Article

Fight if You Can Win. Otherwise, Negotiate.

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Abstract

This article addresses the possibility of avoiding the negative consequences often resulting from progressive public library defeats in disputes over maintaining or establishing inclusive collections and services. Such unfortunate realities, usually in conservative or mixed-ideology communities, may be a seemingly inevitable result when a progressive director is attacked or fired or otherwise driven to leave, and the library’s new director has a more conservative orientation. Such negative outcomes for collections, programs, and staffing can be the result of successful protests by influential members of a public library’s service community, acting with or without outside help. This essay is grounded in the reality that some progressive librarianship is better than no progressive librarianship. In consequence, it seeks to provide a professional justification for an inclusive library board, director, and staff to negotiate with opposition leaders in their localities to preserve as much as possible of a progressive approach to inclusive library collections and services.

Keywords: censorship, negotiation, conservatives, progressives. librarians, calculated risk, library education

How to Cite:

Crowley, B., (2025) “Fight if You Can Win. Otherwise, Negotiate.”, The Political Librarian 8(Special Edition). doi: https://doi.org/10.7936/pollib.8986