If you care about books, about libraries, and about your own freedom to read (and write) whatever the hell you want, it behooves you to pay attention. Currently, Kelly Jensen is the only journalist devoted to this beat, 24/7, for several years now.
Here's her call to action: pay attention and show up locally; don't hope for someone else to stand up for your rights.
Double the #BookBans in half the time, via BookRiot:
"PEN’s report confirms that book bans are happening nationwide. The state’s political leanings don’t matter: 42 states, both red and blue, reported book bans in public schools over the three years of PEN’s record keeping."
A few weeks ago, a school board in Millburn school district 24, in Illinois, voted to end their participation in the Rebecca Caudill awards, declaring the award to be "woke" and "have a political agenda". Since the books are selected by middle school readers--students in the district--you can see the right wing bullshit coming.
Thanks to enthusiastic community involvement, the board reversed course.
Proposed bill in Alabama to allow the arrest of librarians.
No one is perfect—not even librarians. But professional #librarians are terrific. They're dedicated public servants, and they know how to library better than politicians do.
In a year that will be remembered for its relentless assault on intellectual freedom, 2023 saw an unprecedented wave of book bans sweeping across the United States.
The numbers are staggering and the targets are clear. In the first half of the 2022-23 school year alone, 30% of banned books focused on racial topics or featured characters of color, while over half of the bans in 2023 took aim at LGBTQ+ content. —via takeitback.org #Censorship#BookBans#Education#Diversity#DEI#Racism#LGBTQ
6 Badass Librarians Who Changed History
They will not be shushed.
by April White April 5, 2024
"Librarians have never been a quiet bunch: Information, after all, is power. To mark National Library Week—typically celebrated the second full week of April—Atlas Obscura, fittingly, went into the archives to find our favorite stories of librarians who have fostered cultural movements, protected national secrets, and fought criminals..."
…The bill in CT, pending before an #education cmte, is 1 of a raft of measures advancing nationwide that seek to do things like prohibit #BookBans or forbid the #harassment of school & public librarians…. Legislators in 22 mostly blue states have proposed 57 such bills so far this year, & 2 have become #law….
But the #library-friendly measures are being outpaced by bills in mostly #RedStates that aim to restrict which #books#libraries can offer & #threaten#librarians w/ #prison or thousands in #fines for handing out “obscene” or “harmful” titles. At least 27 states are considering 100 such bills this year, 3 of which have become #law…. That adds to nearly a dozen similar measures enacted over the last 3 yrs across 10 states.
The #Brevard#schoolBoard is choosing to follow badly worded laws, written vaguely on purpose, massive in scope, to follow a #ChristianNationalist agenda to #indoctrinate#students, while ignoring that these same laws would ban virtually every book from our classrooms and libraries.
A record number of titles face calls for censorship, by Millie Giles, David Crowther
"...Although the number of affected titles has grown dramatically, as groups increasingly target multiple books at once, overall censorship demands dropped slightly, down 2% to 1,247. Literature concerning race and gender was particularly contested, with autobiographical graphic novel Gender Queer named the most challenged library book of the year.
Public libraries are now the primary battleground for proposed bans: the number of titles targeted for censorship at libraries rose by 92%, compared with 11% at schools. Moreover, librarians now face harsh penalties, including potential fines and imprisonment in several states, for distributing books that are deemed inappropriate..."
Of course by "inappropriate" they mean accurate history about people of color, other faiths, and lgbtq folks. Christianity can't compete.
States where there [have been] attempts to ban more than 100 books include: Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
"The books being targeted again focus on LGBTQ+ and people of color."
"the #banning of #books, #magazines, #newspapers and #music, the outlawing of the #freedom to read and write and listen, the censoring of educational materials while criminalizing educators and librarians, and repressing speech — have roots in the anti-literacy laws of colonial slaveholding #America...