The Political Librarian: EveryLibrary Institute’s Open-Access Academic Journal

Anyone who has read this blog for more than a week knows that I am not only unafraid to get political but I believe it is necessary for us to survive. Somehow libraries have decided that if we keep quiet when the world is attacking us, people will stick up for us without us fighting back. We WRONGLY think that fighting for ourselves is political. Just because we are tax payer funded does not mean we get to be the punching bags of our patrons and our government.

As I have said many times on the blog and in public-- we are 100% responsible for the political and censorship mess we find ourselves in. 100%. You can blame T*ump all you want but that is wrong. When the attacks started to come for us we put our heads in the sand and claimed that we could not fight back because libraries are not allowed to be political. 

Sticking up for ourselves, countering false narratives, and sharing the truth is NOT POLITICAL. It is actually what we claim to do every day in our profession, for others. And yet, when it comes to ourselves we won't do it. Think about that for a minute. It is okay for us to inform others on how to fight for their rights but when it comes to ourselves......crickets. 

Others like my friend and colleague Kelly Jensen have been screaming this far and wide for over 6 years now. And all everyone does is try to vilify her or tell me that I don't understand since I am an independent librarian. But both of us are entrenched in committees for our state library associations, both of us understand the law, both of us are fighting this from within the library profession as well, and both of us refuse to be quiet. No one has thrown us off these official committees and in fact, I know I have been told privately (too many times to count) how much people admire me for speaking out. But when I tell them to join me.....again.....crickets.

One of the only supporters librarians have to actively fight for us is EveryLibrary. They do many things to support libraries. One of my favorite things they do through the EveryLibrary Institute is their peer reviewed, open source, Academic Journal the Political Librarian. About The Political Librarian:

The Political Librarian is dedicated to expanding the discussion of, promoting research on, and helping to re-envision locally focused advocacy, policy, and funding issues for libraries. 

We want to bring in a variety of perspectives to the journal and do not limit our contributors to just those working in the field of library and information science. We seek submissions from researchers, practitioners, community members, or others dedicated to furthering the discussion, promoting research, and helping to re-envision tax policy and public policy on the extremely local level. 

Today, I am directing you to their latest issue which just published. You can access that and all back issues here.  Read what they have. Understand that being political as a librarian is not only allowed, it is necessary. I understand that it will be hard for some of you to argue that with yourselves or your places of work, but having a peer reviewed resource is only going to help. You can point to academic articles to make your own arguments.

Make reading The Political Librarian part of your personal professional development. Use the articles there to inspire yourself to act first, and to then gain the knowledge and courage to gather others to help you. Again they are free and open sourced.

Stop making excuses. It is past time to be political. Not being political put us where we are today and it keeps getting worse. Not acting, not pushing back, making excuses for why you are not allowed to fight.....all of this makes you complicit in what is happening. Yes, you are complicit until you act. I need you to sit with that. You may think you are fighting the good fight, but I am here with the tough love to tell you YOU ARE NOT. YOU ARE COMPLICIT. YOU ARE MAKING IT WORSE. 

You will not be fired over fighting for the library. My goodness, you know how hard it is to fire people at most libraries. It takes years of paperwork to fire the worst employees. Stop using that as an excuse.

No more excuses. I am giving you the resource you need to stop being complicit and start doing something.

And if you are out there fighting the good fight, contact me and I can feature your work on the blog.

ALA 2026: Wrap Up Post 2 of 2 (the Becky's Rant Version)

Back for day two of Becky's wrap up, but I do think after the holiday, I may come back with other people's  roundups as well. 

But right now, you can follow PW's libraries reporter who has Day 1 and 2 reports up now. But if you use the link I provided for all their library news, you can follow more as it is published.

I am going to address the opening and closing sessions in a moment, but first, I want to begin with some o fly observations from the Exhibit Floor.

• The book stages were not a factor this year. At least to me. Look, they were there but unlike last year, I did not hear them or see people flocking to them. People were talking about the stages last year. And I am not surprised because a few months before ALA I was talking with the publishers who had me do moderating on this stages and all of them said they had nothing there this year. I thought they were just trying to get rid of me, but then I looked at the schedules and honestly, they were mostly publishers doing buzzes or stuff for YS librarians. So maybe your experience is different but I 100% did not factor them into my plans this year, and again, the last few years, I was at those stages more than ever.
• I did not think there were as many big name authors there this year-- at least for adults. Don't get me wrong, there were huge people like John Scalzi and Tananarive Due, but the number of big name authors was down. But again, librarian, my experience may not be anything more than my experience. So I started to ask a variety of people who are bringing the authors in (leaving names and affiliations out but these are top people), and they told me that when the conference people reached out for names of authors, the ones that were chosen to appear were surprising to them. And it seems like there were few options for the people hosting the author panels via United For Libraries and LibraryReads as well. Again, at least for the adult side. The number of kid lit and teen authors was much higher.
• I was heartened to see that the comics and graphic novelists authors were higher and more on point this year though. That is a win.
• And the most noticeable but least surprising thing I learned on the exhibit floor was the number of vendors and even publishers who are all flocking to fill the B&T gap. Ingram could not step in and do everything-- obviously. B&T, for all of their issues, was a stalwart for libraries for delivering the highest number of processed books, uniquely tailored to your libraries call number and sticker placement quirks as well as the best provider of standing order authors. They developed these services over decades. What I saw was interesting. First publishers like PRH are trying to fill the ordering and inventory gaps by now allowing libraries to order directly from them with a cart system that we are used to. But second, and more interesting, I saw a variety of vendors offering parts of what B&T offered, no one offering everything, but pieces. For example, Amazon now will send your books to you from their new library ordering portal with mylar covers. They also are going to roll out a standing author program and there are people talking about Amazon leveraging their customer data to help libraries understand what books are most popular in their zip codes. Follett is also ramping up their services for public libraries. I have worked with Follett on ordering and cataloging through their school library linked systems for years as I have volunteered at the school library, but they are now saying they will be able to offer processed books and catalog records that will upload into systems that are not theirs. I also ran into many former B&T employees who are at many of the vendors and are sharing their knowledge with their new companies. My overall assessment of everything I saw (and I have only shared a few things), all of these promises and new services are going to take a few years to ramp up. In the meantime, we are all going to continue to struggle to get books on the shelf. Talking to librarians from all over the country, most are making due by hiring a few new people to process and teaching library associates how to do copy cataloging and processing as a job ON TOP of their other duties to make due. 

