Ban Crooks Not Books 5/9: The Most Disrespectful Firing of our Librarian of Congress
Dr. Carla Hayden, the beloved Librarian of Congress since 2016, was disrespectfully and unceremoniously fired in what the NYT reports was a “two-sentence email”
Dr. Carla Hayden, the beloved Librarian of Congress since 2016, was disrespectfully and unceremoniously fired in what the NYT reports was a “two-sentence email” which read “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.”
Of course they fired her. You can’t be a fascist authoritarian government and allow someone who says, as Dr. Hayden did, “I believe in what libraries can be for a civilized society, and a country that is open to all” to be the Librarian of Congress. I will also point out that Dr. Hayden is a woman of color.
It’s a cruel twist of the knife, because of course it is. The gutting of the Library of Congress isn’t a canary in a coal mine, it’s not a sign of an authoritarian regime takeover to come, it is a sign of the fascist coup that is here. They are not on the doorstep, they’re in the halls, in the shelves, ransacking our history. Your history.
“The Library is also one of the greatest gifts and legacies the Congress has given to the American people,” Dr. Hayden said during her swearing-in. “…The sixth Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Rand Spofford famously called it ‘the book palace of the American people’ … But the Library of Congress is so much more than beautiful architecture wrapped around bookshelves.
It is in fact, the second part of Spofford’s quote – used less often – that is truly powerful. He called it ‘the book palace of the American people in which you all have equal rights with me … in which the works of all of you will be welcomed and forever preserved.’”
But there’s another part of Dr. Hayden’s speech that, reading over it, jumps out at me in a new way today. During her swearing-in, she looked back on her time in Baltimore libraries:
I am reminded of a moment during the unrest in the City of Baltimore in April 2015. The Pennsylvania Avenue Branch library was located in the center of those events. But I made the decision to keep the library open, to provide a safe place for our citizens to gather. I was there, hand in hand with the staff, as we opened the doors every morning.
Cars were still smoldering in the streets. Closed signs were hanging in storefronts for blocks. But people lined up outside the doors of the library. I remember in particular a young girl coming up to me and asking, “What’s the matter? What is everyone so upset about?”
She came to the library for sanctuary and understanding. I recently had the opportunity to view one of the latest Library of Congress acquisitions – the Rosa Parks Collection – which includes her family bible, the bible she carried in her purse, and her handwritten letters. In one such letter she reflects on her December 1, 1955 arrest, writing, “I had been pushed around all my life and felt at this moment that I couldn’t take it anymore.”
That letter – and all of her papers – are now digitized and available online. So anyone anywhere can read her words in her own handwriting. Read them in the classrooms of Racine, Wisconsin, in a small library on a reservation in New Mexico, and even in the library of a young girl in Baltimore, looking around as her city is in turmoil.
It is no longer a city that is in turmoil, but a country. And who knows how long those papers will remain — and yet, even without the Librarian of Congress, even with the gutting of IMLS, even with book bans and bills that threaten to jail librarians, they can’t destroy us, because what a library is, isn’t just the information within our walls. It’s history and the people who care enough to fight to preserve it, and share it with the people, and we’ll continue to do that any way we can however we can.
You can fire us and replace us with hacks and lackeys. I’m sure the next Librarian of Congress will be a joke, one of those Moms for Liberty, like that one single person who was responsible for the banning of 444 books in Florida. Or maybe our new Librarian of Congress will be a book of matches and a bucket of gasoline.
But we’re still fucking here. I know moxie and defiance aren’t enough to save the day, but we can’t do it without moxie and defiance, either.
On your feet, Sam.
Library News Roundup
Even George W. Bush Liked Libraries: How the legal battle to get funding back for the Institute of Museum and Library Services is faring. This piece by Nitish Pahwa confirms “unless immediate, restorative action is taken to accompany the IMLS court orders, the situation for America’s libraries and museums is likely going to worsen.”
Man accused of checking out books on Jewish, Black, LGBTQ history from Cuyahoga County Public Library and burning them on extremist website: Justin McMullin reports from Cleveland that “Cuyahoga County Public Library officials, in a police report obtained by 3News, accused a man of checking out 100 books on Jewish history, Black history and LGBTQ education last month before filming a book burning and posting the video on a social media site described by advocates as a hub for white supremacist, neo-Nazi and extremist content.”
Alabama state library board floats cracking down on ‘positive portrayals’ of gender ideology at libraries: Alexander Willis reports “MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Public Library Service Board considered a proposal Thursday that would modify APLS code to deem reading material that encourages, promotes or contains positive portrayals of transgender procedures, gender ideology or the concept of more than two genders inappropriate for children.” Shame.
Things you can do today to fight for libraries:
Write a letter to the editor of your local news outlet. This guide can help.
Visit EveryLibrary
Donate to the Prison Book Program (people who are incarcerated deserve the dignity of reading, too)
yee haw y’all,
hayley