Ahead of Banned Books Week, which kicks off on Sunday, September 22, the American Library Association this week held an Intellectual Freedom Summit at the Library of Congress. ALA reps said the goal was to foster strong partnerships and shape strategy to confront the growing threat of censorship.
"As we gathered at the world’s largest library, we identified strategies to respond to the withdrawal and censorship of information," said ALA president Cindy Hohl. "We are joining forces to lift ourselves and ultimately our country above the fray of polarization and politicization of access to information."
In addition, as part of the ALA's Reader Voter Ready 2024 civic engagement campaign, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) this week released "Inspiring Future Voters," a new booklist for young readers. The list features fiction and nonfiction books that inform youth about the voting process and inspire civic participation. Titles are organized into five separate lists by age range: birth-preK, grades K-2, grades 3-5, grades 6-8 and young adult. The booklists are free to download on the Reader Voter Ready web page.
As Banned Books Week gets underway, it's time for the Banned Wagon to the the road again. Powered by Penguin Random House and in partnership with Unite Against Book Bans, Little Free Library, and First Book, the Banned Wagon's second-ever tour will commence on on September 22, visiting nine libraries and bookstores in communities across the Midwest and the South being impacted by book banning and censorship. "We’re excited to hit the road again with the Banned Wagon," said Alyssa Taylor, director of brand marketing at PRH, in a statement. "Books help us understand ourselves and the world around us. We all deserve the opportunity to read, think, and learn freely."
Over at Book Riot, Kelly Jensen begins her weekly censorship news column with a deep dive on the data collected by the Brooklyn Public Library's Books Unbanned program, which offers digital library cards to out-of-state young readers unable to access books. It's a fascinating read. "Banned Books Week is about encouraging action and advocacy all year long to ensure that all people have the right to read," she writes. "As you witness banned books displays that feature only the classics, or you hear about the free books being distributed in majority-blue cities, remember that those are marketing, not what’s actually happening. What’s actually happening is best addressed by those personally affected by today’s rise in book censorship: the teens."
OregonLive reports that the state saw a big spike in the number of books and other materials challenged at schools and public libraries over the last year citing a new report from the Oregon Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse.
Chalkbeat Tennessee reports that the Board of Education for Rutherford County, Tennessee, which it calls one of the state's "book banning hotspots," voted Thursday to remove six titles from high school libraries, including Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Beloved.
Local affiliate WSB-TV 2 in Cobb County, Georgia reports that the local school board has ordered the removal of six more "sexually explicit" books from schools, which the report describes as "another step in the district’s ongoing process of removing books with sexually explicit and/or graphic content from the school system’s libraries."
WWNY in Watertown, N.Y., reports that the Watertown School Board is being asked to approve the removal of books from the shelves at the high school library. In a letter to the school board, Abigail Wilcox, a library media specialist, gave five reasons for their removal, including “objectionable" content. “I did extensively discuss with [Wilcox] what her position was on these books," school board member Milly Smith said, "and did she actually look and review the contents of these books and she’s actually an advocate for some of these books, but not within a school setting,”
The Royal Examiner reports that the Samuel’s Public Library in Front Royal, Virginia, snagged several awards from the Virginia Library Association, including Library of the Year, Friends Group of the Year, and Trustee of the Year. “We have a wonderful team, and we’re blessed to serve a fantastic community,” library director Erin Rooney said.
The Sebastopol Times reports that Mathew Rose, branch manager of the Sebastopol Library in California, has been fired by the Sonoma County Library after an 18-month saga that began when Rose asked the Sebastopol City Council to support his request for more staff at the library. Rose said he will fight what he called a wrongful termination.
The Montgomery Advertiser reports that the Alabama Public Library Service has a new board chair—and it's the chair of the Alabama Republican Party. "Wahl, in his role on the board of directors, proposed a policy of cataloging potentially inappropriate books," the report notes. "He also supported a proposal from Gov. Kay Ivey for libraries to lose state funding if they do not adopt policies restricting sexually explicit materials, as deemed by the board."
And finally, on September 24, freedom to read advocates will be watching closely as the full Fifth Circuit court of appeals hears oral argument in a closely watched book banning case in from Llano County, Texas. The Tallahassee Democrat looks at why the Florida attorney general will be arguing part of the case:
"Florida’s controversial legal argument defending book bans is expanding, pushing beyond school libraries into public libraries," the article states. "The Florida Attorney General’s Office...claims that book removals are "government speech" and therefore don't violate others’ First Amendment rights. The legal doctrine is essentially a First Amendment exception that says governments can discriminate based on viewpoint or content when they speak for themselves. Next week, Florida Solicitor General Henry Whitaker will argue that before a federal appeals court in New Orleans. To make this happen, Llano County – located in Central Texas, population 22,540–ceded some of its speaking time to Florida."
The Week in Libraries is a weekly opinion and news column. News, tips, submissions, questions or comments are welcome, and can be submitted via email. Previous columns can be viewed here.
