The Whole Community Library

Presentation Transcript

Well, hello everyone, and thank you for joining me for this presentation. My name is Mark Smith, and I am the former director of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, where I served as the State Librarian of Texas from 2013 to 2021. I retired two years ago, but I’ve been busy this year, presenting this workshop with the Talker Foundation to libraries across the state of Texas.

I’ve worked in libraries for over 40 years, and I know that being a librarian has specific challenges. Too many demands, not enough money, not enough staff, oftentimes not recognition for the, for the work that we do. And one of the difficulties has always been the possibility that folks will come in and challenge materials in the library. But what’s happening now in our libraries across Texas and the US is something entirely different, and much more difficult to, to confront and deal with than what we’ve seen in the past.

So what I wanna do in this presentation, is to help you to be aware of and prepared, not scared to face the challenge of censorship in your library. My goal is to help you think through, how to be ready in case this threat comes to your library and how to be practical in the ways that you meet the challenges as they arise. So, I hope this video will help you, to continue to do what you’ve been doing all along, and that is to create a library that serves the needs of all the people in your community, a whole community library, and not just the interests of a few people.

So let’s start by briefly noting what’s happening in libraries across Texas and the United States. Most of this, I’m sure you’re already somewhat familiar with. What we’re seeing, as most of you are probably very aware, is a concerted organized campaign to attack and discredit libraries and librarians and to put them at the center of culture wars that are dividing our country to be sure this is happening all across the country. But there are more challenges in Texas than in any other state, the organization Penn America tracks the number of censorship challenges, in schools, particularly across the country. This graphic from Penn America shows that of the of twenty twenty two, four hundred and thirty eight of those were in the state of Texas, fully one third of all challenges nationwide and across the country. The problem is growing. The number of complaints in the second half of 2022 was 28% higher than the first six months of the year.

So far, this has mainly been a school library issue, but it is creeping into public libraries across Texas and elsewhere in the country we’ve seen threats to materials. In Ano County, in League City, in Midland County, in Huntsville, and in Abilene, and in a number of other locations. So it’s important to understand that while these challenges first surface as an attempt to keep children safe from pornography, it quickly becomes clear that what some of these folks object to is actually the content of some of the books that they just don’t agree with. There seems to be a concerted effort to prevent access to content that explores anti-racist themes, racial identity, L G B T Q themes, also topics like feminism and women’s rights, reproductive rights, and so forth.

So what are the tactics of these groups and individuals that are challenging materials? Well, first, they start by identifying target books via their national network. Next, they go into individual libraries and demand that those items be removed from the shelves. They attend school board meetings and library board meetings, and they stand up and, try to shock everyone by reading aloud sections of those books that they have cherry picked. They label the books in the library as pornography. They label librarians outrageously as pedophiles and groomers. They sometimes even file criminal complaints against librarians. Oftentimes, they attempt to get appointed to school and library boards. So these tactics to effectively fight back against them, each of the tactics requires some thought in advance. And that’s what we’re going to, to discuss next. How to be prepared, how to get your ducks in a row and, face this issue that is a challenge in, in our libraries.

So I’m gonna discuss four key ways that you can be prepared to face this challenge should it arise in your library. The first step is to review your library policies, in particular, your collection development policy. If you are a library director or a senior manager in your library, it’s important to take this opportunity to review your policy and make sure that it is an effective policy. If you’re not a management, or senior staff in your library, what you can do is first know where the policy can be found, and second of all, take a moment to read through the policy just so that you’ll be aware of what your library’s policy is about collection development. There are a few elements of a collection development policy that I always like to see.

The first is, I think it’s important that the policy very clearly delineate what the library collects, what books it adds. The criteria for adding books, as well as what its strategy are, is to remove books that are worn or damaged through weeding process. Second of all, your policy really should have a very viable, reconsideration procedure. And by viable, I mean something that’s clearly set forth a, a reconsideration form that is accessible to the public, and also a statement of who actually does the reconsideration. And I always think it’s important to have people that are not on the library staff or the library board doing the reconsideration entirely. Also, it’s very important to have your policy approved by the governing board of the library. This will become evident as we talk about strategies, to actually confront the sensors when they arrive, but it’s gonna be very important. That’s either your city council or your county commissioners. Your library, governing board have approved that policy, for collection development in your library.