Again, those are my brief overview thoughts from the exhibit floor, but now I want to talk about the opening and closing sessions.

PW has a longer report of the opening session but I want to talk about one small part, but a part that ruined the entire session and quite honestly, clouded my entire experience at ALA,  the appearance of the Sharjah Book Authority CEO Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri. This is all PW said about that, and it was buried in a paragraph with others:

At the welcome ceremony, speakers included Illinois Library Association president Carolyn Ciesla, Chicago Public Library commissioner Chris Brown, and Sharjah Book Authority CEO Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, who reminded the assembly that “knowledge should move freely across borders.” Dan Montgomery, wrapping up his first year as ALA executive director, praised Helmick and other volunteer leaders for their dedicated efforts, “not made any easier by the times we’re in.” 

First, our president, a nonbinary person giggled with excitement as they were introducing this man without telling us who it was at first. And then he came out. Here is what I said on Bluesky:

Not sure why ALA gave the mic and opening session stage to the librarian from UAE, a country that does not have intellectual freedom. I will make sure someone in charge has to answer this question.

To say I was incensed at him walking on the stage under the pretense that he was there to celebrate the libraries' 100th anniversary and to advertise that they were hosting the International Book Fair, would be an understatement. This is a place where being gay and especially being nonbinary like the person introducing this man is ILLEGAL. This is a place (UAE) where freedom of the press and intellectual freedom are squashed by rule of law. Freedom House listing for UAE gives them a score of 18/100 for Freedom. 18 out of 100! I am not exaggerating.

Why are we, the ALA giving precious time on the microphone to a man who got up there and praised his government, a government that is suppressing free speech. A government who are actively queer people existing. WHAT ARE WE DOING? These are people related to those who are doing the same thing here, in our country, the people the ALA and all of us have been exhaustively fighting for years. People who some library workers have lost their jobs standing up to.

I have no problem mentioning them with the many, many others in the library world who are celebrating milestones this year-- and there are a lot. I have no problem with him being on the welcome slide listing all of the international librarians that were attending. And I have no problem with them having a booth for the International Book Fair because that is an event that library people might want to know about. 

BUT to give this man a chance to speak at the mic, and give no one else that space, that is a choice I cannot get behind.  It is a slap in the face to every one of us who is fighting for intellectual freedom every single day.

Because I am me, I stopped paying attention to anything else after this and spent most of my night reaching out to others involved in ALA decision making and those officially working to protect intellectual freedom. Surprise, surprise (sarcasm) not a single one had any idea who okayed him to speak. And for a while many of these people were also surprised he got mic time. And then, but the next day, these same people (and there were a few) got back to me with sanitized responses that claimed things like:

• He was speaking because it was a 100th anniversary for them and they are hosting the International Book Fair with ALA is a partner with.
• My responses-- they have a booth, he doesn't;t need the mic too; you put a bunch of anniversaries on the screen but only he talked, many of which were major ALA specific initiatives.
• They want to highlight the huge international support of ALA's 150th and he spoke for all International attendees
• Again, they listed at least 4 major international attendees and any one of them could have spoken instead. 
• While we might not agree with his country's politics, we cannot blame him for that. 
• Okay this one made me mad because that is not the point. He can do whatever he wants and has to follow the rules of his country, that is his choice. BUT WHAT ABOUT OUR CHOICE? We actually have the freedom to make a choice to NOT support those who suppress intellectual freedom.

I need to be clear here-- asking someone to speak at the ALA Opening Session, giving them the mic, that is a choice. Not allowing someone to speak is also a choice. ALA made a choice that is 100% counter to everything we claim to believe in. I will not forget this. I will not stop talking about this to all of you and ALA people. And I will not stay silent.

As you can imagine, I heard nothing back after I countered these arguments. My friend Kelly Jensen told me all you can do is challenge them but in the end you will not get a response and also she said no one will admit who invited him. That is what I am finding out. I also found out along my journey of talking to people over the conference, that folks I thought were involved in major planning committees were relieved of their duties a few months ago. Hmmmmmm

Look, I have no proof but everyone knows ALA's finances are a mess. I am guessing a pay out from the UAE to ALA was involved. And look, if you are going to basically take a bribe-- because that is what it is when you go against everything you "believe in" and are fighting for in exchange for money. Let us talk in front of everyone with your blessing and endorsement and stay quiet because we paid you. Again, no proof but why else will no one go on the record to explain why he got the mic.

As you can tell, I am still upset about all of this, and quite honestly, it clouded my experience at the closing session which was added after the closing speaker cancelled:

Closing General Session: 250/150: Intellectual Freedom, Public Engagement, and the Infrastructure of Democracy

As the United States celebrates 250 years of democracy, ALA leadership – current President Sam Helmick, President Elect Maria McCauley, Director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom Sarah Lamdan, and Executive Director Dan Montgomery – will discuss the issues at the heart of the profession: librarians as vanguards of intellectual freedom, information literacy and civic engagement, and libraries as welcoming spaces that provide a sense of community and belonging for patrons.

I will start my comments here by saying Sarah Lamdan is 100% better than her predecessor who thankfully retired. I will not say her name but I will say we had some clashes. All she did was say no when challenged to actually fight for our intellectual freedom. Lamdan is doing much better. One of the best ways to see that, as soon as the former head of OIF retired, magically Kelly Jensen (the leading journalist fighting for our intellectual freedom) was included in the ALA's fight against censorship.

Before the conference began, I was hopeful about this conversation but as you can imagine, after that Opening Session experience, I was less so. Well I was not disappointed in my lowered expectations. This conversation had NO TEETH. Instead of interrogating the state of censorship in America, instead of rallying us to fight with renewed energy, instead of giving us things we can do to work together both in our communities and across the country, instead, they gave us a conversation about JOY?!?!? 

They wanted us to joyfully rally our comunities about all the great things libraries do. She wanted if to focus on our joy of serving those patrons. They wanted us to look at joy as an act of resistance.

