April 16, 2026
This year's National Library Week theme, “Find Your Joy,” is an invitation for people of all backgrounds to explore and discover what sparks joy in them at the library. The theme amplifies a message that is ever-present in the Honorary Chair of National Library Week, Mychal Threets’ recurring viral videos about the innumerable ways people can find joy in the library, and in his debut picture book, I’m So Happy You’re Here: A Celebration of Library Joy.
So, what is joy?
Joy: the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated; an outward show of pleasure or delight.1
Poet and Author Ross Gay gave an excellent description of what I think many of us think of when we think of the term joy in his book Inciting Joy. “Given that joy is often imagined as the result of some accomplishment or acquisition—something nice you get out there and do; something nice you go get yourself. Joy, the thinking goes, is that room at the top of a flight of stairs that, upon entering, washes you with clean air and glad music and comfy furniture and gentle warmth emanating from the white pine floors, suffused with light pouring in from the enormous windows with a sweet window seat where you can read a happy book. The joy room, the thinking goes, is snug with every good and nice and cozy thing.”2
For many of us, joy is not a feeling or a place that is absent from all the other things happening in our lives. Patia Braithwaite wrote in a Self.com article that “Joy isn’t a distraction—it’s nourishment. It’s part of where some of us find the energy to continue thriving.”3
On the recent NASA mission to the moon, a popular phrase was born out of the emotions felt by both the astronauts and the mission control team. “You know I’m not one for hyperbole, but it’s the only thing I could come up with.” said Commander Reid Wiseman after an up-close view of the moon’s surface, “Just seeing Tycho, there’s mountains to the north. You can see Copernicus, Reiner Gamma. It’s just everything from the training but in three dimension and absolutely unbelievable. This is incredible.” Chief Training Officer, Jacki Mahaffey, responded “Copy, Moon Joy.”4 The rest of the trip, those watching online were using the phrase “moon joy” everywhere to describe the feeling surrounding this incredible mission. Many have created art related to the phrase, with some even looking to get tattoos for a permanent reminder of the collective joy felt from watching these four astronauts embark on such an incredible journey and return safely home. NASA has a great compilation of their "moon joy" moments from the mission on YouTube.
Joy is often portrayed as the opposite or antithesis of pain and hardship. Creator Kleaver Cruz shares how joy is a part of even the darkest moments in his book The Black Joy Project. “There are times when we must choose joy in the face of the harshest conditions…In the wakes of natural disasters that (re)surface inequalities. Through war, drought, famine, political unrest, hate, discrimination, persecution, violence, mass incarceration…the choice of joy has always been available to us”5 He goes on to share the importance of choosing joy.
I believe that is part of what makes library joy so unique. It is a choice. Staff choose to serve the community by providing collection materials, programs, outreach, resources, and their own unique experiences, helping patrons find what they need every day. In doing so, they choose library joy. The community chooses to come use those resources, services, and programs and find information, help, and new friends. Many times, the library is a safe place for someone facing hardship. It's a source of hope, a place filled with knowledge and people who care. The care and the hurt don’t live separately from one another; they are a part of the whole experience.
Gay also shares about the joy we incite, especially when caring for each other through life’s hardships. “What if joy and pain are fundamentally tangled up with one another? Or even more to the point, what if joy is not only entangled with pain, or suffering, or sorrow, but is also what emerges from how we care for each other through those things?”2 His book seeks to explore two questions: what incites joy, and what does joy incite? Through his series of essays in Inciting Joy, Gay comes to the conclusion that “…our fundamental connection to one another, the raft through the sorrow, the holding grief joy is, reminds us, again and again, that we belong not to an institution or a party or a state or a market, but to each other. Needfully so. Which we must practice, and study, and sing, and story, and dream, and celebrate. Belonging to each other as though our lives depended on it.”2
The public library is one of the few free spaces for the public to enjoy without anyone asking anything of them. Libraries are places where we get to practice, study, dream, and celebrate. They are places where we can not only picture joy in all its forms, throughout all the stages of our lives, but also find others with whom to share that joy.
Whatever brings you joy, the library has something for everyone! Whether you’re preparing for a career change or a student, launching a business, raising a family, looking for community resources, or embracing retirement, the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library is here to support your journey. Libraries serve as hubs for learning, creativity, and connection, helping people of all ages explore new ideas and opportunities.
What joy will you discover at the library today?
-Erica S.
- dictionary.com/browse/joy
- Gay, R. (2022). Inciting Joy (p. 2, 4, 245).
- Braithwaite, P. (2020, May 22). We Need Black Joy More Than Ever—Here’s Why. SELF.
https://www.self.com/story/black-joy - NASA Solar System Exploration on Instagram: “‘…copy, Moon joy.’ 🌖.” (2017). Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWveSyoAukO/
Image: NASA. (2026). Moon Joy. https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/amf-art002e013367/ Cruz, K. (2024). The Black Joy Project (p. 19).
I'm So Happy You're Here
Welcome to the library! It's a place just for you! There are activities, movies, games, and SO. MANY. STORIES. Best of all, it's a place where you will always belong. Take a tour of the library with the internet's favorite librarian, Mychal Threets! This heartwarming debut picture book from Mychal extends an invitation to anyone who could use a little library joy and a reminder that libraries are for everyone.
Inciting Joy
A collection of long-form essays on joy, in which the author turns his curious and poetic mind to everything from skateboarding and cover songs, basketball and race, dancing and academia, death and laughter, and, always, the garden and the natural world.
The Black Joy Project
Picturing Joy: Stories of Connection
Whether he was shooting a movie star or a family member, he saw his own search for joy reflected in the images. While growing up in Pittsburgh, Lange cherished his happy childhood, and he found himself unconsciously yearning for that feeling in his adult life. He strove to re-create those fleeting sparks of childhood joy in his relationships and his photographs. "Each day I am trying to find the place we are all connected, but I never know where that place will be. I/create spaces where my subjects feel safe and trusting and can share their part of their own joy." Picturing Joy: Stories of Connection is a lively guide to Lange's approach to life as well as the highlights of his career. This optical and optimistic book captures his curiosity, energy, and enthusiasm for people and photography. It also distills wisdom gleaned from a lifelong search for quotidian beauty that might otherwise go unnoticed. Through intimate stories and more than eighty photos, Picturing Joy invites readers to appreciate life with all their senses and to change their perspective by being open to new things.