The Queue: Library News for the Week Ending March 7, 2024

Plenty of library news to get to this week, starting with Montana, where the Daily Montanan reports that state legislators have tabled two bills proposed by Republican state senator Daniel Emrich—including Senate Bill 451, which would have prohibited libraries from offering services “not related to their core function.”

According to the Daily Montanan, Emrich argued that the state’s public libraries "seem to have forgotten what their purpose is,” and that Senate Bill 451 would block libraries from "trying to be a public outreach for services that are otherwise covered by other, government organizations or governmental entities." In testimony opposing the bill, Susie McIntyre, director of the Great Falls Public Library countered that the core function of the library is to serve as “a connection point,” for residents. “We work to serve our community based on our community needs,” McIntyre said. A Senate committee tabled the bill by an 8-6 margin.  

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Emrich’s other bill was a censorship effort. “Senate Bill 396 would have required libraries to house materials of a sexual nature within the adult or young adult collections, even if they’re intended for a younger audience, and directed chief librarians to develop cataloging standards for materials,” the report states. Library supporters, however, successfully argued that the bill was “overly broad” and would have wrongly swept in “materials that discuss anatomy and physiology, puberty, consent and sexual abuse.” The committee voted 9-5 to table the bill.  

Meanwhile, in Iowa, the state's attack on professional library associations is moving forward. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that “the House Education Committee voted 14-9 Tuesday to advance legislation removing state funding from public libraries that pay dues to state or national nonprofit organizations involved in government lobbying, like the Iowa Library Association or American Library Association.”

The bill, House File 284, “specifically targets organizations like the American Library Association, or ALA, which some supporters of the legislation have said have a ‘Marxist’ agenda,” with one legislator acknowledging that “the measure was focused on the ALA and the ILA” because the organizations support “freedom to access information without censorship or undue restrictions.”

In Georgia, local affiliate WABE reports that the Georgia State Senate has passed to pass Senate Bill 74, which would repeal protections for librarians and expose them to criminal liability for making allegedly inappropriate materials available to minors.

Current state law already prohibits the distribution of materials to minors that are “sexually explicit or otherwise harmful” the article points out, but public and school libraries are exempt from the law. “SB 74 would remove that exemption, meaning librarians could be found guilty of a misdemeanor offense unless they can demonstrate they made a good faith attempt to identify and remove minors’ access to inappropriate materials.”

State Sen. Josh McLaurin called said the bill is the result of “a fearmongering effort started by a fringe group of parents who don’t want to see ordinary depictions of LGBTQ or any topic related to sexuality depicted in materials accessed by their children.” McLaurin also pointed out the bill would put incredible pressure on librarians to censor lest they wind up in a protracted and costly legal battle. “So now it’s not up to the media techs and librarians whether a material is appropriate for children. It’s up to an elected solicitor,” he said.

The censorship drama continues in Missouri, meanwhile, this time targeting digital platforms like OverDrive. The Missouri Independent reports that the state senate’s education committee discussed legislation this week that would “ban materials deemed explicit from digital libraries and hold library boards responsible for the content made available to minors.”

According to the report, “Republican state senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman has filed legislation applying safety measures to ‘digital library catalogs’ after hearing about explicit material available on a state-subsidized application used by public schools.” That app is Sora, a digital reading platform for schools from leading digital library vendor OverDrive. “Coleman said school districts should stop using Sora if they cannot thoroughly monitor its catalog.”

The paper also reported that legislators tool up another library-related bill “that would hold library board members accountable for material accessible to children” by adding board members to “a 2022 law that makes providing explicit sexual material to a minor a class A misdemeanor.”  

After a few difficult years, Publishers Weekly reports that 2024 was decent year for book sales. “Despite a 4.3% decline in December sales at the 1,279 publishers that report their revenue to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program, preliminary data for the full year indicates that publishing industry sales increased 6.5% over 2023, to $14.18 billion,” PW reports. In the trade category, adult fiction sales rose 12.6%, while Adult nonfiction eked out a 1.3% sales increase. The children’s/YA segment, however, dropped 0.3%.

In her March 3 American Libraries column, American Library Association interim executive director Leslie Burger summons her optimism. But with a new search under way for a permanent executive director, massive political challenges with the return of Donald Trump to the White House, and with the ALA’s 150th anniversary coming up in 2026, 2025 is setting up to be an incredibly consequential year for the association.

“We are in the midst of a generational shift among our members and staff,” Burger writes. “Throughout the world, the COVID-19 pandemic changed how we work and how we organize for success. ALA is no exception. As we approach the sesquicentennial, we must do all we can to ensure that our Association remains adaptable, flexible, and open to change, and that it offers new opportunities for member engagement.”

Meanwhile, ICYMI, also in American Libraries, outgoing ALA treasurer Peter Hepburn offered a frank assessment of the association’s finances in his January column. “Last year I wrote that our financial situation was not precarious, and I truly did not think that at the time,” Hepburn wrote. “But in truth, it is.”

Over at Book Riot, Kelly Jensen's must-read weekly censorship news column is jam-packed this week, and begins with a smart take on the scarily unstable information landscape we now inhabit. "Often in situations of mis- and dis- information, the person who shared the information can’t provide a resource because their resource is the social post without an attached source. This is one reason why the reliance on TikTok for news, especially in younger demographics, is deeply concerning," Jensen writes. "Without provided sources or citations, information is decontextualized and easy to use in order to manipulate people into doing, acting, or feeling a certain way."