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Kelly Yang Photo: Jessica Sample As a kid, the library was the first place Kelly Yang felt invited to “dream bigger.” Yang, now a bestselling and award-winning middle-grade and YA author, spent her childhood moving from city to city, making it difficult to find her footing. But everywhere she went, she could find familiar stories […]
Uniting against censorship attempts Organized book challenges continued to proliferate. From January through August, 681 attempts to ban or restrict library materials had been made in the US, with 1,651 unique titles targeted. In response to mounting censorship threats, ALA announced in May its Unite Against Book Bans campaign, a coalition with more than 60 […]
Illustration: Gaby FeBland When a handful of books stopped being returned at Vinton (Iowa) Public Library, Janette McMahon suspected it was more than just forgetfulness. McMahon, the library director at the time, says residents of the east central Iowa town of 5,000 had been discussing book bans, and it had become heated. “We had five […]
Illustration: Chelsea Feng High-profile book banning and boycott stories have included everything from Susan Meyers and Marla Frazee’s Everywhere Babies to Pizza Hut’s Book It! program, which some attacked in June for featuring LGBTQ books in celebration of Pride Month. These stories, especially when shared on social media, have accelerated the culture wars and negatively […]
Illustration: Chelsea Feng As libraries, schools, and universities continue to confront unprecedented attacks on the freedom to read, the Public Library Association (PLA) invited library colleagues to participate in “Facing the Challenge,” a virtual town hall held March 4. As those who have endured book-banning attempts and related legislative efforts know, the experience is often […]
In their bestselling young adult memoir, All Boys Aren’t Blue (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), author and activist George M. Johnson tells the story of their life growing up Black and queer in the United States, while also addressing topics like racism, gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, and sexual abuse. The book has been […]
Photo: Nadja Spiegelman Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel Maus details the experiences of Spiegelman’s father during the Holocaust, with Jewish characters depicted as mice and Nazis as cats. It has been the subject of multiple book challenges and bans since its publication in 1991—most recently in January when the board of McMinn County (Tenn.) […]
If you visit Nashville, Tennessee, chances are you’ll venture downtown, where country music spills out of honky-tonks and into the streets. Across town, the Tennessee State Capitol sits on a hill overlooking it all. Earlier this year, country music and legislation crossed paths with House Bill 1944 and Senate Bill 1944, also known as the […]
Wong’s election makes ALA history At the conclusion of the 2021 Annual Conference Virtual, Patricia “Patty” M. Wong began her term as the first Asian American to serve as ALA president. The American Rescue Plan Act and libraries When President Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 on March 11, […]
A protester at the Save Niles Library rally in July. Organizers met at a local park, then marched to the library for a public hearing on proposed budget cuts. Photo: Niles Coalition On March 18, 2021, the Niles–Maine (Ill.) District Library (NMDL) held a candidate forum for its April board of trustees election—a forum that […]
Ryan*, a librarian working in New England, was confused when she received an email from library administration about a man who had been banned from the building. When she asked a colleague what had happened, she learned there had been a “First Amendment audit.” “My heart sank,” Ryan says. She had learned about these encounters […]
First published in 1974, the American Library Association’s (ALA) Intellectual Freedom Manual has become an essential reference for library workers who need dependable answers to thorny questions about book challenges, patron privacy, and policy development for their institutions. The 10th edition, coedited by Martin Garnar, director of Amherst (Mass.) College Library and former president of […]
Programming such as drag queen story hours has been subject to challenges. Photo: Jennifer Ricard Just as books are sometimes challenged and banned in libraries, schools, universities, and public institutions, other library materials, resources, and services have been challenged, canceled, or dismantled. People’s perception of offensive content is not limited to the written word. Censorship […]
Though the ongoing pandemic prompted the American Library Association (ALA) to hold its 2021 Annual Conference and Exhibition virtually June 23–29, there was no shortage of enthusiasm or curiosity among the more than 9,100 attendees who gathered online to hear from speakers and authors and share their experiences. Nikole Hannah-Jones Headlining speakers talked about books, […]
Sen. Barack Obama speaks at the 2005 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition President-Elect Barack Obama keynoted the opening general session at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, June 23–29, 2005, while a US senator from Illinois. This article, published in the August 2005 issue of American Libraries, is an adaptation of that speech, which drew […]
Our online column Letters of the Law explores a wide range of legal issues that arise in libraries, with the help of a pair of leading authorities: Mary Minow, a librarian who became a lawyer, and Tomas A. Lipinski, a lawyer who became a librarian. Together they have authored four books on the subject, including […]
Our online column Letters of the Law explores a wide range of legal issues that arise in libraries, with the help of a pair of leading authorities: Mary Minow, a librarian who became a lawyer; and Tomas A. Lipinski, a lawyer who became a librarian. Together they have authored four books on the subject, including […]
