PBS NewsHour: “Attempts to Ban Books are at an All-Time High. These Librarians Are Fighting Back”

From PBS NewsHour:

Librarians are often caught in the middle of these campaigns and state legislative attempts to censor library materials. They’ve faced criminalization and harassment and in some cases have been fired after refusing to move or remove books.

The PBS NewsHour spoke to six librarians about what they’ve experienced:

• Suzette Baker lost her job as a librarian in Llano County, Texas
• Brooky Parks in Colorado won a $250,000 settlement with her former employer, High Plains Library District.
• Terri Lesley, a library director in Wyoming with more than 20 years of experience, said she endured attacks on her professional judgment from her community in the two years of book challenges that preceded her firing.
• Patty Hector was fired from the Saline County library in Arkansas after speaking out against a push from a local conservative group to remove books. That same group organized a billboard campaign against Hector.
• “The mental damage is done, the trauma is there,” said Becky Calzada, a library coordinator for a large central Texas school district. “I truly believe that’s what keeps many librarians from speaking up.”
• Lisa Varga, Virginia Library Association director, is active in public meetings in her community of Virginia Beach. “I just feel as though I’ve been doing my job, which is to speak up and speak out against this injustice,” she said.

Read the Complete Article, View the Video Report (about 1460 words)

Filed under: Libraries, News