Library 142: The Dorset Village Library

This one is about pugs, yoyos, Falkor, origami, yarn, gender, and neoliberalism.

Library 142! The Dorset Village Library was the 142nd stop on my quest to read, write, and knit in all of Vermont’s public libraries.

• I read: I read no thing!

• I wrote: I wrote no thing!

• I knit: a hat

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I visited this library on Friday May 2, 2025.

In a library with dogs, I will forget to read and write.

I love a library with dogs. I highly anticipated this visit because the resident pugs, Anouk and Toby, are internet famous. They are the stars of a viral-for-Vermont video I have watched many times. I was honored to meet them.

This tavern-turned-library has personality. Local lore says that the beautiful ceiling cutout in the main room made the dancing ladies on the second floor visible to visitors on the first floor. This is the second tavern-turned-library I've visited (the first was The Groton Free Public Library, Library 81).

Amidst a wave of neoliberalism in public sectors, including schools, Vermont libraries have done an unbelievable job resisting the corporate pressure to McSame themselves. Vermont's governor is currently trying to push a plan to consolidate 119 unique school districts in Vermont into five giant-for-Vermont fiefdoms of efficiency and sameness. There are certainly some benefits to consolidation, but I can't stop thinking that the loss of local autonomy and decision making will also come with the loss of local personality. 119 school boards becoming 5 school boards means concentrated power and decision making. That means fewer ideas to make decisions. That means less diversity. Diversity in the public sector is an asset, not a liability. I hope schools can find ways to resist the pressure to conform, like it seems libraries have. Each one is a beacon of unique expression. Each one a gem.

I got a tour in this library! (I love a tour: thank you, Stephen). Found: children’s lit art with pugs; a giant head of Falkor the luckdragon; a disco ball; a popcorn maker; a moose sculpture; an excellent christmas cactus.

Christmas cacti are one of the plants I most often see thriving in libraries. Blessed are the library staff who keep the plants.

While I was meeting the dogs, my new friend Ryan Spahr (a crocheter and yoyo-er and origami artist) asked which library is my favorite. I gave my standard answer, which is “Nice try: they’re all amazing. I refuse to rank them.” But they kept asking. The pressure was on. They wouldn’t let up. I started to sweat. I had to answer. I didn’t know the answer until it came out of my mouth: libraries with dogs.

Takeaway: libraries with dogs are the best.

In addition to having dogs, the Dorset Village Library is also a tangibly queer-affirming library. I felt it right away. I was at ease. Earlier that day, I was in an elementary school for work. Despite my desire to dress in way that honors my gender identity, I know it is safer for me to walk into an elementary school looking more femme than masc. Even in Vermont, I feel pressure to look and sound femme when I ring that bell and state my business. After being at work, the queer vibe in the library was healing. I relaxed. With pugs.

Takeaway: gay libraries are the best.

Suddenly! A bevy of bodacious retired babes hopped off a van and burst into the library on their quest to visit all of Vermont’s municipalities (aka the 251 club). One of them saw me and said: “You’re the chicken lady!” It was one of the proudest moments of my life.

We exchanged stories and scritched the pups and took a photo had a jolly time. I was sad when they left.

Takeaway: we need libraries.