White Paper

Legislating Librarianship Redux

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Abstract

School and public libraries in the United States, guided by long-standing principles in librarianship, as well as guidelines established by the American Library Association, support the freedom of information and ideas. Accordingly, most librarians and library boards believe local library collections should reflect their local populations, but also provide a balanced and expansive collection of materials that explore a variety of viewpoints, genres, cultures, ideas, and ideologies. 

Traditionally, libraries policies are developed and governed by library boards and school boards, with established written collection development policies that include clearly defined procedures for book challenges.

In 2016, the article Legislating Librarianship, published in The Political Librarian, examined several incidents in which elected officials sought to circumvent the authority of school and library boards and established and approved library policies in order to legislatively dictate different library policies and procedures. The article queried whether these cases were “a set of isolated occurrences or a disturbing new trend in legislating librarianship.” 

This follow-up study focuses on how this trend has not only continued, but escalated, with an emphasis on collection development policies for children and teens. An appendix offers information on non-legislative censorship initiatives that mirror these recent legislative assaults on intellectual freedom.

Keywords: censorship, book bans, library laws, intellectual freedom, book legislation

How to Cite:

Work, J. A., (2023) “Legislating Librarianship Redux”, The Political Librarian 6(2), 1-38. doi: https://doi.org/10.7936/pollib.8654