This past summer, I worked on a small project to preserve and archive the interviews of one of our special collections, the Veteran’s History Project. Most of the interviews were of veterans who served during World War II. What struck me, as I read and reflected on these brave people and their service, was the cycle of history and where we are now as a country – poised to tip over the edge from democracy to authoritarianism. Our veterans sacrificed for the greater good of preserving democracy in the world and protecting us against those who would singularly rule over others without the will of the people.
How do public libraries play into this, you may ask? Preserving stories and our Constitutional right to the freedom of expression, as exercised in the freedom to read, is central to a functioning democracy. Librarians and library staff are trained in assisting patrons with their informational needs, regardless of political views, topic, or bias. We do not judge a person’s information request or assume a person’s intent, we simply help find the material or facilitate discovery through our library catalogs, book recommendations, and displays, just to name a few. We select materials using Collection Guidelines aimed at getting the maximum benefit for all patrons. That’s not a small feat given tighter and tighter budgets. Connecting people to information is our bread and butter, so to speak.
Censorship, bans, and access barriers to information all serve the same purpose – to hide or erase information. This is a tool of control over others. Most often couched in themes of protecting others, the result is to limit your ability to choose what you access. Citizens of the United States have a unique privilege - the privilege to be offended by something and not demand that same privilege be denied to everyone else. Our library district contains the spectrum of human thought and experience across 29 libraries and five book mobiles - from Christianity to Atheism, from Mein Kempf to How to Be Antiracist, from aliens to Astronomy, from whatever you can think of that personally upsets you to the things that give you joy. As the saying goes, “A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.”
In the 1929 Supreme Court case ruling for United States v. Schwimmer, concerning the conflict between one’s religious beliefs, nationalism, and citizenship, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in his dissenting opinion: “if there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought—not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.”
This past year has seen legislation passed to regulate and penalize with fines and jail time library staff across the country. Entire sections of libraries have been removed or made inaccessible because of potentially offensive content.
What would you do if the library removed all books related to your personal beliefs or the makeup of your family or your culture?
What would our WWII veterans, especially, think about our nation’s current position? Is their service all for naught? As we watch the cycle of history unfold, will we continue to hold the line for the free world, or fall prey to those who want to remove our freedoms in service to a particular view of the world?
At Timberland Regional Library, we continue to uphold the core values of librarianship and constitutional right of the freedom to read for all. Please join us in celebrating Banned Books Week to remind ourselves that freedom is never guaranteed and remember free people read freely.
For further reading:
Books Unbanned report "In Their Own Words: Youth Voices on Books Unbanned," https://booksunbanned.com/
PEN America Report: Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis, https://pen.org/report/narrating-the-crisis/
Core Values of Librarianship. American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues
Project 2025 and Its Consequences for Libraries from the EveryLibrary Institute https://www.everylibraryinstitute.org/report_project_2025
“Discarded gender and diversity books trigger a new culture clash at a Florida college.” Associated Press. 8/16/24.
“'Unconstitutional': Lawsuit against Idaho's library law filed.” KBTV7. Local News. 7/26/24.