This last one mad me even more mad, but I was too tired to put that on socials. We need actual resistance, I don't care if this attack on all of us is taking an emotional toll on us. It is not taking an emotional toll on enough of us. Too many library workers say things to me like-- well that is their problem or my community is fine. People, it is not. I am on the ILA's Intellectual Freedom committee-- in a  state where book banning is technically illegal-- I can tell you our meetings are filled with libraries needing help (school and public) as their freedoms are being eroded. 

Joy is not the resistance we need. The other side of this debate has all the time and money and federal political support to keep pudding away at our freedoms. They ar not going to stop. And with power and money int heir corner, JOY will never be enough. In fact, this argument by ALA leadership that we should take a break, deal with our emotional health, and not do anything other than be joyful is a kick in the gut to those of us engaged in this fight. What we need from ALA is a clearer, stronger, and quite honestly, more anger fueled game plan to really fight back. What we got instead was some touchy feely nonsense.

Lamdan also said we should lean on others if we need it, but again, too many library workers are ignoring the problems either because they think they are not relevant to them or because they hide hoping people don't go after them. But first, everyone is in this fight whether we want to be or not. And second, ignoring the issue is what got us in so deep to begin with. How can we lean on others when you are not rallying them to help us.

Look, I clearly had a lot of thoughts about ALA's messaging. And they are very critical. But I went to this conference knowing I might feel this way. I went as a member who writes for ALA's publishing division. And I went and am a member because I truly believe if you want to fight to make something better you do not abstain. No. Instead you stay and become a thorn in their sides. You fight from within. I have been doing that for years and I will continue. And I do this with the knowledge that I have colleagues on the inside who must stay silent publicly but appreciate that I can fight for them. 

I promise to all of you, I will keep fighting and I will keep being a member. They are not going to be able to get rid of me that easily. I know many of them read this blog because it gets back to me through other channels. So to those in charge, I say-- If you thought I was fighting before, you haven't seen anything yet.

Are Public Libraries Becoming Children’s Libraries? A Report on the Unintended Consequences of Censorship via 404 Media

I talk about censorship and preserving the Freedom to Read here often, but not as often as Kelly Jensen tirelessly covers the issue over on Book Riot. Click here for the Book Riot censorship archives. I have pointed to her coverage many times. [Use my censorship tag for examples]. 

What I love about how Kelly has been covering the deterioration of our Freedom to Read is that she doesn't just report on the actions, she writes articles about what these censorship actions do, how they affect everyone in our country, and how they are changing the entire library landscape no matter where you live. I hate saying I love this about her coverage because I hate that she has to do it, but I am thankful we have her working on it for 6 years and counting.

She is inspiring others to look at the implications of these challenges and the laws that have sprung up. She is also inspiring others to use FOIA for good. The book banners FOIA us all the time, but people like Kelly, and now 404 Media, are using FOPIA to fight against censorship.

[Side note, I am on the Illinois Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee and we are talking about creating a program about this exactly. Too many libraries are afraid of getting FOIA requests because usually it is from nefarious people, but people like Kelly Jensen and 404 Media are using FOIA to help us protect intellectual freedom and to expose how horrible the book banners are. We are trying to flip the script and remind those of us on the side of protecting intellectual freedom that FOIA is there for everyone!]

Speaking of 404 Media, they just released a long piece about the implications of censorship. The title, "Are Public Libraries Becoming Children’s Libraries?" is provocative, but the article goes into a very deep dive here about how public library collections are going to be decimated over time. Specifically because libraries are complying with laws that say they have to move children's' material that non-professionals (citizens) have deemed "adult" to the adult sections, not only will kids and teens not find those books, not check them out, meaning that they will get weeded for non used, but also, adult sections will become filled with kids materials, turning adults off from browsing.

There is a lot more here, and they have looked at libraries all across America. They have shared the records they have obtained via FOIA, including collection policies with the track changes turned on. 

Please read this article and aways follow Kelly Jensen's censorship coverage on Book Riot, Specifically this article which 404 used for their piece as well. And please, fight, do not give in to the book banners. Our biggest issue is our supportive public has been unwilling to fight for us as hard or in as an organized a fashion as those who want to stop any of us from having intellectual freedom. 

As wee head into the ALA Conference starting up on Friday, this is the issue we should be focusing on. Fuck AI and all the programs about how we need to embrace it. We still haven't stopped our intellectual Freedom from being undermined. And, in fact, it is only going to get worse according to the 404 Media report.

Speaking of ALA Annual, I will be back tomorrow with information on how everyone-- whether you are joining us in Chicago or not-- can get resources from the conference. 

Pride Month Begins: Why you MUST Participate and Advice to Support LGBTQIA+ Authors All Year Long

This is a repost of an evergreen reminder post as Pride Month Begins.

Pride Month Begins: Why you MUST Participate and Advice to Support LGBTQIA+ Authors All Year Long

Today marks the start of Pride Month and I know, because people have reached out to me about this, that many libraries are either being told NOT to put up Pride displays or they are selecting not to.

I need to unequivocally tell you that this is not okay. No matter what you MUST put up a Pride Display.

We should celebrate all of the identity months at the library...every single one. Why? Well a couple of reasons. First, they give you a chance to highlight a community and allow them to see themselves in your collections. Second, the media in general has picked up on all of this months and they are all over the news even used by corporations in their marketing. By not celebrating any of these identity months, you will stand out for your lack of participation. 

Now, I know some of you are under attack from those who want to stop you from doing Pride in particular, but to that I say, you cannot give in. In fact, June is the easiest time for those of you under attack to highlight LGBTQ items because the entire world is doing it. You are no  different. And if you did anything for other identity months (Black History, AAPPI, etc...) you are simply following that lead. 

This is also why I advocate for drafting Book Display Procedures. Notice I say "procedures." Those do not require your Board to get involved, that is policy. Procedures are created by staff to guide what they are doing and make sure things are standardized. Here is a post where I write about starting with the main goal of your displays being"We will promote and display books that our readers would not find on their own." 

From there you need to add that you will have a featured display for every identity month. And also a final statement that you will make sure your displays are intentionally diverse. Why?  Because this allows you to offer the widest range of titles as possible to your patrons. You can decide if you set a number or percentage to use as a guide, but these three statements need to be in your display policy.

