Prepare Your Library Before January Arrives, November 2024
“Public libraries have beenunder attack for several years, as have the people working within them. We know that what happens in public schoolsmakes its way to the public libraries, often bythe very same peoplewrecking hell upon those schools.
Here are some of the things that public libraries, as well as public school libraries where applicable, should be considering right now to prepare for the new administration. There are fewer than two months—and honestly, about one month with the holidays—to shore up your institutions to make them as strong and solid for the community as possible.
As always, some of these things may be more managerial-level actions, rather than things the average library worker can do. But also as always, it is the average library worker who can advocate and champion these changes from the ground floor. You live and work them in a different way and speaking up matters. If it’s never been your style, this may be a good opportunity to strengthen that group of muscles.”
Note: even though this was in anticipation of the new administration in 2025, the ideas and actions are still applicable now.
Most Parents Want School Libraries for Their Children–But With Restrictions, December 2023
“It is concerning to think about the majority of parents wanting to know every book their child borrows from the school library. We already know students arenot using the school library the same way they once did due to book bans, and more, in this survey and in the prior ones, the vast majority of parents report never having been made uncomfortable by the books their child has borrowed (86%) and that their child has never been made uncomfortable by the book they borrowed (87%).
If, as parents in this survey indicated (70%), they are responsible for what their child reads and that their children have the right to select their own books (60%), why the need for knowing everything they borrow?”
When Do Parents Trust Their Children With Materials at the Library?, December 2023
“In the survey of parental perceptions of library workers, responses suggested that the majority of parents are comfortable with their children selecting their own materials in elementary school, followed by middle school, then high school. A small number are comfortable with children selecting their own material before kindergarten, while a minuscule number arenevercomfortable with their children selecting their own materials.
These numbers make a lot of sense when taken in context with another set of survey questions from this same survey. Parents overwhelmingly trust their children to select appropriate material, and part of it is because of their overwhelming trust in library workers to have materials on shelves that are age and developmentally-appropriate.”
Manufacturing Problems with School and Library Books to Cash in on Solutions, December 2023
“But a new and frankly unsurprising trend in 2023 is that private entities have stepped in to offer solutions to banned books. These are not solutions to end book bans, but rather ways to continue living in a system that permits books to be banned for lies perpetrated by right-wing parental right groups (no matter how many times book banners push the same handful of images fromGender Queeron social media or in school board meetings, those don’t meet the legal definition of obscenity; they just make you look incredibly ignorant about how books, literacy, and the law work). In 2023, book banners have started to cash in on their own lies, once againowning the entire outrage cycleand its money from start to finish.
Who has been behind this? I’ve already covered two of the biggest, most marketed to date here:BookmarkED, an app designed to “help schools and parents with book bans,” and theBrave Books-now-SkyTree book fairsdesigned to offer an alternative to Scholastic. The first was created by an individual who was advocating for a book ban bill at the Texas Senate this year. Convenient that he would be able to really push his new app as a solution to the bill. The second, of course, has put Kirk Cameron and a cadre of right-wing “children’s books” at the center of discourse over naughty books available in school and public libraries (and hey, even ifthe storytime eventsthat Brave Books coordinated in August at public libraries across the U.S. were free, they were certainly getting plenty of press and attention for the publisher and their books, both during the event and in the coverage leading up to it — the tone of that coverage didn’t matter, since they got their goals into people’s mouths).”
Note: we know even more companies are cashing in on this manufactured crisis now, too.
Most Parents Trust, Respect, and Feel Safe with Librarians, December 2023
“In the latest survey, 92% of parents and guardians stated that they trusted librarians to select appropriate material for children and to recommend appropriate materials to children.
Even more remarkable is that 96% of parents and guardians believed their children were safe in the library. This is an even higher percentage than seen in the first survey in the series, where 92% of parents felt their children were safe in the library.”