And finally, I think it’s really important that you publish your policy. And by that I mean that the policy should be available probably through your website and if not through your website, then in a place where the public can access it very easily. So, the second way in which you can get prepared for this challenge, should it arrive in your library, is to be familiar with the books. There are a few books that have been particularly challenged in libraries across the country. It’s helpful to know what they are and to be able to speak knowledgeably about them. Here are just a few of the books that have most often been singled out for attack. You might recognize some of these books as books that are in your library. If they are, I would recommend, especially if you are senior management or professional librarian, look at these books. Be aware of them. Don’t take other people’s word for what is in these books. Don’t let other people mischaracterize what’s in these books. What I’d like to do is look in particular as examples, at three books that are very often challenged.

The first of those is Genderqueer by Maya Kababi. This is a book that is, um, very often challenged, but I’m going to suggest to you that it is definitely not what is characterized as being, this is a graphic novel. It’s a coming of age story. It is a story about a young person who is confused about their sexual identity. Contrary to what you might’ve heard, this book actually contains not that much sexual content. It’s a book of about 200 pages, and there are three or four images in the book that, are of a sexual nature. But what it really is more about is this character’s growth towards self-realization. It’s a book about helping people of this age to understand, what’s happening to them and provide some answers to that. So you can imagine that a book like this would be very empowering for a young person in this situation, which I would suggest is precisely why some people don’t want young people to read this book. But Judy Bloom, a writer that knows a thing or two about censorship herself has called this book Moving and Enlightening.

Let’s talk about Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Paris. This is another title that’s often targeted. This is a book where folks will get up in school board meetings or library board meetings, and they will read a, quarter of a page that occurs early in the book. There is that quarter of a page and a couple of other, less than a page excerpts in the book that have some sexual content. But this is a 400 page novel, with actually very little sexual content. In fact, what it is, is the story of racial segregation and discrimination in East Texas in the it is the story of forbidden love between a Mexican-American girl and a black boy. It has some graphic violence, it has some intense scenes that are not for younger readers, but Ashley Hope Perez is an award-winning author. And this story of racial segregation in East Texas in the 1930s is, I would suggest is a story that again, folks don’t want some young people to read.

And finally, I wanna talk about caste, the origins of our discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. Now, this is a book that has been challenged in Lano and in other locations around the state and around the country. But this is a book that is not remotely sexual in any degree. It is an in-depth analysis of systemic prejudice, in the US society and in societies around the world. It explores the multifaceted caste system in, many countries. This was a Pulitzer Prize, winning a book. And, it was also an Oprah book club book. This book also happened to be on a list that was circulated by a state representative, of 850 titles that, he asked that school districts all across the state see if they had, um, why I think, not because it contains any sexual content, but because it contains, anti-racist themes and racial identity themes. Which brings us to another question.

Are these books obscene? Are they pornographic? those are terms that are often thrown around. Pornography is a term that’s not really defined in statute and in law in Texas, but obscenity is, there is in fact, a definition of obscenity that is in the state law. And this slide shows you exactly the wording. Under Texas penal code 43.21., an item is obscene if it meets two tests; the first test is that, quote, the average person applying contemporary community standards would find that taken as a whole. The work appeals to the prurient interest in sex, and it also has to depict or describe patently offensive representations of ultimate sex acts. And there’s a detailed list in the statute of what those might be.

So, no, in almost all cases, these materials that we’ve talked about are not obscene materials. A book of 400 pages with two or three pages that have, some sexual content on them could not be considered as taken as a whole, appealing to a prurient interest in sex. That said, let me just say a quick word about new laws in the state of Texas and attempts in the last legislature to change the law in Texas. Now, in most sessions, we usually see half a dozen or so laws, um, introduced in the, in the legislature bills that pertain to libraries. In this last legislative session that ended in May of 2023, we saw 37 library bills introduced in the Texas legislature. Most of these would have in some way, restricted access to books in public or school libraries in Texas. I’m happy to say that all but one of these laws failed to pass the Texas legislature. However, one bill did pass HB 900.

The bill only pertains to school libraries. And what HB 900 would do is require that booksellers label books as to sexual content before they’re sold to schools in the state of Texas. Now, a group of, publishers, representatives, and booksellers, and bookstores, challenge the law in court. And a federal judge in Austin has now, stopped the implementation of HB 900 that a decision has is going to be appealed, to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. At the time of this recording it has been enjoined from implementation in the state of Texas. The first way to prepare is to have your policies in place. The second way to prepare is to know something about the books that are being challenged.

The third way to get prepared is to know your community. I would urge you strongly to think about who in your community would support the library in the case of a challenge. Or if, you have materials challenged in your library, you will be much better prepared to respond to the sensors if you have lined up your allies before you need them. If you’re a library director or a senior manager, this is the time to reach out to groups in your community, develop their support. If you’re not management staff, you can think about the groups that you belong to, whether they would be supportive of your library, and then let your director or your supervisor know. I will tell you this now and very plainly, you cannot win this battle alone. If you’re the only person in a public meeting speaking up for the library in your policies, you are probably not going to prevail. So now is the time to start lining up your community groups and folks, that will support you. That includes teachers, parents, even students and community groups, that, that you know and you work with.

