can browse the stacks and check out a book.

What are some of your favorite items in your collection?

Some of the favorite items in our collection are the out-of-print books that are nearly lost to history, Conchita’s Cintrón’s Memoirs of a Bullfighter, Babe Didrikson Zaharias’ autobiography This Life I’ve Led, and The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché (which invented the film Be Natural narrated by Jodie Foster). These three books really inspired us to create a library.

What’s a particular challenge your library experiences?

The challenge in our library experience has been surviving the COVID-19 pandemic. We opened our doors to the public 11 days before the lockdown. We needed to pivot from a lending library to online content. It was a struggle but we found a way to thrive.

What is your favorite thing about TinyCat, and what’s something you’d love to see implemented/developed?

I don’t know if it’s silly or not but I love the animated cover display on the catalog homepage.

Not silly at all, I love the colorful eye candy on the TinyCat homepages as well!

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Want to learn more about the Gal’s Guide Library? Follow them on social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/YouTube), visit their website here, and check out their full TinyCat collection here.

To read up on TinyCat’s previous Libraries of the Month, visit the TinyCat Post archive here.

Calling all TinyCat libraries: become TinyCat’s next Library of the Month—just send us a Tweet @TinyCat_lib or email Kristi at kristi@librarything.com.

Labels: libraries, Library of the Month, TinyCat