Ban Crooks Not Books 5/5
If LGBTQ books are in danger of being banned from my library, can I donate them instead?
Hi library friends!
Library question of the day: If LGBTQ books are in danger of being banned from my library, can we buy these books and donate them to our libraries instead?
I got this question on TikTok and thought I’d answer here because it comes up often. You can certainly try to donate books to your library. However, the books may not wind up on the library shelves for a number of reasons:
The book existing in the collection is often the problem for would-be book banners. They don’t care how a book got on the shelf; they simply care that it’s there now, and they want it gone.
Metadata: Metadata is the information in the card catalog database that helps you find the book. Each entry is called a MARC record (it stands for MA-chine Readable Cataloguing). Some libraries do their own cataloging. Some libraries purchase ready-made MARC records that are included in their purchases. This is why when you damage a book and have to pay to replace it, sometimes the cost is higher than what you see on Amazon; libraries pay for records, in addition to the book jacket costs. Sorry, sorry, going into dangerous Boring Libraryland Territory. The point is: donated books don’t have metadata, so someone has to go in and create that stuff. If the book is already in the system, great! The record is already there and they can just add a new copy to the catalog. But if it’s not, that’s a whole new task. And if you get a box of 100 books donated without metadata, that’s a lot of work and that kind of staffing availability may not exist. Instead, many libraries sell donated books to fund programming etc for this reason. (I’m not a tech services librarian, so if I’ve gotten this wrong, please sound off in the comments, library friends!)
Collection Management: libraries are charged with managing whole collections of books, and that includes assessing whether a book is a good addition to the library. Things like Kirkus and School Library Journal reviews may be part of a library’s Collection Development Policy, so sometimes a book may not be purchased because of reviews (or vice-versa).
What if I put the books on the shelf secretly?
Please don’t. I get it, but it doesn’t help; people can’t find them or check them out if they don’t have barcodes, and your library won’t know what to do with them other than add them to the sale or free cart. Whatever you do, if you have books to donate to your library, please please please don’t roll up announced, for all the reasons laid out above!
So how can I help?
There’s not going to be a great one-answer-fits-all but!! Here’s one example: GLSEN Rainbow Library is an organization that helps get LGBTQ books into school libraries. From their site: “The Rainbow Library Community Reads Project is an initiative that sends LGBTQ+ affirming K-12 text sets to schools and libraries - for free. Rainbow Library sets are in 4,600 schools, reaching an estimated 2 million young readers.” Check them out here, and consider donating to them.
Library News Roundup
Federal Court Halts Dismantling of Federal Library Agency in ALA Lawsuit: A temporary restraining order has been put in place to block Trump from dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). IMLS funding supports all sorts of things, including Libby and Hoopla access for many people nationwide. Cindy Hohl, President of the American Library Association, noted: “Even with a temporary restraining order in place, Congress also must act to ensure our nation's libraries can continue to serve their communities, including by funding IMLS for next year.”
Utopian Dreamers Founded This Alabama City. Now, a Fight Over Books Is Dividing It. Much like we’ve seen before, book challenges threaten to bulldoze a community’s library. “In March, the conflict in Fairhope escalated when the state’s library board voted to pause funding to the library unless it moved certain books. Although some localities and counties in the country have moved to defund their own public libraries, the decision in Alabama may have been the first time a local public library was targeted for defunding by a state government. … The City Council never took up a resolution [a book banner] proposed, which would have prohibited the purchase of books “containing any content of a sexual nature” unless they were restricted to the adult section. The library’s director considered requests to move 36 books and decided not to in all but a handful of cases. The books stayed on the shelves. But opponents found a more receptive audience in front of the Alabama Public Library Service board, which administers state and federal funds. … The board voted 5 to 1 to pause the Fairhope library’s funding, about $20,000 for the rest of the fiscal year.” ← This right here is likely something we’ll see more of. (Journalist credit: Isabelle Taft)
Colorado bill meant to limit school library book bans signed into law: Colorado has signed a bill that will hopefully help protect school libraries from challenges coming from outside interest groups. “Only parents of students in the school district will be allowed to challenge books, and reviews of individual books will be limited to once every two years.” (Journalist credit: Sara Wilson)
Students Fighting Book Bans Are the Focus of the New Documentary “Banned Together”. Elizabeth Foster writes of her experience for TEEN VOGUE: “Every other Tuesday, we stood before the board in a strategic, predetermined order to maximize the impact of that evening’s comments. I reviewed the history of public education as a pillar of functioning democracy and documented historical instances of book-banning to demonstrate the anti-democratic nature of censorship. Millie spoke to the importance of queer representation in literature for LGBTQ+ students who often lack resources and support in small, conservative communities like Beaufort. Izzy shared her own experiences with racism and familial substance abuse to show that trying to “protect” students by taking away books with dark storylines is ineffective and even dangerous for the significant portion of kids who have already experienced similar hardships in their own lives. Slowly but surely, the BCSD Board voted to comply with recommendations from community-led review committees, returning a few books at a time over the course of the year. In the end, 91 of the 97 books were returned to our schools.” Check it out here.
BANNED TOGETHER image via www.bannedtogetherdoc.com
New paid subscriber shoutouts (crow calls): All new paid subscribers get a personal shoutout/link to their Substack here! I love everyone equally, but I love you most 🥰 None this week, go support your public library!!
Cookbooks I have checked out from my library: I never ever buy cookbooks without a library test-run. Right now I’ve got: THE BEAN BOOK (self-explanatory) and a book about leftovers, HERE WE GO AGAIN. The bean recipes are solid, and I could definitely get better at using leftovers, and the recipes are definitely mouth-wateringly-good looking enough to maybe actually get me to do it.
What cookbooks should people check out from their library? Sound off in the comments :)
yee haw y’all,
hayley
"Yawd: Modern Afro-Caribbean Recipes" is a good one to look for! The cookbook is visually appealing, the recipes are interesting and accessible, and it was, for me, a type of cuisine I didn't have a lot of experience with, so encouraged me to try some new things.
The day I realized this (20 years ago, now) was a revelation! I always have about half a dozen cookbooks out from the library at any given time. It also is the spark for great conversations with library staff when picking them up :). From my current stack, I’d recommend “Kin: Caribbean Recipes from the Modern Kitchen” by Maria Mitchell, “The Fishwife Cookbook” by Becca Millstein and Vilda Gonzalez, “Masala Farm” by Suvir Saran, and “Husbands That Cook: More Then 110 Irresistible Vegetarian Recipes and Tales from Our Tiny Kitchen” by Ryan Alvarez and Adam Merrin.