Episode 179: From Budget Cuts to Book Bans — The Decades-Long Assault on Public Libraries
Added 2023-03-29 14:17:35 +0000 UTC"Parents fighting schools to protect their kids are heroes, not book-banners," Fox News tells us. Are Privatized Public Libraries So Bad?" asks CityLab. "Huntsville Public Library could be privatized in aftermath of pride display dispute," reports Houston Public Media.
For decades, public libraries have been under attack. Repeatedly, influential rightwing and centrist individuals, corporations, and governments––from Phyllis Schlafly to Ron DeSantis––have coordinated campaigns to weaken one of the most beloved and least means-tested public institutions in the country. They seek to, at best, restrict the materials, functions, and decision-making power of public libraries, and at worst, destroy public libraries completely, tossing aside the people who depend on them for education, employment, and often survival.
What is it about public libraries that inspires such contempt? What's responsible for the chasm between the US population's perceptions of public libraries––which are overwhelmingly positive––and policymaking that seeks to ruin those libraries? And who suffers when one of the few true public goods left in the US is targeted and seized by reactionary forces?
On this episode, we examine the decades-long right-wing assault on US public libraries, the history of book bans and defunding, attendant efforts to privatize public libraries, and how these intersect with the labor struggles of librarians nationwide.
Our guest is president-elect of the American Library Association, Emily Drabinski.
*
Guest
Emily Drabinski is a Critical Pedagogy Librarian at the CUNY (City University of New York) Graduate Center and president-elect of the American Library Association. She has worked in libraries and to build worker power for over two decades.
**
Show Notes
Attempts to Ban Books Doubled in 2022
Alexandra Alter and Elizabeth A. Harris | March 23, 2023 | The New York Times
Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools
Jonathan Friedman, Ph.D. and Nadine Farid Johnson | September 19, 2022 | PEN America
This wave of book bans is different from earlier ones
Valerie Straus | February 10, 2022 | The Washington Post
Banned: Books on race and sexuality are disappearing from Texas schools in record numbers
Mike Hixenbaugh | February 1, 2022 | NBC News
Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S.
Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter | January 30, 2022 | The New York Times
Meet the Socialist Librarian Running for President of the American Library Association
Natalia Shure | April 5, 2022 | Jacobin
Why Police Shouldn't Be in Libraries (And How to Help Change That)
Gina Nicoll | December 2, 2021 | Book Riot
Getting Police Out of Libraries Is the Aim of the Abolitionist Library Association
Mary Retta | August 9, 2021 | Teen Vogue
Police in Libraries: What the Cop-Free Library Movement Wants
Ella Fassler and Anya Ventura | February 3, 2021 | Teen Vogue
Rethinking Police Presence: Libraries consider divesting from law enforcement
Cass Balzer | July 8, 2020 | American Libraries Magazine
America’s First Banned Book Really Ticked Off the Plymouth Puritans
Matthew Taub | November 1, 2019 | Atlas Obscura
A History of the American Public Library
Ariel Aberg-Riger | February 19, 2019 | CityLab
Public Libraries Are Better Than Congress, Baseball, and Apple Pie, Say Americans
Robinson Meyer | December 13, 2013 | The Atlantic
Are Privatized Public Libraries So Bad?
Amanda Erickson | March 28, 2012 | CityLab
Private Company to Take Over Camarillo's Public Library
Steve Chawkins | October 25, 2010 | Los Angeles Times
Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries
David Streitfeld | September 26, 2010 | The New York Times
Norma Gabler, Leader of Crusade on Textbooks, Dies at 84
Douglas Martin | August 1, 2007 | The New York Times
City officials across US decry Reagan-proposed federal-aid cuts
CSM Staff Writers | February 11, 1985 | Christian Science Monitor
Editorial Board | August 20, 1985 | Los Angeles Times
The Guardians Who Slumbereth Not
William Martin | November 1982 | Texas Monthly
Charles R. Babcock | May 10, 1982 | The Washington Post
April 3, 1982 | The Washington Post
Review of State Laws that Would Criminalize Librarianship 2021-22
September 14, 2022 | EveryLibrary
***
Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here. You can find transcripts of past episodes and News Briefs here.
****
Citations Merch
The Citations Needed merch store is open! Continue to support the show by picking up a t-shirt, tank top, sweatshirt, tote or coffee mug for yourself or your favorite Citations fan.
*****
Credits
Senior Producer: Florence Barrau-Adams
Producer: Julianne Tveten
Production Assistant: Trendel Lightburn
Newsletter: Marco Cartolano
Transcription: Morgan McAslan
Music: Grandaddy
******
Comments
Really appreciate this episode. I'm a librarian luckily in a union job for now (though not at a public library). It's aggravating to look at other LIS jobs in my area and see that most are contract positions with LAC group - part of LS&S. Emily is a great advocate and I'm so glad you talked with her. This is absolutely a commons dilemma and a labor issue, but it's also an accessibility to information problem. When the argument for more digital services to replace libraries is raised, I don't think those people realize it's still librarians who are providing the best of those services.
Greta P
2023-03-30 19:24:39 +0000 UTCActually colonizers were not the first people to bring books to north America. Look up the folding books of Mesoamerica, which yes, that is part of north America. Edit: First
David
2023-03-29 14:27:22 +0000 UTC
