library shelves full of books
Check Your Shelf

How Book Bans Have Changed the Lives and Education of Librarians

This week's book banning updates are both good and bad—they show progress, but there is still much to be done.

Katie McLain Horner

Contributing Editor

Katie's parents never told her "no" when she asked for a book, which was the start of most of her problems. She has an MLIS from the University of Illinois and works full time as a Circulation & Reference Manager in Illinois. She has a deep-rooted love of all things disturbing, twisted, and terrifying and takes enormous pleasure in creeping out her coworkers. When she's not at work, she's at home watching the Cubs with her cats and her cardigan collection. Other hobbies include scrapbooking, introducing more readers to the Church of Tana French, and convincing her husband that she can, in fact, fit more books onto her shelves. Twitter: @kt_librarylady

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What’s been happening with libraries over the last couple weeks? Let’s take a look!

Library News

An underground fire in Baltimore took out internet access for libraries across the state, although access has since been restored.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York will donate $4 million to three of NYC’s public libraries to provide English language and workforce training classes for adults as well as civics and college—and career-prep courses for teenagers.

San Francisco Public Library and Hoopla are bringing free digital resources to county jails.

Censorship News

ALA and PEN America offer new data on recent book bans.

How book banning campaigns have changed the lives and education of librarians. I can’t even imagine how what it would be like going through an MLIS right now.

Educators’ stories about preemptive book bans show how schools are censoring themselves.

New state laws are fueling a surge in book bans.

New Jersey lawmakers move to protect libraries with the Freedom to Read Act.

“A group of Montgomery County [MD] parents has asked the Supreme Court to review the school system’s refusal to let them opt their children out of classes that use LGBTQ+ books in lower elementary school grades.”

Anne Arundel County Public Library becomes the first in Maryland to be a Book Sanctuary.

Crawford County (AR) libraries have begun to return segregated LGBTQ+ books to their original sections after an order was issued by a federal judge.

346 unique titles were challenged across Indiana last year.

Did you forget to bring a book for your flight? LAPL and LAX have teamed up to offer travelers access to digital editions of the library’s banned books collection via temporary library card QR codes.

A new Washington law seeks to stop book bans.

The censorship news always seems to overshadow the other library updates—what cool news did I miss?