Book Publishers Mount Legal Defense Of Libraries
From Forbes.com
It’s National Library Week. This year’s theme is “Drawn to the Library,” and the American Library Association’s website declares, "Stories and art draw us together, inspiring all of us to discover our own unique talents. Libraries are essential to that process—now more than ever!"
Now more than ever, libraries are also drawing attack. The front page of the ALA newly-released report for 2024 headlines the top ten most challenged books of 2024, and “Censorship by the Numbers.” Inside, the report notes that 72% of book challenges come either from pressure groups and officials who have been swayed by them. ALA also reports that 38% of challenges are made to school libraries and 55% in public libraries.
The United States Naval Academy has just removed 381 books from its library, most either about race, diversity, or gender identity. In Idaho, HB 710 was passed last year, exposing libraries to legal action if they failed to keep children away from “adult access only” book areas. The law forced at least one library to become “adults only” because they lacked the space and facilities to create a separate children’s area.
The trend of reading restrictions is being met by another trend--lawsuits to push back, and in many cases the plaintiffs include major book publishers.
In Florida, parents, authors and six major book publishers have sued state and school district officials over the state’s restriction of any material with “sexual content" without consideration for the work’s literary value; plaintiffs argue this has led to the removal of classic works by Maya Angelou, Leo Tolstoy, Aldous Huxley, and Toni Morrison, among others. The suit argues the restrictions are a violation of the First Amendment, saying, “The right to speak and the right to read are inextricably intertwined. Authors have the right to communicate their ideas to students without undue interference from the government. Students have a corresponding right to receive those ideas.”
Challenges have also been mounted by coalitions of parents, authors and publishers in Iowa and in Idaho, where Donnelly Public Library, the “adults only” library, is part of the suit.