By Ariel Aberg-Riger
As a retired Library Director and the mother of a Children’s Librarian, I am against the censorship of books that is occurring today. I agree with the ALA Library Bill of Rights, which says “materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”
I recently found an article on the subject with great illustrations and references. I’d like to share it with you.
…Nancy
Library boards, school boards and legislatures are becoming battlegrounds in a push to censor books. Communities are fighting back.
National Library Week in the US comes amid a period of turmoil for libraries, as efforts to censor books intensify. Visual storyteller Ariel Aberg-Riger explores the threats libraries face, their historical context and how activists are mobilizing to protect a diversity of thought.
For more on how libraries came to be a critical piece of social infrastructure, read her History of the American Public Library.
Curious as to what is happening with libraries in your city? Want to get involved?
- ID groups in your state, city, and neighborhood that are fighting against censorship with Book Riot’s continuously updated anti-censorship list.
- Can’t find a local group? Create your own with Fight For the First’s support.
- Collect data about your local library to contribute to a national database about library boards via For the People.
- Use Unite Against Book Ban’s Toolkit to petition local decision makers.
Further Reading/Listening/Watching:
- A Measuring Rod (original 1920 pamphlet, Internet Archive)
- Twisted Sources: How Confederate Propaganda Ended Up in the South’s Schoolbooks (article, Facing South)
- “Closed by Order of the Governor”: Teachers in the Crossfire of Florida’s War on Public Education (article, Mother Jones)
- From Budget Cuts to Book Bans: The Decades-Long Assault on Public Libraries (podcast, Citations Needed)
- Conservatives Are Trying to Ban Books in Your Town. Librarians Are Fighting back. (article, New Republic)
- A Fast-Growing Network of Conservative Groups is Fueling a Surge in Book Bans (article, New York Times)
- Why Some Florida Schools are Removing Books from their Libraries (article, New Yorker)
- Plot Twist: Activists Skirt Book Bans with Guerilla Giveaways and Pop-Up Libraries (radio, NPR)
- School Librarians Vilified as the “Arm of Satan” in Book-Banning Wars (article, LA Times)
- How to Ban 3,600 Books from School Libraries (article, Popular Info)
Ariel Aberg-Riger is a visual storyteller and the author of America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History.
Excellent and spot on Nancy!
Someone put a lot of work into this fine segment.
Hope things don’t get as bad as they did in the book and later the movie “Fahrenheit 451.”