No one would expect to come away scared after attending a library convention.
Yet the prevailing theme at this year’s American Library Association conference, held in San Diego June 27 to July 2, was book challenges and bans, and the takeaway was indeed frightening.
Librarians and library staff are facing not only challenges to books but also menacing harassment and threats to their personal safety.
The book-banning trend is resulting in an unprecedented attack on free speech rights, with school and public libraries in the crosshairs.
According to the ALA, the number of unique book titles challenged for censorship in the United States rose significantly in the past four years, from 223 in 2020, to 1,858 in 2021, 2,571 in 2022, and 4,240 in 2023.
Books and graphic novels with LGBTQ+ content, or by LGBTQ+ authors, are a frequent target for extremists who fear books that present diverse ideas.
Books that offer realistic depictions of our country’s checkered history or disturbing dystopian scenarios have also been challenged.
Many of these challenged books are classic novels, including: To Kill a Mockingbird, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, The Handmaid’s Tale, Of Mice and Men, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Beloved, Animal Farm, The Catcher in the Rye, Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and more internationally-acclaimed titles.
Popular children’s books have also been challenged across the country, including the Goosebumps series, the Harry Potter series, the Captain Underpants series, the Junie B. Jones series, and dozens of other children’s books and graphic novels.
Beware of penguins
One of the more ludicrous challenges is to the 2005 picture book And Tango Makes Three, a true story written for children ages 4 to 8 about two male penguins at New York’s Central Park Zoo who bond with one another and raise a chick together, to create a loving family.
Because Tango has two dads, this sweet story has been called unsuitable for children.
Katherine Carn, branch manager of the City of San Diego’s Carmel Valley Library, said she has received “some concerns about books in our collection,” particularly objections to books representing the LGBTQ+ community and the display of LGBTQ+ materials during June Pride Month.
Carn said the goal of the City of San Diego Public Library, which has 35 branch libraries, is to provide a high-quality collection that is relevant, diverse and responsive to the needs and interests of the community, which includes purchasing materials that recognize a wide range of cultures, perspectives, positions and marginalized voices.
“Libraries play an important role in defending access to challenged books, as it is a crucial step in protecting intellectual freedom,” Carn said. “Engaging with these books allows readers to explore diverse perspectives, fostering critical thinking and empathy, while challenging censorship and promoting an open and inclusive society.”
She said the widening divide in political views and personal values s for much of the increase in book challenges.
“Much like we celebrate and fight for their right to freely select materials that align with their beliefs, we’re committed to ensure others have the same right,” Carn said. “Despite criticism and challenges to materials, it is our commitment to give everyone a voice and to ensure that the voice of some does not impact access to materials for others.”
The San Diego County Library system oversees 33 branch libraries, including the Del Mar, Cardiff, Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe and Solana Beach libraries.
San Diego County Library’s Collection Development Manager Jennifer Lawson said the county’s librarians use professional reviews, usage statistics, trends and other criteria to decide what titles to purchase for the collection.
“Sometimes we do have customers who are uncomfortable with specific books in the collection,” she said. “We generally explain that libraries have a wide range of materials to meet the variety of needs we see in our community.”
Lawson said county libraries will have displays highlighting Banned Books Week, this year Sept. 22-28, “and we’ll feature a list of titles in our Libby app.”
Board of Supervisors
Recognizing the imperative to protect the public’s right to read, San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, representing District 3, recently introduced a policy ing libraries and opposing book banning.
The policy was approved Aug. 27 by the Board of Supervisors in a 3-2 vote, with Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond opposed.
“We’ve taken a strong stand to our county library staff and protect the freedom to read for San Diegans,” said Lawson-Remer in a statement to this newspaper. “It is unfortunate extremists are trying to silence diverse voices. San Diegans deserve the ability to read what they want, and the policy we ed ensures that County of San Diego libraries are safe havens for intellectual freedom.”
