Librarians under attack from wave of creepy kinksters and fetishists sexually harassing them at work: ‘We do not get paid enough’

Satiating the XXX-rated cravings of complete strangers is not in Abby Hargreaves’ job description. 

Still, the librarian routinely finds herself being propositioned by lecherous vermin disguised as innocent bookworms.

“Every day is something new,” Hargreaves, based near Washington, DC, exclusively groaned to The Post, detailing the many obscene phone calls she receives from creeps who get their jollies from sexually harassing librarians. 

Hargreaves tells The Post that while she loves her work in librarianship, the mental and emotional toll of the job can often become taxing. Courtesy Abby Hargreaves

It’s an underdiscussed and troubling kink that more than half of the librarian population in the US is forced to contend with, per alarming data. 

Hargreaves is just one of the whistleblowers in her profession to virally call out the exploitation, recently sharing her experience with librarian fetishists to an online audience of over 1 million virtual viewers. 

“I don’t always realize what’s happening until I later hear from other staff that they had someone ask the same questions,” she admitted to The Post about the crude phone calls. “The tip-offs are unusually heavy breathing or [when the caller makes] encouraging comments typical in a consensual and informed sexual interaction.”

Sexual harassment is the scarcely known plight of folks in librarianship, a female-dominated field comprised of 89% women. 

A startling 75% of public and academic librarians have reported being violated by patrons, as well as their coworkers, while on the clock, according to findings via the American Libraries Association. 

The offenses can include “being asked out, given unwanted gifts, followed to their cars, asked for their phone numbers, and subjected to sexual innuendo, advances or aggression,” says the report. “Those who have public-facing roles or are under the age of 40 were more likely to report being harassed.”

For Hargreaves, 34, a proud public librarian of more than a decade, the NSFW interactions often begin innocently enough. 

A perp posing as a library patron rings her workplace, seeking assistance with a book title or a reference question. Then, slowly but surely, the caller’s cries for help escalate from seemingly innocuous inquiries to inappropriate demands — at times with indications that the person on the other end of the line is “getting off” during the exchange.

But these scoundrels aren’t brazenly peppering Hargreaves and her colleagues with stereotypical, overtly lewd questions like “What are you wearing?” or “Are you turned on right now?” 

Instead, they achieve sexual arousal by asking unwitting librarians to recite excerpts from historic documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, or random lawsuit filings. 

“I remember receiving a couple of calls from an individual who asked me to read a Wikipedia page for a specific court case a couple of times,” said Hargreaves. “Later, when scrolling social media, I saw from other library staff that they had received the exact same request and the consensus was it was all coming from one person.”

Much like the millennials, librarians who’ve had the misfortune of encountering a creepy caller often flock to social networking platforms, like TikTok and Reddit, to forewarn their cohorts about suspicious calls from perverts. 

“There is a guy who regularly calls libraries anonymously, asks for the staff member to read the Declaration of Independence, then j–ks off,” a preschool staffer warned via Reddit. “Creeps target libraries since librarians are mostly women and we want to be helpful. But this is gross and traumatic. We do not get paid enough to deal with it.’

“Someone is calling around to libraries and asking for the Wikipedia entry for Brady vs. Maryland to be read aloud, but using the call for self-gratification,” another said. “The caller may call back even if hung up on. Be careful out there!”

“The law article masturbation stuff happens to us,” a different librarian chimed.

“This one [guy] would call ask for books on spanking. He’d try to get you to ask questions (ie are to talking corporal punishment? Kinks? Etc),” wrote another victim of the violation. 

A separate tipster urged their fellow librarians to beware of the “twin growth restriction” man, a caller claiming that he only weighs 35 pounds, asking the workers to help him find books related to his condition. 

“He asks if he comes in if we can lift him, etc. He called multiple times and I told him to stop calling. Our whole staff knows of this guy and knows he’s a creeper,” said the Reddit user. “I called him out on that and said, ‘Look, I know you’re a pervert. I know you call libraries all around the country, saying this to get yourself off.’ He hung up.”

Hargreaves tells The Post that she and her fellow librarians on social media carefully protect personal information — such as names and phone numbers — of all library patrons online, including folks who they suspect are sexually ne’er-do-wells. chika_milan – stock.adobe.com

Surprisingly, these menaces aren’t always men. 

Several book professionals detailed their dealings with the infamous “Diaper Lady.”

“The diaper lady likes to call the children’s departments of various libraries in my system,” a Redditor alerted. “At the beginning of the conversation, she presents herself as a little girl who wants to learn more about the library. Speaks in a breathy, little girl voice.”

“Then, she slowly shifts into asking slightly stranger questions. She wants to know if there’s a bathroom she can use in the library,” the insider continued. “Then she starts talking about how, since she’s a little girl, she wears diapers, and she’ll need help with them. Then she asks if the person she’s talking to will help clean and change her.”

“We’ve gone back and forth as to whether she’s handicapped in some way and asking actual, albeit gross, questions, as an actual child (I vote ‘No’ on that one), or a grown person trying to drag unsuspecting people into her kink,” said the skeptic. “Given that she calls so many different libraries and the script never changes, my vote is for creepy deviant.”

Both guys and gals have been identified as “deviants” who target librarians over the phone for self-gratification. SB Arts Media – stock.adobe.com

Juliet Cooper, a NYC psychologist in private practice, says this type of harassment should not be shrugged off as playful prank phone calls. 

“When librarians are fetishized, sexual expectations are imposed on people whose work requires politeness, patience and availability, creating a power imbalance that turns the workplace into a hunting ground,” the expert tells The Post. 

“Certain professions are wrongly viewed as ‘safe’ targets for sexualized behavior because they are public, quiet, and non-confrontational,” she added, “and librarians sit squarely within that cultural myth.”

“What is dismissed as playful fantasy is, in reality, a serious boundary violation,” continued Cooper, insisting that the powers that be — in both the library systems and the community at large — acknowledge the misdeed as a serious infraction. 

“Protecting librarians requires naming fetishizing behavior as sexual harassment, and supporting staff with clear boundaries and safety protocols,” said the doc. 

In New York, the targeted attacks against librarians can be considered a crime counted as Aggravated Harassment in the second degree, per NYCourts.gov, which states, “Under our law, a person is guilty of Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree when, with intent to harass or threaten another person, he or she makes a telephone call, whether or not a conversation ensues, with no purpose of legitimate communication.”

Despite the downsides of her job, Hargreaves says her work as a librarian is both enjoyable and gratifying. Courtesy Abby Hargreaves

Hargreaves has not reported any of the harassing calls to her local authorities. She has, instead, relied on the support of her bosses and work associates.

“In my experience, supervisors and other library leadership are supportive of staff ending the call when they recognize something is awry and even declining calls from a known number,” said Hargreaves.

The darker side of her gig notwithstanding, she lauds librarianship as a “super satisfying” post that comes with the privilege of serving folks in need. And she’s grateful to be in the nationwide network of librarians committed to protecting one another from ne’er-do-well dialers. 

“We look out for each other as best we can,” said the book savant, noting that her cyber community becomes especially helpful, “when you’re not totally sure during the call that [sexual inappropriateness is actually]  what’s going on.”

“Online library staff communities are great for validation in these moments,” Hargreaves added. “It’s like, ‘Oh! That wasn’t just me being hypervigilant. That really happened.’”