Librarians and library workers have long been crucial players in the defense of books and ideas. The current spate of bans and challenges is the most notable and intense since the McCarthy era, when censorship campaigns during that Cold War period of political repression included public book burnings.īut these battles are not new book banning can be traced back to 1637 in the U.S., when the Puritans banned a book by Massachusetts Bay colonist William Pynchon they saw as heretical.Īs long as there have been book challenges, there have been those who defend intellectual freedom and the right to read freely.
over censorship, book challenges and book bans.īook challenges are an attempt to remove a title from circulation, and bans mean the actual removal of a book from library shelves. They are defending the rights of readers and writers in the battles raging across the U.S.
They are experts in classification, pedagogy, data science, social media, disinformation, health sciences, music, art, media literacy and, yes, storytelling.Īnd right now, librarians are taking on an old role. Despite misconceptions and stereotypes – ranging from what librarians Gretchen Keer and Andrew Carlos have described as the “middle-aged, bun-wearing, comfortably shod, shushing librarian” to the “sexy librarian … and the hipster or tattooed librarian” – library professionals are more than book jockeys, and they do more than read at story time.
