Book bans create division and stifle freedom of speech and expression

COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE

By Alaska Authors Against Book Bans

In April of 2023, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District removed 56 books from the shelves of school libraries following complaints filed by parents. This action, which garnered national attention, was part of a growing trend across the country of parents and activist groups requesting that schools remove student access to books they deem objectionable.

That same year, according to the American Library Association (ALA), school and public libraries nationwide faced a total of 1,247 demands for the removal of 4,240 different books and other library materials, nearly twenty times as many challenges as just three years earlier.

In 1982, the ALA, which has tracked efforts at removing books from library shelves for decades, established Banned Books Week to bring attention to this issue. This year it takes place from October 5-11.

As members of the Alaska chapter of Authors Against Book Bans (AABB), we add our support for this event by expressing opposition to removing books from public and school libraries across Alaska and beyond.

Efforts at barring access to library books are problematic on several levels.

First, removing books from circulation is antithetical both to learning and the democratic process. When access to information is denied, individuals face enhanced difficulties learning about the world, their country, and their communities, and thus are less equipped for understanding complex issues and participating in civic discussions.

Second, book removals allow individuals and special interest groups to decide for communities at large what should be on public and school library shelves. This deprives the majority of adults from choosing what they wish to read, and prevents other parents from making decisions about what books they want their children to have access to.

Third, book banning efforts across the country have disproportionately targeted authors belonging to minority communities. When these works are removed from circulation, children and adults who also belong to those communities can no longer freely check out books that reflect their life experiences.

Finally, book challenges open a slippery slope. As has been repeatedly seen in recent years, removal requests in schools quickly lead to challenges against books in public libraries. Even more chilling, bills have been introduced in several state legislatures that would enforce jail sentences on librarians who place materials deemed indecent on shelves. Which materials so qualify is undefined.

The recent surge in book challenges has largely been directed by a handful of activist groups that provide local members with lists to bring before school boards, accompanied by out-of-context quotes to demonstrate why the books should be considered objectionable. Not infrequently, those supporting book removals have not read the books in question and have no knowledge of what the authors seek to accomplish or how the quotes fit into the broader narratives.

What has resulted from book banning efforts, both nationally and here in Alaska, has been the opening of deep divisions within communities, as well as costly lawsuits that the public is left paying for. After numerous contentious public meetings in Mat-Su, a federal judge ordered the school board to return to shelves 49 of the 56 books, and the district agreed to pay an $89,000 settlement.

We, as members of AABB, sincerely champion the freedom of all Americans to read any books they choose, and support libraries and librarians across Alaska and America in their work to providing these books to all who wish to borrow them. Librarians are trained to carefully curate library collections so that the most appropriate and relevant books and materials can be made available to patrons.

This is how it should be in a free society.

Please join us in celebrating Banned Books Week by supporting local school and public libraries and opposing efforts at removing books from them. Write letters to school board members, city, borough, state, and federal officeholders, as well as newspapers in support of libraries. Consider joining organizations such as Unite Against Book Bans. And most importantly, visit your local library and thank librarians for what they do.

Alaska chapter of Authors Against Book Bans members Sarah Birdsall, Ann Dixon, Kellie Doherty, Mareth Griffith, Helen Hegener, Daniel Hoffman, David A. James, Kathy Kysar, Lynn Lovegreen, Jeremy Pataky, Don Rearden, Jen Funk Weber