The Librarians

I watched a documentary film last night about attempts in Florida, Texas and other American states to censor and remove books from school libraries. "Moms for Liberty", a pressure group which began life as protest against the use of Covid masks in schools, identifies books which it considers to be pornographic and lobbies school boards and politicians to remove them. No specific reason is given for individual proscriptions, and banned lists have expanded to include history books and books by non-white Americans. Teachers and librarians who challenge their arbitrary decisions are routinely threatened and defamed in social media.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Librarians_(2025_film)

If any young American cannot find the book they are looking for in their library, you are welcome to stay in our home and freely read anything from our shelves or those of our excellent local libraries. Learning and free enquiry are your birth right, not privileges.

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ninalanyon · 61-69, T

In these times when almost everyone has a smartphone such censorship efforts must surely fail. Pretty nearly every book that anyone wants can be found on Anna's Archive:

https://annas-archive.org/

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@ninalanyon The way in which books are presented or curated is very important. I discovered so much from library shelves that an electronic library can never fully supply.

ninalanyon · 61-69, T

@SunshineGirl Absolutely!

But, my three sons never read paper books despite growing up in a house with thousands of them and living only fifty metres from the public library.

However they are digital natives who had modern computers all their lives and they do read quite a lot. Their mode of discovery is different and entirely online a now they read mostly on their mobiles.

I think that librarians and others who wish to preserve what libraries can do for people need to embrace the net. It is the content of the books and them being read that matters, not the paper or the building.

onewithshoes · 26-30, F

@SunshineGirl 'Presented or curated' correctly implies that a selection is being made, which necessarily implies some degree of approval and recommendation, which concepts are perhaps more worthy of concern than simple access.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@onewithshoes This is what professional librarians do. So long as they work within ethical boundaries there should be no concern. Watch the documentary. You might be impressed by the devotion of some of the featured librarians to free speech and good quality education when most of those around them seemed indifferent to those principles at best.