The Open Shelf Good Protocols
Reading settings

The Reference Desk · for grown-ups

Ask the desk.

A librarian for parents and caregivers. Tell it what you are looking for, or what you are worried about, and it will point you to two or three real books on the shelf and the doors out to borrow them — in your own language, read aloud or spoken if you like.

A desk for grown-ups

This companion is for parents, caregivers, and other adults. There is no account and nothing is remembered — when you close the tab, the conversation is gone. It is not therapy, medical, legal, or clinical advice, and it will point you to a real person when a worry is heavier than a book.

First languages of this place

The Open Shelf sits on Coast Salish and Plateau lands. Four of the languages carried here are ones this desk does not speak — they are dormant or reawakening, and they belong to the nations bringing them home. We name them, in their own writing, and point to the people doing that work. We offer this interface to these communities to shape and use as they see fit; anything in these languages will come from them, in their voice.