I am so tired of book banning being designated a political tool. A Republican or Democratic thing. And I wish book banning wasn’t painted with such a broad brush, as if banning a book applies to every venue across the nation, or in many cases, across a state.
Book banning is a phrase now used to incite, not solve a problem. People are too caught up in pointing fingers and placing blame than anything else.
The reality, as usual, lies in the middle.
There are levels of book banning, if you want to use that term, but in an attempt to remove the political flavor, lets call it book selection. That’s all it is, book selection, and libraries have been “selecting” which books to stock their shelves with since the beginning of libraries.
Just like parents have been selective on what they wanted their children to read. A parent is fully entitled to select (and withhold) certain books for their children. They do not have the say so of what goes in a library that has the responsibility of meeting the needs of all.
That said, however, a school librarian is trained to stock shelves with age-proper books. That’s not book banning. That’s doing their job like they were educated and trained to do. They do not have the right to tell a child what they have to read if the parent isn’t on board with it. It’s not a fight thing. It’s an understanding thing. People cannot read each other’s minds.
Public library staff are expected to stock almost anything, often limited more by budget and the number of times something is checked out than politics. They serve the entire community, all factions of it, populating the shelves with the needs of their particular demographics in their jurisdiction, to the limit of their budget.
Bookstores can offer anything and everything with their choices dictated by personal preferences and whatever way the commercial winds are blowing. They serve whomever they deem to be their customer base.
We seem to forget the driving forces of each book venue, their budget, and their mission statement.
We all have personal, political, and cultural leanings. We have no right to push others to think like we do. I love a live-and-let-live mentality. I won’t tell you what to read if you don’t tell me. If a venue does not have the books I like, I’ll go elsewhere or maybe even ask them to order it. If they say no, then fine. If they do, fine. And honestly, when it comes to schools, if a teacher wishes to assign a potentially combative title to their students, they should have options in case any student or parent has issues. Parents and teachers have to cooperate with each other in order for the child to best learn.
Again, live and let live . . . respecting each other’s wishes. Diversity, whether you like what that means in your region, is real, wherever you are. Live. And. Let. Live.
Frankly, I am open to all types of books being available to the public . . . in a public library or bookstore. Schools, however, should be about education at an age-appropriate level, and paralleling the approved curriculum. To me, that’s putting children first, parents second, and politics last.
Yes, I expect feedback on this, but that’s okay.
Yes, yes, yes, and yes!
Perfectly said! Thank you for addressing this issue.
Just posted a reply to your notice on Facebook about this. Your views stated here are very, very close to my own. Book selection is not book banning. Attempting to influence what books are in the library is not book banning.
Well said!
I’m a librarian in a state that has just introduced legislation criminalizing school and public librarians who select and check out material the state deems inappropriate. The bill literally makes it a felony charge. My colleagues are so drained and demoralized, many of us are being viciously harassed, stalked, and doxxed, and I even know one person who’s had child protective services claims filed against her because she ordered books for her junior high library with gay characters. This is why I was so disappointed to read this post in your newsletter today, which is usually such a source of uplift and inspiration for me.
I’m in the middle of this culture war, absolutely involuntarily, and please believe me that this is the truth, which hardly feels like it’s “in the middle”: people are issuing death threats against librarians and educators, organizing to defund libraries (seriously, this happened in my state, and Missouri recently cut all its state library funding, though hopefully they’ll backtrack), goading city councils into dissolving library boards and replacing them with extremist ideologues, and making institutions unable to do anything but respond to threats, complaints, and crises.
I truly hope you’ll reconsider framing this as a “the reality lies in the middle” situation and support your school and public libraries as they struggle against what is rapidly evolving into a threat to their continued existence in some regions.
Some Further Reading
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/03/book-bans-censorship-librarian-challenges/673398/
https://www.tpr.org/podcast/the-source/2023-04-12/how-public-libraries-are-under-attack
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/24/michigan-library-defunded-gender-queer/
https://bookriot.com/how-long-until-a-library-worker-is-killed/
your example of the librarian with child protective services claim filed against her and the legislation criminalizing librarians for book selection is frightening. Last night I attended an event for an actor/author/activist who told similar stories. He’s a South Asian gay man who has a National bullying program and middle grade books. His books have landed on banned lists. thank you for the “other side” to this issue.
Best I’ve read! Excellent ! Book selection is a term I’ll be using along with the Right to Read.
I agree. And while librarians may deal with political and cultural pressures, the fact remains that children should come first and parents should have a right in the material they read. The pressures come from both sides. The hostilities are not one-sided. We have two sides of culture pressuring the other. It’s hard to be neutral as we will never agree with every book. So, I think your points are well made.
It’s pretty disingenuous to suggest that, if we agree that the major uptick in book challenges, bans, selections–whatever term you decide works best for you–is partisan, ‘both sides’ share equal responsibility when it comes to lacking respect for one’s choices.
I suppose as a queer person it is difficult for me to untangle the knot between book challenges (my preferred term) and the increasingly aggressive anti-LGBTQ legislation that directly targets education. And that doesn’t even touch upon race. There is a great piece up on Slate today about a teacher in Iowa who quit because his superintendent couldn’t (or wouldn’t) give him a straight answer to this seemingly easy-to-address question: can he teach his students that slavery was wrong?
A link, if you’re interested (and you ought to be interested): https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/iowa-critical-race-theory-curriculum-slavery-holocaust-teacher-quit.html