Once you have that in writing, you can use it to audit all displays, remind those who do not comply (ie, put up all white, hetero displays) that they need to fix them, and, most importantly, if they don't comply, write them up for not following established procedures. When you put things in writing, you show all staff that you are serious about this work and you have a way to discipline those who don't follow the rules. As Robin likes to say, "You can't stop people from being racist, but you can make it against the rules." She also like to add, "They probably won't be willing to lose their health insurance over it." But if they are, I say, good riddance.

This procedure will also protect you if you get a challenge to a Pride Display by allowing you to use the  less inflammatory argument, "We have procedures that state that we have a featured display for every identity month." Or if you have a Women's History display up with a trans woman author, you can point to the procedure that says you make sure every display is as diverse as possible so that you can offer the widest range of titles to your patrons. When push comes to shove you can also make the money argument that our collections represent the second largest monetary investment of our library (building/real estate is first) and we owe it to our taxpayers to get the books they would want, if only they knew about them, in their hands.

[These moments are when my two decades as a trustee come in handy.]

These are the basics. But there is so much more you can and should do, but we need to start here. The most important thing you can do to promote all marginalized voices is to make sure you have these titles in every display. In March of 2022, Robin Bradford, myself, and Alene Moroni did an "Actively Anti-Racist Service to Leisure Readers" Preconference at PLA (details here). During her section, Alene gave advice on this that I quote everywhere I go because it is so easy to follow.

To paraphrase Alene, when you move from February to March-- Black History to Women's History months-- you start by simply removing all of the authors that identify as men from the Black History display, leaving all of those who identify as women. Then you add other women to the display. This ensures that your display is diverse before you even started.

Now, taking it back a step, you should have already had LGBTQ authors already in the Black History month display. As we move throughout the year, you keep authors that apply to each month on display. The more you do this, the easier it will be to diversify your displays because they will already be diverse before you switch them up.

But specifically, since LGBTQ authors can be included in every identity month, you should be making sure they are represented always. Having LGBTQ authors on display all of the time will help to give you less inflammatory examples when people challenge anything LGBTQ, any time of year. You can make it clear that all of your displays are always diverse in every way, all of the time and point to LGBTQ authors showing up in every display.

The key take away here is that you CANNOT include marginalized voices ONLY during their identity months. This practice is harmful. When you have, for example, a Fantasy display, you must make sure every identity is represented within that display. It is good practice in that it offers a full range of perspectives of the genre and because doing so will allow you to argue back to those who want to stop you from highlighting anything that isn't white and straight. You can confidently say, we incorporate all voices in every display. Only doing it in an identity month opens you up to being challenged.

Again reminder that general display procedures will not only support you in these challenges but also, will make it standard for all staff to follow them. This will ensure that even staff who do not want to make their displays diverse, have to. This ensures that you don't have some displays that are diverse and some that are clearly not. You need to standardize this practice.

All of this being said, there are still concerted efforts to stop you. Please see my colleague Kelly Jensen's article from earlier last month in Book Riot with detailed instructions on how you can prepare your Library Pride Displays.

You need to do everything I said and what she suggests-- both.

And finally, please go outside the box for titles to put on your Pride displays. Think about ways to frame them to make them more interesting. Identities are not a genre. Just like I advocate against simply putting books by Black authors on display as a monolith in February [rather, you should frame it by genre or a topic], do the same of Pride. Make displays like "Thrills and Chills: Pride" and put up crime, horror, fast paced mysteries. Or, "Love and Pride." You get the idea.

You can also use Pride content from other places  to come up with interesting ideas like this list from LitHub, "10 LGBTQ+ Authors on the Books That Taught Them." This is a great way to have 20 books with an interesting frame for display online or in the building. Your work is done.

Also, here is the link for all of Book Riot's Pride Coverage. They will be posting multiple links every day and framing them in genres or topics like I suggest doing. If you can't think of ideas, don't worry, Book Riot will give them to you in ready to use lists that are also diverse by the identities as well. There is no room for excuses here.

I know this post is long, but the moment we are living in requires that I spend the time to help you fight back. We have collections that represent a world of ideas and identities on purpose. We have crafted those collections as professionals. We got degrees in how to do this. We know what we are doing. And while everyone has a right to decide what they read for themselves, no one has the right to decide for others. We must stand by that basic freedom. You cannot self censor and not participate because you don't want to be challenged or because you are afraid. That is worse than someone coming in and asking you to remove books for all because they don't like them. Why is it worse, because you know better. Because I told you not to.

Get those Pride Displays up, diversify your displays all year long, and get some display procedures in writing. 

And if you have questions or concerns, email me and Robin and I will help you for free. We are especially   good at speaking to  you mangers or admins who don't agree. Let us argue with them for you. 

American Booksellers Association's Winter Institute Recaps via PW and Self Awareness

I am back after a long weekend to watch my second kid's Junior recital at college with the whole family in attendance. I will be catching up on emails and such today but first, for all of you, I have something for you to catch up on as well.

Last week the American Bookseller Association had their Winter Institute 2026 (WI2026) in Pittsburgh. This event is comparable to their ALA Annual. Bookseller and authors converge from all over the country. There are panels, an exhibit hall, and tons of ARCs. 

I have said this before, but I know many of you still don't take it as seriously as I do, but understanding what independent booksellers are focusing on, how they are promoting books, and how they are attracting readers-- all of it-- is comparable to what we are doing. We need to be not only paying attention to them, but also, working with them more.

I am doing the working with them more part right now and there will be more on that soon. (Do stay tuned for more on this, I am working on a larger initiative and some smaller collaborations.  

In the meantime, you need to do your part and follow the news from last week's WI2026. I have made it easy for you. 

Click here to pull up all of PW's coverage.

Click here to pull up all of Shelf Awareness' coverage.

There is a lot of information here that you can use. This is the first major gathering of booksellers and authors for 2026. See what they are talking about, what authors were there, what the panels were about, what people said. It is all there. 

I did here from my colleague Lauren, one of the owners of the Twisted Spine, a horror only bookstore in Brooklyn, that there was a general consensus at WI2026 that horror author events are among the most popular at bookstore and this is true all year long. 

