Censorship has been around for as long as humans have been around, it ebbs and flows in an unrelenting stream throughout time and when used judiciously by trained professionals does serve a useful purpose, offering protection from harmful things to those who either cannot or do not know how to protect themselves. This country is currently experiencing an inordinate amount of censorship in American public libraries. This current flow of censorship has been filled with vitriol, and harassment, in the form of book challenges/book banning, proposals of harsh laws that call for punishing librarians and libraries, and outlawing story hours for preschoolers led by drag queens. The books most likely to be banned are those that are written by or for people of color or people in the LGBTQIA+ community, in other words, the most marginalized members of society among us. The amount of higher education required to obtain a degree in library sciences is considerable. To become a librarian, one must first earn a bachelor’s degree in one of a dozen different fields like psychology or child psychology, English, history, political sciences, pre-med, or pre-law. Once they have a four-year degree, they follow that up with another two years of studying to earn a master’s degree in library sciences and information, some will go even further and earn a doctorate or Ph.D. in Library Sciences. Libraries, and the librarians who work in them, serve an entire community, not just those with high incomes, or any one race, or any one religion. They must be able to reach every person within the community they serve, this includes all those who do not fit into a prescribed niche. Libraries are integral to the communities in which they reside. The book bans, harsh laws that will penalize librarians, taking away funds from public libraries that are trying to meet the needs of diverse groups. The outlawing of drag queen story time are all forms of censorship that is being unjustly and haphazardly wielded by those who have no formal education in library sciences, which is usurping the intellectual freedom that public libraries offer leading to the disenfranchisement of whole groups of people in every community. This negative impact on American public libraries and librarians will, in the end, only hurt the communities and the people they are there to serve.
Reading has been proven to increase compassion and empathy in people who are regular readers. The best way to become a regular reader or a lover of the written word is to introduce books and story time to children as early as possible. Another way to encourage empathy or compassion is to read books to children about a variety of different age-appropriate topics, this engenders kindness and helps to prevent prejudice from an early age. Jaclyn Diaz, writes in a 2023 article about Tennessee's new bill, HB 0009, and how it “would make it a criminal offense for a drag artist to perform on public property or in a location where the show could be seen by a minor.” This would directly prohibit drag queens from performing story time hours for preschool-aged children in public places including public libraries (Tennessee General Legislative Assembly, n.d.). This deprives children of a chance to be entertained in an age-appropriate way, socializing with their peers, and takes away the chance to learn something new about the people in their community. This law will further divide the community, inhibit a love of the library, learning, and books from a very early age, and teaches how to be prejudiced against already marginalized groups of people. Drag Queens are entertainers by profession, they engage their audiences with bright costumes, charisma, singing, and dancing in nightclubs and bars that are designated for those who are 18 and older. Drag queens then take this inherent talent and ability to entertain and then help children engender a love of stories, libraries, and learning, when preschool story hours are led by drag queens, they share their love of books by utilizing the innate talent they possess, to engage and entertain, and translating it into child-friendly performances/readings. This allows drag queens to reach a younger audience with their joy and effervescence, helping to cement the love of books and literature into a developing child. Not only does this reinforce the love of books and libraries for preschool children, but it also offers an opportunity for children to experience something different, which helps them learn empathy and compassion for others, it also offers other members of the community an opportunity to see themselves in the person telling the story who happens to be in drag. Solidifying that they are normal and seen in society. Seeing positive representations of themselves in public and in books helps to combat depression and reduce suicide, and anxiety, and reduces the feelings of being marginalized. This is just one facet of the public library/librarian that is trying to represent and serve a diverse population.
But libraries and librarians are being harassed and threatened across the country with book challenges and calls for bans by community members who have no training or higher education in library sciences, the training that took them at least 6 years to achieve to know the best way to serve all the members of a community. In Missouri (HB 2044), and several other states there are bills waiting for voting on state congressional floors that would strip these highly trained professionals of their duties to ensure that all people are represented in the public library, by requiring parental oversight committees to each library, made up of 5 elected members of the community that are not themselves librarians because librarians are not allowed to be on these oversight committees (Cooke, n.d.). A committee whose main job would be deciding which materials would be allowed in the library and what ages were allowed to view those materials. Should a library continue to offer materials the committee deems inappropriate that library would lose all funding from the state. For libraries that are already underfunded and understaffed, this would most likely be a death knell, prompting the closing of that library. If a librarian decides to go against the committee by following the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights and supporting intellectual freedom, then they would be charged with a misdemeanor and sentenced to pay a fine up to $500 and/or serve up to one year in jail. In Vinton Iowa there was so much vitriol and harassment of the library staff, that the librarians feared for their physical safety and mental/emotional well-being and decided to resign and move towns, leaving behind family and friends. All because of the members of the community who did not agree with the board’s decision to continue offering several books that had been challenged and decided character assassinations, belittling, and threatening librarians and library staff was appropriate (SinhaRoy, 2022). There have been multiple town meetings shared in online social media, of librarians giving testimonials regarding the treatment that they have endured.
