Report: “Massachusetts Librarians Under Attack Amid Record Number of National Complaints and Challenges”

From Boston.com:

The number of book challenges – or attempts to remove or restrict library materials – for libraries in Massachusetts quadrupled between 2021 and 2022, according to data from the American Libraries Association. This comes from self-reported data at school and public libraries.

In 2021, there were 10 challenges reported to ALA by member libraries in Massachusetts, and in 2022, there were 45 challenges on more than 30 books in the commonwealth, according to the ALA. The books that were challenged largely dealt with LGBT issues and BIPOC or other minority groups.

The ALA added that most libraries do not report, so there were likely even more challenges last year.

Celeste Bruno, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Library Association, said the local increase in challenges reflect attitudes nationwide. Across the country there were 1,858 unique challenges to books in 2021, and 2,571 in 2022, according to the ALA. 

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Jessica Varney, president of the Massachusetts School Library Association, said the issue of parental control of reading materials is playing out at school libraries in particular. She said “things really kind of blew up” last year.

Given the subjective nature of many of the complaints, Varney said books may be reclassified for an older age group, but are rarely taken out of circulation.

“It’s not that we don’t want to respect parents’ wishes for their own children,” she said. “It’s just that we don’t think parents should be making those decisions for other people’s children.”

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Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Data Files, Libraries, News, Public Libraries, School Libraries