I was in Chicago recently at the American Library Association conference, among thousands of hard-working, thick-skinned, astonishingly resilient librarians who serve at public libraries, prison libraries, grade schools and college libraries.

These are tough times to be in the free book business, but I detected both determination and focus around the scourge of book bans that has taken hold across the country. The ALA says more than 1,200 books were challenged in 2022.

Louisiana librarian Amanda Jones, one of the leaders of Unite Against Book Bans, said librarians are at the front lines of  “a deeply antagonistic culture war."

She told me of death threats and relentless online harassment when she spoke up against an attempt to take books off the shelves of her town's public library and school library. She had to take a medical leave.

Becky Calzada, the library coordinator in the Leander, Texas, school district, said she’s spoken out about attempts to ban books in her community and been the target of harsh online retribution, but she's stood her ground.

"We're doing this work for a reason," she said. People who are harassing librarians are trying "to make us go away."

Erin MacFarlane, legislative committee chair of the Arizona Library Association, told me running libraries these days also means protecting librarians from what she called “public demonization” and potential threats within their buildings.

She added, “I don’t think I would’ve ever considered this five years ago.”

And Amanda Kordeliski, the director of libraries and instructional technology in the Norman, Okla., school district, said librarians now have to be aware of the political consequences of their responses to groups trying to remove books from library shelves.

In March, the Oklahoma State Senate approved a bill that would ban adults from accessing books in public libraries that “had a predominant tendency to appeal to a prurient interest in sex.”

Author Judy Blume has been hearing arguments like that since she published her first book in 1970.

She told the librarians that when she gave “Are You There God?  It’s Me, Margaret” to the male principal at her children’s school, he gave the books back to her and said, “We can’t have these books here.”

“That was the first time,” she added.

So, if you’re troubled by the rise in book banning, what can you do?

You can call the students in your life to action. They’re the ones often affected by proposed book bans and their voices are essential in the debate. You can read, share and talk about books that have been banned, and post on social media about the banned books you’re reading.

And in October, make sure to listen to Talking Volumes when I speak with three authors about the banned books they think everyone should read.

— Kerri Miller | MPR News