What’s a book sanctuary?

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Book sanctuaries are institutions committed to upholding the First Amendment Rights of all citizens, wherein book bans and challenges must follow through a specific procedure to be considered. They are places where books and the right to read them remains at the forefront of what an institution does. Chicago Public Libraries (CPL) declared themselves book sanctuaries in late September. Along …

Banned Books Week – the perfect time to launch video on The Whole Community Library.

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In a time of intense political polarization, library staff in every state are facing an unprecedented number of attempts to ban books. Many great resources exist to help library staff including the Unite Against Book Bans toolkit. The Tocker Foundation is pleased to offer one more with this video presentation from the authoritative voice of Mark Smith, retired director of …

Coalition Fights Texas HB 900 for Free Speech

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The Freedom to Read Foundation and the American Association of School Librarians have joined the Association of University Presses, Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Freedom to Learn Advocates in filing an amicus curiae brief that supports the request by the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and two Texas …

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ALA Fund helps librarians facing threats, challenges and wrongful termination.

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Deborah Caldwell-Stone, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom’s Director says “We’re seeing an unprecedented volume of challenges . . . In my twenty years with ALA, I can’t recall a time when we had multiple challenges coming in on a daily basis.” For those librarians across the country who are faced with these challenges and threats, financial support can be found …

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Libraries cannot remain neutral about hate, oppression, censorship.

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In the current climate of well-funded campaigns to control what children read, Melanie Huggins, president of the Public Library Association (a division of the American Library Association), is speaking out in Public Libraries Journal Jan/Feb 2022. She shares that in the past, the diversity of a collection served as a library’s primary (and mostly quiet) act of resistance against hate, …