Protecting the Right to Read

Across the country, the call to remove a growing number of book titles from library shelves is getting louder.

It’s sparked fiery meetings of countless public library boards, a permanent ban on 22 award winning book titles from an Idaho school district’s libraries, photos of empty or covered bookshelves in Florida classrooms, and a vote from residents of a Michigan town to strip their public library of funding.

Pursuing truth is at the heart of Dominican University’s mission.

Since the 1930s, the School of Information Studies has educated countless library professionals in the pursuit of knowledge and truth — and for many alumnae/i, the call to ban books is troubling.

For them, access to materials is paramount — a constitutional right echoed in the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement.

“Libraries are the best example we have of the 1st Amendment in our lives on a daily basis,” said Cyndi Robinson MLIS ’97, executive director of the Illinois Library Association. “Intellectual freedom is why I went to library school. It’s very important to me.”

According to the American Library Association, there were 1,269 documented attempts to ban 2,571 book titles in 2022, the highest number of attempts since the ALA began compiling censorship data more than 20 years ago. Seven of the top 13 books challenged last year focus on LGBTQ youth. The remaining six were challenged for claims of sexual content. Three of these were about characters of color.

Addressing book challenges, intellectual freedom and the right to read by all are incorporated into Dominican’s SOIS curriculum, said Dr. Don Hamerly, SOIS director.

“We have always taught awareness of book challenges and how to prepare for them, how to create policies to protect collections, and how to create a process to follow for anyone wishing to challenge something,” he said.

Though not surprised by the current calls for censorship, Hamerly admits feeling frustration and anger.

“Book challenges are not new here or in history,” he noted. “What’s disturbing lately is how well-organized and well-funded they are.”

'This is the Reality Now'

For many Dominican alumnae/i, navigating the national wave of book challenges while preserving the right to read within their libraries is a significant part of their roles today.

“This is the reality now for libraries in our country,” said Amy Grossman MLIS ’09. Grossman is head of youth and teen services at the Lincolnwood Public Library in Illinois, where, in the fall of 2022, police had to be called after a meeting of the library board devolved into angry protests among audience members seeking to ban an LGBTQ-themed picture book.

“I started my master’s at Dominican in 2019 and it always seemed these challenges were happening in other states — they weren’t as close to home,” said Jessica Tarnowski MLIS ’21, youth services librarian at the Lincolnwood Library. “It’s surprising — but we talk about it and our director is doing everything to get factual information out while we still provide services and access to books.”

Matthew Lawrence MLIS ’22 was interim director of Patmos Library in Jamestown Township, Michigan, when he fielded objections to book titles with LGBTQ content last year.

Lawrence reviewed the challenges and made the recommendation to keep the books on the shelves. He relied on the library’s collection development policy, which sets guidelines for the selection of materials. According to Hamerly, strong, vetted policies are emphasized in Dominican courses.

“I went back to our collection development policy that says we serve the public and serve a variety of different members of our community,” Lawrence explained. “These books were in keeping with our policy.”

Lawrence’s recommendation, which was upheld by the elected library board, sparked anger among citizens, leading to an organized effort to defund the library. On the August 2022 ballot, 62 percent of voters said “no” to continued funding of the library with tax dollars, news service Bridge Michigan reported.

“We are a public institution and if members of the public want to read those books, they’ve got the right to do so,” said Lawrence, who resigned from his position prior to the vote and now works at another Michigan library. “To say that other people shouldn’t is an affront to their rights as taxpayers.”

Parental Responsibility, Not Bans

Many librarians agree that there may be materials parents prefer their children not read in the library, but, they say, it is up to parents to monitor and set their own restrictions, not libraries.

“Our main job as youth librarians is to provide access to materials,” said Grossman. “Parents can decide what is right for their families; that’s not our judgment call. We know every child and every family’s needs are different.”

“We’re really just trying to be inclusive,” added Emily Compton MLIS ’07, director of the River Forest Public Library. “There’s no required reading in the library. If there’s something you don’t want to read or something you don’t want your child to see, you can absolutely ignore it. But someone else may want to read it, and that’s why we have it.”

In courses on youth literature, Dominican’s SOIS students learn about choosing books for appropriate age levels, said Mariela Siegert, an adjunct professor at the university who teaches a graphic novel course and also works as a suburban high school librarian.

Librarians often rely on their professional knowledge and also book reviews from reputable sources, like Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and others, to select materials and place them within the proper areas of the library, explained Joanna Bertucci ’06, MLIS ‘09, executive director of the Park Ridge Public Library.

In school libraries, parents have the right to ask that their child not be allowed to borrow a certain book and the librarians should respect that, even if they do not agree, Siegert added.

“It’s when the parent tries to have that book removed from the library that you have to say, ‘hold on,’” she said.

Last year, a small group of citizens approached Bertucci with a complaint about a series of LGBTQ-themed titles that were part of a teen book discussion called “Read the Rainbow.” Several other residents attended a library board meeting to defend the materials and no formal challenge to remove them was made, Bertucci said.

“A big part of addressing this is dialogue, so I’m open to those conversations with anyone and I encourage that,” she said. “We want people to understand why we have what we have and how important it is that we maintain materials for all people.

“Once you start taking away even one book, you’ve opened this Pandora’s box,”

Bertucci added. “If one book goes, then you can remove another. It’s a cascade effect. Once you start chipping away, you don’t have a public library anymore and that’s scary.”

'Like A Knife to the Heart for Librarians'

In response to the uptick in book challenges occurring across the state of Michigan, Lisa Waskin MLIS ’05, director of the Superior District Library in Sault Ste. Marie, helped form Michigan Right to Read, a coalition providing resources to libraries navigating calls to remove books, as well as funding for training, education and legal fees.

“It’s a small minority of people who want book bans, but they are very vocal, well organized and well-funded,” she said.

“We got caught off guard, so now we are being very proactive.”

In Indiana, Portia Kapraun MLIS ’11, director of the Delphi Public Library, has warily watched as state elected officials attempted to pass legislation aimed at stripping schools and libraries of legal protections if they allow the distribution of “materials harmful to minors.” “Harmful” was not defined in the most recent bill introduced this year, the Tribune-Star of Terre Haute, Indiana reported.

“It does seem like a way for them to get a foothold to start painting librarians as people who need to be taken to task through legal methods,” Kapraun said.

“Once that door is opened, I doubt they would stop there.”

While Kapraun doesn’t believe any legal action against a librarian would be successful, removing such protections could make libraries second-guess adding books with subjects some may consider controversial, resulting in “soft censorship,” she said.

Last year, Kapraun, who serves on the communications committee of the Indiana Library Federation, helped write a formal statement advocating the freedom to read for all. It notes that books targeted for bans “often represent the experiences of our most vulnerable community members.” 

“Our community is just as varied as any other community,” she said of her rural library’s service area of just under 8,000. “You want every member of your community reflected in your materials and you also want to provide them with an opportunity to learn, grow and read about people who are not like them and the worldwide community.”

Meanwhile, at Dominican, guiding future librarians to best prepare for censorship attempts while upholding the freedom to read continues and is a significant part of the library science program, Hamerly said.

“Intellectual freedom is a fundamental core value in librarianship and is taught from the very beginning of the program,” he said. “We place a suitable, great deal of emphasis on it throughout the program.”

“We believe free people read freely,” said Robinson, of the Illinois Library Association. “The notion of banning or censoring materials is like a knife to the heart for librarians.”