The leaders of the city’s three public library systems testified to the City Council about their efforts to fight restrictions to certain books in school, libraries and curricula around the country.
Source: NY1
“We provide regular banned book clubs and a writing contest and offer copies online, and in print, but online, to anyone in the country, especially those in the states that have seen the lead of these book bannings,” Anthony Marx, president of the New York Public Library, told councilmembers.
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When asked whether libraries here have faced pressure locally to ban books or remove certain books, Linda Johnson, president of the Brooklyn Public Library, said, “In Brooklyn, we have not.”
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“People will actually, physically, remove a book and try to either put it on the side or do something with it, so it’s not visible,” Queens Public Library President Dennis Walcott said. “We have signage that deals with banned books to make sure people are aware about the issue itself and people have literally gone and picked up the signs and torn them up.”
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