Finally, one of the reports that comes out during the Winter Institute is the Lee and Low Baseline Diversity Survey for Publishing. However, this year, Jason Low had to suspend the survey because of the state of book bans. And this suspension is indefinite. He instead released a call to action for everyone to work harder to fight books bans, especially those of children's books. Click here to read his call to action as published in PW.

And follow Kelly Jensen's censorship coverage on Book Riot for the most up to date information and even more action steps. 

60 Small Things You (and Your Patrons) Can Do To Defend the Right to Read via Kelly Jensen

It's the second full week of 2026 and my question to you is the same one I have had for the last 5 years-- What have you been doing to fight for the freedom read in the face of increasing censorship across the entire country?

Seriously, I hope everyone reading this is doing SOMETHING to help fight censorship where they live. And don't say to me Becky, my state is doing fine, so I am good.

NOPE. This is wrong on so many levels.

First, I am in IL which was the first state to ban book bans, I was there when the bill was signed, but I also serve on the Illinois Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee, and let me tell you, we receive requests for help from library workers whose libraries are facing threats to their intellectual freedom all the time. So if you think you are "safe" where you live you are not.

Second, and this is what I spent all of 2025 discussing everywhere I went-- We need to be speaking out BEFORE there are problems. It's too late in some places, but everywhere else, why aren't you showing up to be in favor of the freedom to read at Board Meetings. Here is my keynote from the Bram Stoker Awards where I shamed every author and every viewer for NOT acting and then gave concrete info on how to go to a meeting and speak up. From that speech which you can read or watch here:

I am asking you tonight to commit to attending a meeting (or 2 or 3) of your local library board in the next few months. Even if, and especially if, they are not experiencing any book challenges. Why? Well, first, they probably are and you just don’t know it. The Federal Government is actively striping money from every public library in the nation right now. They have put the American Library Association on their “enemies” list. We library workers are in the thick of this horror novel level chaos every single day. What we need is to see the public come out and support us.

I also gave a version of this speech to a room full of publishers at an ALA Preconference. 2 people in an entire room of supposed library lovers had ever even attended a meeting of their local library board meeting and one of those was because he served as a trustee. I know many library "supporters" are not acting. 

Third, no one is "safe" from threats to our intellectual freedom in America. When anyone is being threatened, we all are. And this point is one Kelly Jensen has been making for over 5 years now. No one has done more to help fight for the Freedom to Read than Kelly Jensen. I have shared her clear action steps on the blog many times before-- click here and here for examples just from the last few months or use this link to pull up all of her literary activism pieces and censorship info roundups on Book Riot.

Even though Kelly has had many easy to adopt and follow action steps for you and ones you can pass on to your patrons, you all still aren't pulling your weight. Have you done ANYTHING? If yes, you can do more. And most importantly, have you used your library's platform to share how your community can help? 

The time for excuses is long past, but it is never too late to start acting. And to help you, Kelly has made a spreadsheet of 60 small things you can do to actively defend the freedom to read. 60 things you can also encourage your patrons to do because we get asked by the public how they can help all the time. Don't tell me you don't. I have been stopped at the grocery store, local restaurants, parties, etc... and am asked to explain what the heck is going on and how they can help. 

Please go here to read her article. Read the entire thing. And then especially pay attention to this part:

 To help with this, as the list below can be overwhelming to take in as a whole, I’ve created a Google Spreadsheet for you to use in tracking, documenting, and including any notes that might help you along the way. The document is locked, so to edit it, you’ll need to go to File, then select ‘Make a Copy’ onto your own Google Drive.

Please follow her directions. You click here to get access to the spreadsheet, but then you must go to "File" and "Make a Copy " so you can save the spreadsheet to your own Google Drive.

The 60 tasks themselves would also make a great series on your own social media or websites. Things you can share with your community throughout the year. Things everyone can do. Number 11 is one similar to what I have been advocating that people do:

Write a letter to your library board complimenting something about the work being done in your public library. Don’t overthink this. You can say you borrowed a book you loved because you saw it on display. You can say that library workers do a fantastic job of selecting material that meets the needs of your community. If you work in a library, advocate for making it easy for your users to advocate for you (examples here and here)

Please commit to 2026 being the year you finally step up and do something. And if you have already been active, make it the year you get someone else involved. There are 60 small things right at your fingertips.

Libraries Year in Review 2025: Most Checked Out Titles, Top Stories and More

Today is the next to last blogging day of 2025 and I wanted to use this space to gather up the US Library "Year in Review." While you can obviously use this post to get a very solid sense of the year we are about to leave behind, remember, it will also help you figure out where we are going. More on that from me right at the start of January.

I am hoping each of you has a chance before the end of 2025 (or if you are off, early in 2026) to take a look through the links I have posted here. 

First and foremost, the aggregated list of the most checked out books from 40 US Public Libraries via Book Riot. You can see the top fiction and nonfiction here and then at the end of the post, you can click on any of the 40 libraries who lists were used to make this aggregated list.

Book Riot gathered a nice mix of libraries in terms of size and location. They also added a narrative with some observations at the start of the post here. I will be using their work (with citation) in my own Year in Review presentations coming in February.

The most checked out books in general, and more specifically, at your own library, is another kind of best lists, this one driven by library patrons, with more genre, and more backlist than 2025 titles.

Obviously censorship is still a major issue as another year wraps up. But this year, the American Library Association, Book Riot, Florida Freedom to Read Project, PEN America, and Texas Freedom to Read Project all came together to sound the alarm on the major censorship crisis they’ve observed in 2025. Together they put together the comprehensive-- 2025 Book Censorship Wrapped: Trends, Challenges, and Successes Over The Year. You should not go into 2026 without reading this, no matter what your role at your library happens to be.

Publishers Weekly also had an article gathering the top library stories of 2025 here with of course the shuttering of B&T as the top story. But you know it was a doozy of a year when Carla Hayden getting fired was only story #5 out of 10. Each story in the article is linked to more of their reporting on that topic. 

They also shared this year end report on Hoopla's trend and growth categories. It is interesting to compare this article to the aggregated list of the most checked out books above. 

Libby hasn't done their most borrowed report for 2025 yet. When they do I will post it. But they do a most borrowed post every single month of the year. Click here to see those titles in reverse chronological order.