And the final step, the fourth way in which you can be prepared is to actually sit down and start to write out your response. Plan your response, prepare actual talking points. Sit down and write these out. Make sure, that you and your staff know what you’re going to say when the time comes. Consider how your library collection serves the entire community, and, know who your allies are, what other people are saying about this issue. Consider your strategy from several angles, and I would say very importantly, as you do that, also resist the impulse to self-censor. This is one of the greatest dangers of the moment that we’re in right now, and that is that that folks will overreact and try to avoid the problem by taking materials off the shelf. I would also suggest that if you’ve got a really good collection development policy, it won’t allow you to actually go in and pull materials off the the shelves. As we get a little bit further along here, I will actually give you some of the, responses that I think that you could make, some of the arguments that you could make, and a couple of scripts that you can use to help your staff, prepare.

Okay. Now that you’ve spent some time getting prepared and planning your response, let’s put it all together and talk about what you do. When the sensors arrive in your library, I’m gonna suggest that you plan according to approach. There’s a couple of different ways in which this situation pre, presents itself. One is that the person objecting to items in the library will actually walk into the library and start talking to you about it or call you on the phone. They’ll come directly to you as library staff. The other way, that occur that’s occurring more frequently right now is that they will turn up at a library board meeting, a school board meeting, city council or county commission’s meeting. And, um, obviously it would be better if they come into the library because we have an opportunity to have a conversation with them, to talk to them, to, offer them the reconsideration policy and to talk to them about how materials are selected for the library. But if they show up first at a public meeting, I would suggest that as a library director or senior management, you be at those meetings and be prepared to speak if called. And once again, that means having those, responses, scripted responses, talking points, and so forth, prepared ahead of time.

I would urge you to politely and factually correct any misinformation, including a more complete picture of any works that are targeted. And remember, you’re the expert. You’re the one that the city council, county Commissioners School Board, whatever the situation may be, are gonna turn to, to find out what is actually happening at the library. And one of the things that you can remind your elected officials is they approved your collection development policy. Remember when I said it was important to have the collection development policy approved by your governing board? That’s why. So that when the time comes, they will stand behind you, hopefully, and behind the policy that they have approved. So here’s the first line of defense. Lean on your policies. This is why it’s so important to have good policies, rational policies that are well articulated, that spell out why materials are in the library, that parents are responsible for what their children read in the library and so forth. Offer the reconsideration process and explain how it works. Tell folks what’s gonna happen to the form after they fill it out. Then activate your reconsideration panel.

This is a panel again, that is ideally composed, not just of library staff and library board members, but also maybe some community members or some elected officials in your, in your community. I would, again say, continue ordering as you have previously been ordering until you are directed either by a change of policy or by your governing board or someone else to order in a different way, and to, make any changes in the collection. Resist deviating from your established policies. Next, it’s important now to activate that network that I spoke about earlier. Inform your allies that you now have a challenge at the library. Get them information on the challenged titles, the specific titles that are being objected to, and urge them to attend public meetings. It is important at this moment to build critical mass in favor of the library and in support of your library policies. And in having a library, once again, that’s a whole community library that serves everyone in the community. This is kind of a numbers game, so you want to be sure that you get supporters to meetings. You don’t always win the day with more people in a meeting, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. And officials need to know that there are supporters in the community. And if it is escalating, you can also appeal to, groups outside of the community to library associations, to groups like every library to First Amendment groups and so forth.

And then, remember how I said that it was important to write down your specific arguments and talking points? Well, now you’re ready to use those in whatever ways you and your staff, need to, you wanna respond factually and you wanna respond specifically. So let’s just talk about a few of the responses that you might make, and you can probably think of others that you can add. The first, and what I think is the most powerful argument is parents have a right to determine what their children read, but they don’t have a right to determine what all children read. You can also point out that obscenity, a word that gets thrown around a lot has a specific legal definition, which we looked at earlier. And these materials do not typically meet that definition. You can point out that the library collects according to a collection development policy, and that libraries tend to reflect community voices and viewpoints across a wide spectrum of interests. Here’s a few more, responses that you can make. Reading isolated pages of a book, as some people do, gives a very distorted view of the entire work, and you can characterize the work more accurately.