In an Aug. 23 newsletter to constituents, Lawson-Remer recognized “an alarming increase in the number of books being challenged and banned,” with a significant portion involving books representing the voices and lived experiences of marginalized communities.
She said book challenges are designed to suppress certain viewpoints or limit access to information. She labeled this a “troubling trend pushed by conservative, right-wing politicians,” saying it is “nothing short of a threat to our freedom and democracy.”
Calling libraries “important spaces for community learning and the protection of free speech,” Lawson-Remer thanked her colleagues Nora Vargas and Montgomery Steppe, after the policy ed, for their in recognizing “the significance of libraries as centers of community learning and the importance of maintaining our intellectual freedom and inclusivity.”
Lawson-Remer’s policy will ensure that all county libraries recognize Banned Books Week this year and every year thereafter, and acquire and make available hard and/or digital copies of banned books to guarantee access at each county library.
Increasing awareness and advancing a public education campaign about banned and culturally inclusive books by exploring additional funding opportunities is also part of the policy.
The policy includes for California Assembly Bill 1825, called the Freedom to Read Act, which prevents public library boards that receive state funding, excluding school libraries, from banning or restricting the circulation of any materials based on the topics, views, ideas or opinions expressed in them.
Doublethink
At the ALA conference, Eric Stroshane from the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom painted a bleak picture of current conditions, describing how the practices used by extremist groups undermine trust in libraries and public education and how propagandistic strategies shape and warp public discourse.
He compared today’s movement to control access to books to the dystopian world in George Orwell’s 1984, published in 1949.
Fittingly, and ironically, 1984 is the most frequently banned book of all time, according to the ALA.
Orwell’s imagined conditions (free speech restrictions, the thought police, excessive government control) are disturbingly prescient to what some believe is America’s slide into authoritarianism.
In Orwell’s Newspeak and doublethink, the meaning of words is changed by those attempting to rewrite the narrative: war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.
Along those lines, is education about inclusion now indoctrination?
Indoctrination – the process of teaching one to accept beliefs and ideas uncritically and without question – has taken on a new meaning.
It’s become a rallying cry of sorts and is used repeatedly by those who want to ban books that present themes, scenarios or characters deemed unacceptable.
This is the antithesis of our system of education that purports to teach students how to engage in critical thinking.
Re-defining words to suit narrow purposes can serve to restrict the dissemination of ideas based on biased and faulty ideological reasoning.
Simple exposure to different sets of ideas is not indoctrination. “Cutting off access to these stories IS indoctrination,” Stroshane said at the ALA conference.
First Amendment rights
The library is a mighty resource in the marketplace of ideas by allowing for free thought and protecting readers from government over-reach.
Parents may have the right to control what their own children read, but they do not have the right to control what others read.
Restrictions are an attack on freedom of speech, made sacred in the words of the First Amendment, which librarians call the cornerstone of our democracy.
“Nefarious forces want to tear down our First Amendment rights,” said ALA President Emily Drabinski in a prepared statement. “Let people read what they want to read.”
“This is a dangerous time for readers and the public servants who provide access to reading materials,” stated Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, on the ALA website. “Readers, particularly students, are losing access to critical information, and librarians and teachers are under attack for doing their jobs.”
If the book-banning trend continues, perhaps we’re approaching the point when books like 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 should be moved from fiction to nonfiction.
Banned Books Week, launched in 1982, falls this year Sept. 22-28, and its theme is “Freed Between the Lines.”
Those who oppose such attempts at censorship are encouraged to read challenged books and everyone’s right to read, during Banned Books Week … and always.
As famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov once said, “Any book worth burning is a book worth reading.”
For a list of banned books and information, see: www.ala.org/bbooks/banned.
Opinion columnist and education writer Marsha Sutton can be reached at [email protected].
Marsha Sutton is a columnist and presents her opinion. Column: Combines reporting, storytelling and commentary to make a point. Unlike reporters, columnists are allowed to include their opinions. Columnists in the Union-Tribune Community Press are identified clearly to set them apart from news reporters.