There are sure to be more year in review pieces worth sharing with you, but this is all I have before I stop blogging until 1/5. 

Come back tomorrow for my annual Best Books post.

In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times vis LitHub

In today's LitHub newsletter, they have are featuring this essay:

In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times

SARAH WEINMAN ON THE AWESOME RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SEEKERS AND KEEPERS OF TRUTH

I have been staving off some of the despair of everything that is happening with the joy of Spooky Season, but now that the spotlight is off Horror, what has been a feeling of doom itching at the back of my skull, has come back to the forefront.

Look, I know one essay by Sarah Weinman is not going to change what is going on, but to have an author of her renown and respect write this very public essay about the hard work we are all doing (including real talk about the horrors of AI) is helping me start this week off right.

I am passing it on hoping it helps you as well.

I know starting today many of us are going to be enlisted to help fill the food gap, especially for our youngest patrons. I know we have many patrons who have been working without pay for a month now. And this is on top of the increase in censorship and infringements on our intellectual freedom. Oh, and the Baker and Taylor collapse not allowing many to even add books to their libraries. We are being attacked and piled upon. We are tired and overworked, but also, we want to do what we can for our communities.

Remember, none of this is going away. And the censorship stuff in particular, it is just getting more insidious as it is less about outright book banning and much more about removing our rights to intellectual freedom. And don't think you are safe if you are in a "blue" area. It is everywhere. I am on the Intellectual Freedom Committee for ILA and it is happening here all the time. 

Everything else is important and awful, but also, it is a distraction to the larger issue-- an assault on those who want to protect "the truth."

Please keep staying up to date with Kelly Jensen's censorship coverage in BookRiot at this link. It is an every day job to be aware of the issues all across the country. No state is too "red," too unimportant, too fringe to NOT pay attention.

But again, as bad as it is for Libraries, public comments and strong pro-library essays like Weinman's help. They help the larger literary world understand that we need their support. They help get the word out about our struggles. And they provide us some hope as we enter a new week, a new month, and watch an Election Day across the country tomorrow.

Please read and pass it on. Post it to your websites to share with your patrons. If they see it, they will pass it on to others. We need to start with those on our side and help them spread the word to those who are not as tuned in to the book and library world.

Beyond Banned Books Displays: How Did Your Library Celebrate Intellectual Freedom Earlier This Month?

I am on the Illinois Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee and I just created a survey for IL Libraries asking them to share any creative ideas for rising above the basic "Banned Books Week" display that they tried out earlier this month.

During the ILA Annual Conference, our committee had a great program on "soft censorship," and at the end, we asked for feedback as to what else the ILA community wanted us to work on int he coming year. This topic-- how to promote Intellectual Freedom beyond just talking about book banning or putting up banned books displays-- came up many times.

We all know that book banning gets people's attention but the issue is so much deeper. In fact, because Intellectual Freedom in general is in jeopardy, it is important for us to pivot and focus on advocacy and information about our rights over just putting up displays of books that have been banned.

This is something Kelly Jensen writes about all of the time for Book Riot here, but before Banned Books Week 2025, she went into more detail about how she was helping her local bookstore focus on advocacy over banning. I shared her thoughts and bookmarks here.

It is this kind of "beyond banned books displays" idea that we are looking to gather for a program here in IL, but I also want to gather even more examples, from all over the country to share with my followers all over the world here on the blog.

So, if you had a successful display, campaign, promotion, etc.... during Banned Books Week that you want to share with a larger audience, please contact me (bspratford at hotmail dot com) with the subject heading, "Beyond Banned Books Displays" (to make sure it doesn't get lost in spam) and I will work to feature some of your Intellectual Freedom advocacy ideas here. I might even pass your library's work on to Kelly Jensen to feature on Book Riot as well.

You did the work to educate your community, but here is your chance to help libraries and their patrons all over the country. Please share. No library is too small. I want to hear about all of it.

Let's work together to share ideas. Our Intellectual Freedom could hang in the balance. Thanks in advance.

How to ACT During Banned Books Week via Kelly Jensen

 Before I get too caught up in 31 Days of Horror, I wanted to make an addendum to this post I had last week: Getting Ready For Banned Books Week.

If I have not made it clear to you already (and I think I have)-- all library workers should be speeding next week focused on ACTION STEPS. As I said in that post:

Banned Books Week is coming October 5-11, 2025. Now is the time to prepare. Well, every day is the time to prepare because those who want to limit intellectual freedom are busy every single day.

But Banned Books Week is the one week of the year where all media outlets will be paying attention. There will be a blitz everywhere and your patrons will be hearing and reading about it. They will have questions and most will want to help us in our fight. 

Kelly Jensen who I mention in that post, put out the latest issue of her newsletter and in it she has an easy and IMPORTANT action step every single one of you can do. She did the work for you and it is FREE. Here is the information from her newsletter:

My (awesome) independent bookstore reached out to me after reading that piece. We have an excellent relationship, and they wanted to know what they could do to better encourage our community to stay on top of what’s going on and be actively involved in pushing back against censorship. We met and built upon something they were already doing: making Banned Books Week about giving banned books back to schools in the community.

This year, I asked if they’d be interested in something else. They already have programming planned around the week to continue raising awareness of what’s really happening, so I thought: what would be an easy way to get some important information across without having to do anything particularly time- or effort- consuming.

The answer was a straightforward and straight-to-the-point bookmark outlining what the average person can do in their own town to protect the right to read.

Click here for the free download

These bookmarks aren’t meant to be sexy. They’re intended to make acting on behalf of intellectual freedom easy and practical to the average person. These are bookmarks you can print out on whatever paper you’d like and slip inside a bookmark holder at an institution where you might work or that you can hand out wherever it may be appropriate. Making a banned books display in your classroom or library? Print some of these out, too.

There’s no authorship on the bookmarks and that’s intentional–Literary Activism gets noted at the bottom for the practical purpose of keeping tabs on the news in book censorship, but otherwise, the point here is to simply spread the word and spread it far. This isn’t about marketing or ties to a specific institution or organization. It’s about meeting the average reader right where they are.

You won’t want to print from the above image. It won’t come out at the right dimensions. Instead, you can download the file from Google Drive.