People expect and deserve to be represented, and to have their voices heard and validated, in the library. Another one that we wanna stress is that libraries are transparent organizations, believe it or not, sometimes the accusation comes that libraries try to hide what they have in the collection to the contrary, typically, our collections are made public, via, publicly posted and accessible catalogs. So they are very transparent. And another strong argument that has developed is that defending against censorship challenges can be costly, not just in terms of dollars, but also costly to reputations. Um, this is certainly, the lesson that, folks in lano are, are, are learning and in other communities that have, that have challenged materials. And finally, I wanna say librarians are parents best allies. They are not enemies.

And this brings up another point that I wanna stress, and that is this is an opportunity. This is an opportunity to actually tell the community that libraries support and help grow children, adults, young adults in the community. Libraries and librarians are valued guides to information. Librarians actually help readers choose appropriate materials. What we see, in many cases with surveys and so forth, is that librarians are still extremely valued by their customers. Libraries support local curriculum. They also support lifelong learning. All of those great things that libraries do. This is an opportunity to tell people the good work that libraries do. I wanted to say a word or two about scripts. Scripts are a very fundamental tool of customer service, and they’re, they’re valuable because they ensure that everyone in the library is on the same page telling the same story. And, that we don’t deviate from kind of the, what we wanna say to people. And, and we don’t get flustered when somebody comes in and, and challenges us.

So let’s look for a moment at a couple of, scripts for, for walk-in complaints. So somebody walks into the library and holds up a book and says, this book is pornographic. It shouldn’t be in the library. You can have a script that says something like, I know it has some strong passages, but that’s a highly regarded and award-winning book. No, it’s obscene. And several parents agree that you should remove this book at once from the shelf. Well, our collection development policy approved by the city council doesn’t allow me to remove a book. However, you can ask that the book be reconsidered. And here’s our reconsideration form. Well, what about those situations where people come to a public meeting and they stand up and they, and they, they start, um, complaining about what’s in the library? The library is stocking pornographic books. You could, if you have an opportunity to speak, say, the library purchases according to a collection development policy that was approved by the city or the county. Well, I’m going to read a passage from this book that proves my point. You could respond. The speaker has read one page out of a 380 page award-Winning book is a valuable and popular book for many readers.

So that’s what I mean about scripts. They don’t have to be these scripts, but a script I think will help you to, navigate some of these touchy situations. Before we wrap up, let me make a couple of important points about the moment that we’re in right now. Every community is different. If this fight comes to your library, it might go very differently than the way in which I’ve discussed it here. You will do better if you’re prepared, but being prepared doesn’t necessarily always win the day. And I would never be one to urge that someone lose their job over a censorship fight. You have to assess the situation and do what you feel is right. Everyone has a different line in the sand, but I will say this, don’t automatically assume that the easiest path, is always the winning path. Sometimes standing your ground, has benefits that you will only realize at a later point in time. I have personally in my career seen that happen more than once.

Now, before I close, I want to leave you with what I think are some hopeful signs in our ongoing efforts to make sure library collections represent the whole community and not just a vocal subset of the people. and by the way, this, photo here, not a great photo, but it is a good photo of, residents in Ano County who turned out one day in April to let the county commissioners know, how much they support their library and that they wanted it to stay open. So let me talk about a couple of reasons to stay positive. Well, first of all, we’ve had a couple of positive, rulings in court. We had a favorable ruling in the situation in Atlanta where, initially, the, the county removed 70 books that they found objectionable from the shelves. And a group of citizens, took, issue with that, sued, that went to a judge, and who ordered that 12 of those books be returned to the shelves. Also, I mentioned the favorable ruling we’ve had on HB 900. We’ve also seen that majorities of voters in both parties oppose library censorship. This is a constant. And the more people know about efforts to remove books from libraries, the more concerned they become. We’ve seen a lot of organized resistance from all types of people, from community groups, from, concerned citizens, individual citizens, parents, teachers, even students.

We’ve also seen, as I pointed out, that most legislative efforts to restrict access to materials failed. And the one that did pass, has been successfully challenged in court. This issue has gotten very heavy media attention, which is always good because the more people hear about this, the more they object to it. Sometimes I think people think that libraries are low hanging fruit and easy to attack. And what we’ve seen in this situation, as in previous years, that libraries are more organized. They’re more popular, and they’re more complicated than most people think. Um, libraries are extremely well respected in their communities. So just to wrap up, be aware, be prepared. Don’t be scared. Just stick to your policies. Don’t self-censor. Remember that you’re not alone. You have allies within your community and outside. What you do is extremely important. And I want to urge you to continue to do what you’re doing. Stay positive, tell the library story, resist self-censorship, and just keep, keep running the great library that you do. The role of a community library director and community library staff is one of the most important jobs in our society. And I hope that you will take heart in what you do, enjoy what you do, and just continue to, to work, to build a whole community library. Thank you so much.