What Is SkyTree Book Fairs? A “New” Scholastic Competitor, November 2023
“At least one person who worked for Brave Books is now employed by SkyTree, too. That’s Riley Lee–formerHead of Finance and Administrationat Brave Books turnedHead of Book Fairs for SkyTree. Not to mention that SkyTree got a nice boost at the Conroe Independent School District (TX) recently–SkyTree and Brave Books are both located in Conroe–thanks to an employee at Brave Books.As reported by Frank Strong:
Before either of them spoke [Riley Lee and Brave Books CEO Trent Talbot, CEO of Brave Books], a young woman came to the microphone to describe how reading a Scholastic book with a single kiss when she was eleven led to a pornography addiction that took her years to shake. “I don’t want Conroe ISD students to repeat what I went through because they accidentally ran upon a Scholastic book or another book that could lead them down this road,” she said, “whichDramais one of them.”
That “young woman” was Lanah Burkhardt, who just so happens to be aPublic Relations Coordinator for Brave Books. You can watch the testimony below and note it was shared by SkyTree without any mention of it being an individual with ties to their company.”
Queer in a Time of Book Banning: A Library Worker’s Story by Elissa Myers, November 2023
“A few months before I began working at my library, the backlash toward queer books had already begun, as a local censorship group called Mama Bears Rising spoke at churches up and down Interstate 45, the corridor that connects Houston with its outlying conservative suburbs. This group encouraged those churches’ members to speak out against books they didn’t agree with at public and school libraries–primarily books that featured LGBTQ+ content or YA books that featured sex scenes. Those members then began speaking to their city council members about these books instead of going through the library-approved process for challenging materials, circumventing the expertise of librarians, who buy materials for all members of their communities and consider such matters as age-appropriateness from the beginning when they make their purchases.
A few short months after I began working, I began facing the backlash in a personal way. It all began when community members first realized I was queer. I had several rainbow articles on my desk, but one day when I wore a pair of socks with the word “queer” on them on a day when I had to lead storytime, things came to a head. A parent called me a few days later to complain.”
My Book Was Banned Again — This Time In Retaliation for My Anti-Censorship Work, November 2023
“My book is not the first nor the last to be banned in Clay County. Hell, like I said, this isn’t the first time my book has been banned. But in straight retaliation for my work on censorship? That’s a new one.
Perhaps the worst part of it is this: Steve Martin’sShopgirlwas also banned recently, though in Collier County, Florida,alongside 300-some others. The media has breathlessly fawned over his response that banning the book makes him proud because it means the book will sell more copies. Not only is that bullshit, it’s ignorant and once again pushes the anticensorship movement back,just like Stephen King didin his infamous tweet telling kids to get to the public library if a book is banned at their school (the public libraries are targets, too).”
Note: Bruce also got Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World banned in Clay County, and both Body Talk and Here We Are have faced many more book bans nationwide since. Ah, 2023.
The Very Real Trauma From Book Bans, December 2022
“The ongoing fight over the rights of young people to access books is contributing to their trauma. This is especially true for queer kids and kids of color, who are seeing grown adults fight against their rights to live their lives. Who are witnessing adults who began their Joyful War against access to literature saying that kids were struggling in school because they were “muzzled” by masks. Who kept it going, saying that requiring vaccinations was an invasion of bodily autonomy for children. Who then moved on to fighting againstthe very books on school and library shelvesunder the guise of “caring for the kids,” because teachers and librarians were not actually interested in the well-being of young people but are instead “groomers” who are “sexualizing them” at young ages.
These messages are being piled on top of the trauma already circulating within young people from the past two years. They’re further confused and, if they’re from groups already under the spotlight of bigotry and racism, they’re wondering if they’re even safe to go to school. If they can show up as they are. We’ve seen schools wanting lists of students who identify as queer and we’ve seen states eager to shut down any gender-affirming healthcare young people desperately need to be their truest selves.”
Note: Check out the 2024 resource guide for library workers on book bans and trauma.
The “Culture War” Designation is Journalistic Negligence, December 2022
“A weakening journalism industryis one arm of the octopus which has allowed book bans and censorship to thrive in the current environment. It’s not just the loss of local news, though. Further contributing is the insistence of calling book censorship a matter of “culture war.”