Click through to read the entire newsletter because there is a lot of useful info there, but I wanted to make sure that the bookmarks and the link to download them were front and center here.

Print these and hand them out, but not just next week...ALL YEAR LONG. The library should be a place for intellectual freedom advocacy all year long. Jensen has made it easy for you to print and stock these bookmarks always. And get them into your online spaces so your supporters have access to them as well.

Just do more than make a display. Act. Speak out. Get your supporters engaged. We are past the time to do something but that doesn't;t mean we should give up.

Thanks again to Jensen for making these bookmarks.

Getting Ready for Banned Books Week.

Banned Books Week is coming October 5-11, 2025. Now is the time to prepare. Well, every day is the time to prepare because those who want to limit intellectual freedom are busy every single day.

But Banned Books Week is the one week of the year where all media outlets will be paying attention. There will be a blitz everywhere and your patrons will be hearing and reading about it. They will have questions and most will want to help us in our fight. 

I am here to help you get ready with some things you may not know about and some practical advice.

Actually, I am to start with the practical advice and some "real talk" to deal with threats to intellectual freedom all year long. Lila Denning had this extremely helpful post-- How to Navigate Book Displays When You Have To Be Careful. 

Please everyone read this. Denning works in Florida. She understands what all of us are dealing with and has still been able to make all of her displays reflect all voices.

You can use her advice for Banned Books Week as well.

Speaking of, here is the link to the official Banned Books Week website with tons of lists, social media scripts, events, graphics, and more.

Recently Shelf Awareness published  their Special Banned Books Week issue

I also had this post in late August when PW had their Freedom to Read Issue. 

Book Riot has excellent censorship coverage by Kelly Jensen all year long here. https://bookriot.com/category/censorship/

And EveryLibrary Live! has a great lineup of author talks during Banned Books Week here, including Joe R. Lansdale whose latest book I am giving away TODAY on the horror blog.

I hope all of these resources help you figure out the best way to promote Banned Books Week at your library. 

Essay by a Librarian About Having a Controversial Job and My Thoughts About the Responsibilities of Being a Librarian in the Public Eye

My book comes out tomorrow and as I get ready to let the world know why some of the genre's most popular authors love Horror, I am also cognizant of the fact that the release of this book is my chance to communicate to a larger audience what we do at our public libraries.

My essay to begin the book is all about what a Readers' Advisor is and how important the work we all do is. And, as expected, one of the questions I received at my first in person event for the book required me to talk about the definition of horror and how to find the right horror book for each reader.

I have been a Public Librarian since the summer of 2000, so a full 25 years, and this will come as no surprise to any of you, while the job has never been easy (or as easy as the general public seemed to think it was), the last 5 years have been beyond hard. We have become the public enemy to many. 

There are many library workers fighting the good fight, losing their jobs, getting doxxed, etc... I am not alone in speaking out publicly for public libraries and librarianship. But there are not enough of us speaking out into the general media and communications landscape. We need to all start addressing how messed up it is that being a librarian is one of the US's most controversial jobs.

My contribution to this conversation is both my book and my willingness to start calling out supposed supporters about how little they have actual done to help us in every space I can. Click here for more by me on this topic.

Last week, librarian Katie Walsh, took their own very public stand with this essay in Slate-- "I’m a Librarian, Therapist, Personal Assistant, and First Responder. Moments Like This Make It All Worth It. It’s one of the most controversial jobs in the country, but I’m so glad it’s mine."

Please click through and read this essay. Not only is an excellent example of library workers advocating for themselves and helping to counter the negative images that some are trying to spread about us, but also, it all begins with a great RA conversation, one similar to ones you have had many times.

PW's Freedom To Read Issue

This week, PW released their Freedom to read issue. Please see the letter from Editorial Director John Segura and the ensuing links to the articles included. You can also click here to go directly to the page.

Click here for more

The 2025 Freedom to Read Issue

I really, really didn't want to write this letter. And it’s with a certain amount of dread clanging around in my head that I sit down at my desk this morning to do so. Nobody reading this needs to be told yet again that banning and suppressing books is at best unconstitutional and at worst unconscionable. Nobody reading this needs a reminder about the crucial role libraries play in communities large, small, red, blue, urban, and rural. And certainly nobody reading this needs a history lesson on what tends to happen after government censorship is normalized and weaponized.

But I do think it’s worth taking a minute to say thanks to the folks who are out there every day trying to extinguish these fires before they become infernos. So, for our second Freedom to Read Issue, we’re highlighting the amazing work being done in communities across the country, from the Diet Coke–drinking mom who a couple years ago cofounded the Texas Freedom to Read Project to the members of Penguin Random House’s Intellectual Freedom Taskforce, who led PRH to become the first American publisher to sue a school district. Yes, that’s the state of things: the country’s largest publisher has found itself in a spot where it needs to sue schools.

There’s a pervasive nastiness to the organized and well-funded opposition that the people profiled in these pages are up against. What five or six years ago were pockets of parents who mistook their desire to limit what their own kids had access to in schools and libraries as a mandate to dictate what every kid has access to in schools and libraries, now has the blessing and backing of the White House and the extended Project 2025 apparatus. None of this is actually being done to, ahem, protect the children. It’s a campaign to take the country back to the good ol’ days of 1863.

Imagine if they get what they want. Imagine if there’s no government funding for arts or humanities. Imagine if libraries become more or less propaganda depots where the catalogs are determined by sweaty, narrow-minded toads whose picture of how things should be is a whiter shade of Mayberry: Want to check out a copy of Beloved? Sorry, out of circulation. But we do have The Turner Diaries.

Slippery slope? Maybe. But think about what this country looked like just nine months ago. We are less than a year into this nightmare of an administration, and its war on empathy, education, and intelligence has notched a frightening number of victories.

Which is why resisting this creeping authoritarianism is absolutely vital today and will be tomorrow and, unfortunately, for years to come. At PW, we cover these stories every day, and I want to tip my hat to our news team, who have more than risen to the occasion. PW is also, once again, donating a portion of this issue’s proceeds to a right-to-read organization. This year we’ve chosen Unite Against Book Bans, an American Library Association initiative that mobilizes grassroots support across the country against government censorship efforts.