This all leads to a dearth of trained librarians available for libraries that are receiving even less funding from the states in which they reside. Without this funding and the trained staff to run the library the community begins to suffer (Ogden & Williams, 2022). Librarians serve their communities in a much bigger capacity than just helping them check out books. Libraries offer free broadband connection to the internet allowing those living below the poverty line access to computers and printers that they cannot afford at their own homes (Albanese, 2021). This allows them to find jobs, housing, and government access to help them care for their families. Librarians give people in their community a chance to get to know one another, with classes for hobbies like sewing, painting, and knitting as well as a plethora of book clubs. Giving community members who do not usually circulate within the same social circles a chance to bond over similar interests provides the community with the opportunity to grow closer and to help hold each other up because of those found commonalities. Libraries offer rooms for free for community meetings and offer classes in these rooms that provide basic computer or tech skills which gives their patrons an opportunity to improve their job skills or increase their revenue streams by helping them get better-paying jobs to support their families. Libraries offer a respite from a busy, sometimes challenging world, especially for patrons that do not have that peace and refuge in their own homes. Librarians are trained to help their patrons find books on any subject from self-help to home improvement to car maintenance and help kids and teens with research for classes, helping them to do better in school. They can also provide mental and emotional help resources to support their library members who are struggling. And librarians help fight disinformation by providing researched, verified, fact-checked sources of news and information to the public.
While the more conservative members of the community believe that there should be more parental control over censorship in public libraries, it is important to note their focus comes from a religious lens which includes their personal views of members of the LGBTQIA+ community and drag queens that they believe are living sinful or prurient lives. Their argument is that they believe all of this is a “form of license, sexual grooming, and childhood predation.” for their children to accept sinful behavior, the government has a responsibility to protect the children from this public health and safety issue and to do this they, the government should allow that the parents should have control over the materials in the library to protect their children (Walker & Wester, 2019). By using the lens of their beliefs in a public library they are taking away the freedom of the other parents and patrons who do not share those views. In fact, they are proving that they are not just using censorship in libraries but also trying to parent the children of others. At the same time, they are denying that librarians are highly educated professionals with years of training to know what is age-appropriate for all the patrons they serve and forgetting that while they are perfectly within their rights to censor what comes into their homes and what their children are exposed to in their home, they do not have the right to censor what other parents allow. A library is a public place that serves everyone equally and they must be able to have books on an array of diverse topics to match the multifaceted needs of the public. For some patrons, a library might be the only place in their community where they can see or find themselves and for those who are disregarded being represented in a book, encourages a love of books, and improves their mental health and self-esteem, giving them a better chance at success in their education, future career, and interpersonal relationships.
Simply stated, the American library and librarians are under attack across the country by inexperienced groups, using their personal beliefs as a lens, as they attempt to wield the awesome power of censorship in public libraries with little to no education in the field of Library Sciences and Information. Instead of censoring subjects in their own home, they are trying to force their belief systems on the entirety of the communities in which they live. Outlawing drag queen story hours, another form of censorship hurts the people they share the town with and who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community. It also hinders the possible relationship children could develop for books and learning when they prohibit the gift of performance and entertainment that drag queens naturally have. Drag queens should be allowed to share their love of books with the youngest members of the community who need to foster that love of books for their own futures, as well as their opportunity to learn empathy and compassion. Putting parents in charge of censorship by allowing them to decide which books are appropriate is anathema to intellectual freedom. Anyone who wants to learn about a subject, any subject, has the right to have access to that information, a few parents do not have the right to tell everyone else what they or their children can and cannot read. The librarian's education makes them uniquely skilled to help them make sure that the material is as diverse as the population is and that the material is age appropriate for those who view it. A parent’s job is to censor within the privacy of their own home, not the public sphere, which should be left to highly trained professionals. Penalizing libraries and librarians for employing their education when it comes to accessing library materials is only going to chase away potential librarians and close libraries down and is a violation of freedom of speech found in the first amendment. In essence, they are only punishing themselves and their communities when they try to do the jobs for which they are not properly trained, setting in motion the negative impact upon the country and its multitudinous citizens who will lose access to all the valuable and badly needed guidance of American public libraries and its resources, including the highly educated staff, when censorship becomes weaponized. Neil Gaiman said it best, “Libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education, (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university) about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information.”
References:
Albanese, A. R. (2021, May 17). Libraries Are Essential: The U.S. Book Show’s opening seminar will offer attendees a look at challenges and opportunities for libraries in 2021. Publishers Weekly, 268(20), 20a.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/86373-u-s-book-show-libraries-are-essential.html
Cooke, N. (n.d.). Librarians could be jailed and fined under a proposed censorship law. The Conversation.
Diaz, J. (2023, February 8). At least 9 GOP-led state legislatures want to restrict or criminalize drag shows. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2023/02/08/1151731736/at-least-10-state-legislatures-trying-restrict-criminalize-drag-shows
Ogden, L. P., & Williams, R. D. (2022). Supporting Patrons in Crisis through a Social Work-Public Library Collaboration. Journal of Library Administration, 62(5), 656–672. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1080/01930826.2022.2083442
SinhaRoy, S. (2022, December 20). Under Pressure | American Libraries Magazine. American Libraries Magazine.
Tennessee General Assembly Legislation. (n.d.).
Walker, A. T., & Wester, J. (2019). “Natural Law and Protecting the Innocent: On Drag Queen Story Hour, Liberal Democracy, and Public Morality”. Eikon: A Journal for Biblical Anthropology, 1(2), 82–87.
Comments
Post a Comment