Censorship is not, nor has it ever been, a culture war.
A “culture war” is what happens between two (or more) factions working to assert dominance for their belief system. Keeping to this part of the definition, censorship might fall under the umbrella of the term. But “culture war” describes more than a fringe movement — and to be clear, despite the power groups like Moms For Liberty, No Left Turn, and others have, they’re still fringe groups. “Culture war” happens when the issue at hand is one which there is a broad sense of disagreement on the topic socially. Book bans and censorship arefundamentalprinciples encoded in the First Amendment rights of all Americans.”
Book Censorship News, November 28, 2025
Due to the American holiday, this week’s roundup will be shorter than usual.
- Alabama’s public library services, which oversee all public libraries in the state, just banned books about being transgender and/or books on “gender ideology” written for those under 18 from all libraries. State-sanctioned bigotry and censorship.
- A powerful, necessary profile of librarian Amanda Jones from a Sydney, Australia, newspaper.
- “Two competing petitions are circulating in Zionsville — one calling for the local library to remove certain books from the children’s section, and another urging the library to continue promoting inclusivity.” This is an Indiana public library.
- Ohio republicans are trying to pass a bill that would require school and public libraries to filter online content out of databases that the state believes is “obscene” or “harmful to minors.” Only one of those designations has an actual definition, of course, and this kind of requirement is impossible for library workers to fulfill without just not buying databases or online resources at all…which is, of course, the point. FWIW, such “inappropriate” databases in schools and public libraries don’t exist, but that detail doesn’t matter.
- A children’s anatomy book was quietly relocated in Ada Community Library (ID). There was no vote or formal decision, as the board chair believed he had the right to just make the call himself.
- The North East Independent School District (TX) has a “see something, say something” warning on its library website, encouraging people to see something they believe inappropriate in the collection to issue a challenge to it. Wow.
- “Chino Valley Unified School District has passed a controversial policy in which parents, guardians, students, staff or even district residents can formally lodge a complaint to remove a non-curriculum book from a school or teacher’s classroom library if they think it contains “sexually obscene content.”” This is California, and remember: they have an anti-book ban law. It’ll be interesting to see how they square this.
- A middle school teacher in Massachusetts who had their classroom ransacked by police over reports she had a copy of Gender Queer in it sued the police chief and one of his officers. This week, a judge said the case can proceed.
- Educators in North Carolina are continuing to work toward compliance with the state law that requires every classroom library be cataloged and available for parents to
complain aboutlook at. - River Valley School Board (IN) is looking to implement a policy that would ban books for elementary school students in the library and in book fairs. “According to the draft policy, the goal is to “protect the innocence of elementary students and ensure that all reading materials provided through book fairs, libraries or classroom collections are consistent with the moral and educational values of the River Valley community.”” Sure.
- Bernalillo County’s Metropolitan Detention Center (NM) does not allow those experiencing incarceration there to have any books. The policy, implemented this summer, is now under review.
- Lapeer District Library (MI) is struggling to find candidates who want the role of director. Why? Because of how much controversy the board as stirred. Who’d have thought?
- 35 different anti-censorship organizations wrote a letter to Tennessee’s Secretary of State denouncing his demands on public libraries to review their collections and ensure they remove books in violation of Trump’s Executive Order 14168–code for removing LGBTQ+ books (see this story on Rutherford County). The EveryLibrary Institute also wrote about the constitutional questions surrounding the demands.
- Otsego Public Schools has (MI) removed a book from its curriculum because it featured gay characters.
- In Duval Public Schools (FL), the district revoked student access to the public library’s digital books, ebooks, and video services. Uh, not only is that censorship, it’s a tremendous overstep by the district to decide what students do or don’t have access to at the public library.
- The Fontana Regional Library (NC) pulled out of their consortium this year, as the board doesn’t want their residents to have access to diverse books available in other libraries. Now, shockingly, the board cannot figure out how to make decisions about what it is for the library to become independent.
