Libraries across the country are experiencing an unprecedented level of challenges to their programs and the materials on their shelves. In 2023 the American Library Association received reports of an unprecedented 4,240 unique titles that were challenged for their inclusion in library collections, and 1,247 attempts to ban or restrict library materials and services. Across Ohio and the whole country, libraries are being targeted by extremist groups who mob board meetings, conduct negative media campaigns, and in some cases even threaten physical harm in an attempt to restrict what information the public has access to in their libraries.
Sadly, Athens County has not been immune to this trend. Last year a series of letters to the editor challenged Pride Month displays and activities at the Athens County Public Libraries, and called on those who agreed with their position to attend the library’s Board meeting to demand that those activities stop. In response to these letters, the community turned out in support of the library, with over 70 people attending the library’s Board meeting, most of them there to support the library’s efforts to ensure that all voices in the community are heard and celebrated. I and everyone at the library continue to be extraordinarily grateful to the members of the community who showed up to demonstrate their support for the library.
What was not seen by the majority of the public though, is that the challenges faced by ACPL did not end there. Following the events of last summer the library continued to receive challenges to library materials, displays, and programming. The library also heard concerns expressed by others in the community about these activities that did not rise to the level of challenges and were handled by discussions between the concerned individuals and library managers and administrators. And in a few more recent cases, calls and other communications with the library bordered on threats.
Amid this ongoing buzz ACPL was faced with a difficult question: how does the library defend intellectual freedom, respond to the challenges, support all staff when receiving complaints, ensure that every voice in our community is heard and celebrated, and make the library a safe and welcoming place for our LGBTQ+ patrons? The emails and other details published in the recent article by the Athens County Independent show what that process looked like. Library managers and administrators, including me, spoke with staff and community members to talk through their concerns. Discussions were held across all levels of staff about what the library’s role in the community should be, and how we do that work. An experienced library professional gave a presentation to the entire staff on intellectual freedom and professional ethics in an effort to help us determine how best to proceed. Members of the LGBTQ+ community delivered presentations to the entire staff on implicit bias and allyship in an effort to help us better understand the role of the library in supporting that community. As mentioned in the article, all library locations sought ways to ensure that LGBTQ+ voices were heard and visible in the library across all our collections year round.
When June arrived, Pride displays were created at multiple libraries, and activities happened across the county including a keynote event that drew over 60 attendees. All of these displays and activities were put on by the library’s dedicated staff, who designed them to meet the needs and requests that they were seeing in their communities. As I said in my response to the patrons who felt that what we provided was not enough, I am personally truly sorry that we fell short of what they wanted to see from the library. All library programs are works in progress, and just as with any other activity at the library, that feedback from patrons will be taken into account in future activities.
Given all this, I am extremely disappointed that the Independent chose to portray these efforts in such a negative light. What the emails quoted show is a group of librarians from many diverse viewpoints who are dedicated to serving their entire community, working through an extraordinarily complex and difficult situation in an effort to ensure that the library represents and celebrates all the different voices in our community. This is what it looks like when people of different backgrounds come together with good will to work out their differences and lift each other up.
The library’s role in the community as stated in the collection development policy is to provide “access to every shade of authoritative opinion on every subject.” This means that, as children’s librarian Dorothy Broderick promoted throughout the library world, “there’s something in my library to offend everyone.” However I prefer to think that the library has something to celebrate everyone. ACPL is committed to celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, and all of the many communities in our beautifully diverse county. It isn’t possible to fully meet the expectations of every one of the library’s patrons, but it is possible to always try to ensure that there is something for everyone at the library.
