STARKVILLE — If it seems as if more books have been challenged over the last year than the past 20 years, it’s because it’s true.
The American Library Association reported more than 1,200 book challenges, which is nearly double the number of books challenged in 2021 and roughly 10 times as many challenges as 2020, Associated Press reported in March.
A book is challenged for appropriateness by individuals or organizations for reasons such as containing sexually explicit material, depicts drugs and “promotes racism,” ALA’s website said. A book challenge occurs before it is banned. Those challenges are brought directly to the governing bodies of the libraries in question.
With increasing book challenges, bans and various forms of censorship being signed into law in many Southern states, Mississippi State University Director for the Institute for the Humanities Julia Osman said she wanted to know more about the issue so she formed an online Facebook Live panel on Thursday to address the local impact.
“While there’s been a long history (of) book banning or challenges to resources or books in the library, there seems to be a very marked upswing to this in the past two years,” said Osman, who moderated the panel. “… Of the list of challenges, there were requests to (remove) about 2,571 titles – most of them written for or by members of the LGBTQ+ community or about people of color. Some of these challenges come from organized censorship groups like Moms for Liberty, and they target local library board meetings in order to demand a removal of these books.”
The panel included DeeDee Baldwin, assistant professor and history librarian at MSU’s Mitchell Memorial Library; Rachel Cannady, education and online learning librarian at University of Texas at San Antonio, who previously worked at MSU and initiated “banned book” week in fall 2014; Itaska “Tassie” Rosamond, media specialist at Henderson Ward Stewart Elementary School; and Phillip Carter, director for the Starkville-Oktibbeha County Public Library System, president of Mississippi Library Association and Southern region representative for the Association for Small and Rural Libraries board of directors.
Censorship vs. banning
Banning books from libraries includes removing them from the shelves and the catalog. Censoring books means the book is available but with restrictions.
“Censoring books can come in many forms,” Carter said. “Sometimes it’s as simple as adding a prejudicial sticker to the spine of the book to identify the topic. Other forms can mean having it moved to a locked or restricted area of the building where a patron would have to ask for the librarian to retrieve it in order for it to be accessed. … Adding stickers or moving books puts a highlight on the readers. As I explained to a patron in a previous library who wanted us to put stickers on all of the LGBTQ+ materials like we did for genres like Westerns and Sci-Fi books, no one is persecuted or denied service because they read Westerns and Sci-Fi books. LGBTQ+ community members, however, are persecuted and denied service on a daily basis, and carrying around or checking out a book so clearly marked could cause anxiety and fear in those readers.”
Libraries, whether local or school or university libraries, serve populations with varying cultural and religious backgrounds as well as different races, sexualities and gender.
All four panelists agreed the library is a place where people seek information and the focus for building a library collection is based on inclusion, and the only books that should not be added to the collection are books with misinformation.
Carter said collections are based on things such as popular appeal, relevance to the population served, timeliness, accuracy, authority and reputation of the author, quality of writing, regional significance and patron suggestions.
“Since we can’t have all of the books (in the world), there’s always going to be a process of books not being included,” Baldwin said. “It’s not so much a focus of what you exclude as opposed to what you spend your resources on. The focus is more on what you’re including rather than excluding. You’re not intentionally excluding anything, except maybe misinformation.”
Seeing yourself in books
As an elementary school librarian, Rosamond said she talks with parents about what their children are interested in and what could be included in the library that is age appropriate. Books will be vetted by librarians even though there is no set list.
She said she includes new books, classics and award-winning books to show the students what good writing looks like, but ultimately children want to see themselves represented in media, especially books.
“I’m looking for books that have people of color as the main character or children’s books that are written by people of color,” Rosamond said. “I think it’s just really easy and lazy to get … books and not really think about the population I serve. Do they see themselves in those books? That’s very empowering, and it helps you make more sense of the world if you can see yourself as part of something bigger.”
Carter said at Starkville Public Library there is a policy that no child younger than 12 be unaccompanied, so parents can see the material their child is checking out. He said in the public library, while there is a children’s section, there are books on certain topics that some parents want to discuss with their children that other parents may not.
Cannady pointed to groups like Moms for Liberty whose members are attending public meetings and getting books banned or censored at public libraries. She said there is a trend across the country of groups getting legislation passed to ban books pertaining to certain materials like LGBTQ+ content.
“If libraries are something you particularly care about, then you do need to pay attention to what’s going on,” Baldwin said. “Show up to school board meetings if you find out something about the library is going to be on the agenda, at a board of aldermen meeting, show up for it. Pay attention and show up as much as you can.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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