After parents in a rural and staunchly conservative Wyoming county joined nationwide pressure on librarians to pull books they considered harmful to youngsters, the local library board obliged with new policies making such books a higher priority for removal — and keeping out of collections.
But that’s not all the library board has done.
Campbell County also withdrew from the American Library Association, in what’s become a movement against the professional organization that has fought against book bans.
This summer, the state libraries in Montana, Missouri and Texas and the local library in Midland, Texas, announced they’re leaving the ALA, with possibly more to come. Right-wing lawmakers in at least nine other states — Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming — demand similar action.
My wife works for one of our county libraries in Colorado. The higher ups are trying to appease conservatives pushing for book bans by cancelling the yearly “Banned Books” displays that they normally put up. They seem to think that by not “antagonizing” them, the conservatives will quietly go away and leave the libraries alone.
I’m of the opinion that they’re just giving into the conservatives’ demands by making banned books less visible - and getting nothing in return. Conservatives have made this a national strategy (as detailed in the article), so our local library isn’t just going to make it all go away by ceding to their demands.
Never negotiate with terrorists.
That is exactly what I said to my wife when she first explained the decision to me.
Ah, yes, because appeasement has worked so well in the past.