“It’s bad out there.”
“It’s really bad.”
“Actually, it’s beyond bad.”
“It’s truly awful.”
Comments from librarians overheard at this year’s international conference of the American Library Association, held in San Diego June 27 to July 2, gave testament to the toxic conditions many librarians and library staff are experiencing amidst a record number of book challenges this past year.
One session at the conference introduced its topic by writing, “Book bans dominate our national literary narrative … [T]he targeting of certain ‘controversial’ themes and subsequent threat to intellectual freedom is clear.”
Nearly half of targeted books included LGBTQ+ themes.
“Intellectual freedom and book challenges continue to be timely topics at the conference this year,” said Raymond Garcia, ALA Communications Specialist.
On June 30 at the conference, the ALA’s elected council delivered a resolution opposing censorship and those who want to remove books from libraries.
Specifically, the council condemned efforts to remove materials from library shelves, condemned threats to the physical safety of library workers, and decried the removal and undermining of professional standards by state and local governments.
“Nefarious forces want to tear down our First Amendment rights,” said ALA President Emily Drabinski in a prepared statement. “[I]n this climate where library workers face thousands of book challenges every year, and even threats to our safety, we want to speak loudly with one voice: Let people read what they want to read.”
She called on the public to speak out “to protect, preserve and defend people’s right to read freely.”
As with any large group of people, not every library worker finds all books personally acceptable. But library professionals emphasize that personal convictions should take a back seat to professional duties.
Garcia referred to the ALA’s Code of Ethics which states in part, “We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources.”
“ALA believes that people should be able to make their own decisions about what to read. A book ban means that the government (at any level) is deciding what people can read,” he said in an email.
Not every book is in every library, though.
“Book bans take power away from library workers who are trained to make selections,” he said, adding that they work “to reflect the needs of their whole communities.”
World’s Largest Library Event
Based in Chicago, the American Library Association has eight divisions and is the largest membership association in the world for the library industry, with 50,000 individual and 4,000 organizational members.
For more than 140 years, the ALA has advocated for the profession and for the library’s role in enhancing learning and ensuring access to information for all.
“The American Library Association is invaluable to book and publishing professionals, educators, and the publishing industry as a whole,” said Simon Tasker, executive vice president, general manager and group publisher at Printers Row Publishing Group, located in San Diego.
PRPG was present at the conference to showcase its Silver Dolphin Books which publishes titles to engage younger children.
The five-day conference, billed as the largest library event in the world, included more than 175 educational programs, 500 speakers and authors and nearly 550 exhibitors. Overall attendance of public and school librarians, library staff, authors, publishers, educators, exhibitors and others was about 13,500, with 340 participants from 51 countries outside the U.S.
About 330 attendees participated from the San Diego Public Library, according to the ALA.
The ALA’s Drabinski said in a statement that attendees at the conference were able to “explore and discuss crucial issues and develop innovative solutions that will strengthen libraries for the future.”
The opening session featured entertainer Trevor Noah who discussed his new book, to be released this October, titled Into the Uncut Grass, an illustrated fable about a young boy and his adventures in a magical landscape.
Librarians in the Crosshairs
According to the ALA, the highest number of book titles targeted for censorship was documented in 2023.
The number of unique book titles challenged by year in the U.S. was 223 in 2020, 1,858 in 2021, 2,571 in 2022 and 4,240 in 2023, which represents a 65% surge in 2023 compared to 2022.
The list of the top 10 most challenged books in 2023 can be found here.
Books, however, are not the sole target of attacks, many of which the ALA says are orchestrated by conservative parent groups and right-wing media.
Books and graphic novels represent 76% of challenges. But displays were also targeted, as were access (library closures, funding, bomb threats), crimes (vandalism, theft of materials) and programs.
According to the ALA website, “Prior to 2020, the vast majority of challenges to library books and resources were brought by a single parent who sought to remove or restrict access to a book their child was reading.”
But today, ALA evidence indicates “a growing, well-organized, conservative political movement, the goals of which include removing books about race, history, gender identity, sexuality, and reproductive health from America’s public and school libraries that do not meet their approval.
“Using social media and other channels, these groups distribute book lists to their local chapters and individual adherents, who then utilize the lists to initiate a mass challenge that can empty the shelves of a library.”
It’s not just libraries under attack.
“Both school and public librarians are increasingly in the crosshairs of conservative groups during book challenges and subject to defamatory name-calling, online harassment, social media attacks, and doxxing, as well as direct threats to their safety, their employment, and their very liberty,” states the ALA.
Resources for Fighting Bans
A political cartoon from last year speaks to this issue. It shows two small children walking to school. One says, “They are finally making our schools safer.”
“No more guns?” says the other.
“No, no more books.”
Fittingly enough, the ALA says the most frequently banned book of all time is George Orwell’s 1984, considered a satire on totalitarianism. Oh the irony.
Check out the resources on the Unite Against Book Bans website to learn more about how to preserve freedom from book bans.
These sites are also helpful: Freedom to Read Foundation and Office for Intellectual Freedom.
This site is to report attempts at censorship.
During Banned Book Week, defenders of the right to read are encouraged to read banned books.
To learn about Banned Book Week, Sept. 22 to 28, see Freed Between the Lines here.
As famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov once said, “Any book worth burning is a book worth reading.”
Opinion columnist and education writer Marsha Sutton can be reached at suttonmarsha@gmail.com.