Like I said, I wish I didn’t have to write this letter. I wish we didn’t have to do this issue. But I am, if nothing else, glad we can put a spotlight on the people who could have just as easily not shown up at school board meetings, or not gone through the expense and ordeal of going to court to protect their constitutional rights. They chose, at no small peril, to not sit it out.

It’s great to see the publishing community is right there with them.

Read more from our Freedom to Read feature.

How 10 Grassroots Activists are Fighting for the Right to Read
These 10 advocates uphold the freedom to read on their local turf.

Books on Trial: 8 Freedom to Read Cases to Watch
These legal cases may determine which titles are available in public schools and libraries for years to come.

Book Banners Are Everywhere. These Lawyers Are Playing Offense.
Restrictions to reading materials are taking a toll on communities nationwide. These lawyers are helping librarians, teachers, and others fight back.

What’s Next for PRH’s Intellectual Freedom Taskforce?
Penguin Random House launched its Intellectual Freedom Taskforce in May 2023. Its work is far from over.

Librarians Without Borders: PW Talks with Kim A. Snyder
The Librarians, Snyder’s documentary on combating book bans that is already a Sundance festival hit, will tour libraries, campuses, and cinemas across the U.S. and around the globe this fall.

What Happened After ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ by George M. Johnson Got Banned
An inside look at the fight to keep the author’s bestselling memoir-manifesto on the shelves.

Get Up to Date on the State of Censorship and Then DO SOMETHING

The school year is getting back into gear which unfortunately means that the book banners will get back at it in force at local school board meetings.

I am here with links to help you get up to speed on the book banning conversation in America right now:

• Get up to speed on the current legislative landscape with this state-by-state report from EveryLibrary. 
• Over on Book Riot, Kelly Jensen had this post on all of the Anti-Book Band Laws passed in 2025 and what they mean. 
• And for the other side of story, also by Jensen, a report on what's next in book censorship.
• PBS news has a "book bans" tag so that you can see all of their reports.
• Follow the Banned Books Week preparations (coming October 5-11) because the ALA machine behind this event drives a lot of the conversation every fall. 

Okay so now you are up to speed on the current conversation, so it is time to ask-- What can I do? Well first things first, you need to go to your local library and school board meetings on the regular (get a group together and divide up the calendars so you don;'t have to go at this alone) and make a comment at every single meeting affirming that you are there to speak up for the intellectual freedom of all residents to be able to find the books they want for themselves and their children. 

I have more detailed information including meeting attendance best practices in this post with the transcript of my StokerCon Keynote entitled" Why We Need Horror Authors in the Fight For the Freedom to Read." Just transfer out "authors" for "library workers" and follow the advice.

Second, stay up to date. Kelly Jensen is writing about censorship constantly. You can find all of her pieces in reverse chronological order at this link anytime. Bookmark it, check it daily, and stay in the know. If there are action steps for specific issues, she posts them. She also has a free newsletter on ButtonDown called Well Sourced. Sign up here.

But what you should NOT do is just sit there shaking your head and think that this is not happening in your town so you don't need to worry. It is happening everywhere. I live in a state where it is technically illegal to ban books and we are dealing with it.

Again, the best thing you can do is show up in your local spaces BEFORE there is a problem. Speak up in support of intellectual freedom. These boards only hear from the people who want books removed or moved to a section where the intended audience won't be able to find it (still censorship). They need to hear from the vast majority of people in this country who don't want censorship. Get off your butt and go to a meeting. Again, if you don't know how to appear or are worried about speaking up before there is a problem, read my keynote, it has talking points and resources.

I know we are all tired, but the work is not done. If everyone does their part, we will make a difference.

EveryLibrary Institute's Free Report on Censorship Acceleration

As the library world is preparing for the 2025 ALA Annual Conference (beginning Friday), the EveryLibrary Institute released a FREE and compressive report on the state of censorship in libraries since 2020.  Below I have reposted the introduction to the report (found here) which includes the key takeaways and has access to the form you can fill out to receive the full PDF report. 

Please do not ignore this post. Read the report, but remember, as the final point below says-- urgent advocacy is required. Feel free to use the information from my Keynote at the Bram Stoker Awards to help talk to you patrons about the support you need from them. 

Make the choice to be informed on the state of book bans at this current moment by clicking here. The tide is shifting from parental groups to political and religious groups leading the banning charge, but resistance is also increasing. We are at a point where the scales are going to tip on way or another, and quite frankly, I am not sure which way they will tip. But what I do know is, once the tip away from intellectual freedom, it is going to be VERY hard to get those rights back.

REPORT: The Censorship Acceleration - An Analysis of Book Ban Trends After 2020

Censorship in libraries is not slowing down or hitting a plateau. It’s actually speeding up as we move into the first year of the second Trump Administration. In "The Censorship Acceleration", author and researcher Marianne Wood Forrest provides an in-depth analysis of how coordinated political, ideological, and religious forces have transformed the censorship landscape in America since 2020.

Drawing on original research, expert analysis, and the latest data, this report highlights how book bans have evolved from isolated parental concerns into a comprehensive political strategy aimed at undermining public education, silencing marginalized voices, and promoting a national agenda of school privatization.

The report examines the rise of well-funded “parental rights” groups, such as Moms for Liberty, and the use of censorship as a tactic in the broader culture war. It charts the shifting strategies, language, and power dynamics associated with this new wave of book bans. Additionally, it discusses the concerning impact of Project 2025 policies on federal education and library funding, emphasizing that the struggle for intellectual freedom is now closely linked to the fight for democracy itself.

Key Takeaways in the Report:

• Book bans are increasingly motivated by powerful political and religious groups rather than by local parental concerns.
• Censorship campaigns are closely connected to school privatization and efforts against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
• Coordinated campaigns are nationalizing what were previously local conflicts within school boards.
• Resistance is growing, particularly from student-led movements and states passing right-to-read legislation.
• The future of libraries, education, and civil liberties is at a critical juncture and requires urgent advocacy.

The Censorship Acceleration Report reframes the narrative surrounding book bans by linking the culture war to the privatization of public education and the erosion of essential democratic institutions. Whether you are a librarian, educator, journalist, policymaker, or concerned citizen, this report provides the necessary context and clarity to understand and respond to these escalating threats.

Please sign up on this page to download the full report now