Libraries at the Forefront of Book Banning
Austin Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, New York Public Library
ULC Executive Board member and Austin Public Library Director Roosevelt Weeks was recently interviewed by PBS NewsHour for a piece on the national trend of book banning. Weeks stated, "Libraries, I believe, are one of the last bastion of democracy. And that's being attacked," said Weeks.
As more and more school districts ban books from their classrooms and libraries, Brooklyn Public Library is sharing its resources with teens around the country to fight encroaching censorship. “We are offering them a free out-of-state e-card which gives them access to about half a million audiobooks and e-books in our system in Brooklyn Public Library. Unrestricted totally for free,” said Nick Higgins, Brooklyn Public Library Chief Librarian during an interview with NPR.
In response to unprecedented book banning efforts nationwide, NYPL is making a selection of commonly banned books freely available to anyone in the country thanks to a partnership with publishers Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers and Scholastic. “The Library’s role is to make sure no perspective, no idea, no identity is erased. People have the right to read or not read what they want, but those books need to be available—for the teen who has questions and wants to privately find answers; for the adult who is curious about subjects for which they have no personal experience; for those who want to do their own research and make informed decisions based on fact,” said New York Public Library President Tony Marx.