Month: June 2025

In INFO 204 Information Professions, which I took last semester, a large part of the curriculum was working as a group to come up with solutions to real-life management problems faced by public librarians. The one that stuck with me the most was about censorship. From my recollection, a librarian was faced with a patron who wanted to remove an art book that she believed had inappropriate material for children, and it was our job to think about the key issue in the scenario and suggest how the librarian should have handled the situation. While the solutions focused on policy and librarian training, I had a hard time coming to terms with the realization that book banning and censorship is a very real problem.

In fact, as I was reading through the materials in the hyperlinked environment section, I learned just how prevalent book banning efforts have become. According to the ALA’s Censorship by the Numbers tool, there were only seven attempts to restrict access to books in Texas (and seven books challenged in the attempts) in 2015, while in 2024, there were 43 attempts to ban a total of 1,514 books. This increase is astounding to wrap your head around. I had to sit and let those numbers sink in and think about why this is happening. The ALA points to a number of causes, including the pandemic leading parents to become more involved in their children’s education and the highly politicized world we currently live in, with organizations and people wanting to ban titles that don’t align with their religious, political, or moral beliefs. 

During my training as a volunteer at the public library where I work, the head librarian who trained me spoke about censorship from another angle than book banning. She said as a librarian, it is your responsibility to help people find the information they are looking for. If someone approaches her and asks for a copy of Mein Kampf (which I believe is the example she used), she has to help them find it without judgement. This idea has stuck with me as I’ve been asked to reshelve books about Donald Trump and other topics I personally am not aligned with. Do I wish these books didn’t exist? Sure. But would it ever occur to me to try to ban them from the library? Never. 

It makes me wonder what is the best way to get people who want to ban books understand why what they are doing is wrong. After all, if they want to read a book about Hitler, it doesn’t mean it will turn them into a dictator who will initiate genocide, in the same way a teenager reading a book with gay characters won’t “turn” them gay. However, according to the Washington Post article, reasoning with them about the subject matter doesn’t seem to be the right approach—though I did love the thoughtful and gently snarky letter that the author Bill Konigsberg wrote to Texas parents who wanted to ban his books. 

It never occurred to me that library systems should fight book bans by avoiding arguments about the subject matter. “In a red state or town, that might mean public testimony shouldn’t emphasize that books by or about LGBTQ people or people of color are disproportionately challenged. It could backfire, explains Peter Bromberg, associate director of EveryLibrary,” writes Aylssa Rosenberg in the Washington Post. Instead, she says, libraries should focus on the costs of censorship and how it wastes public resources. I’ll be honest, this makes me incredibly frustrated that libraries have to try and fight censorship without actually arguing that it’s wrong, and instead pointing to things like cost and litigation risks. 

I loved reading about the libraries that are fighting back, including the New York Public Library’s Freedom to Read project. Programs like NYPL’s Teen Banned Book Club and Teen Voices magazine are so critical right now because they teach teenagers (and maybe future information professionals and librarians!) about the current environment around book bans and empower them to speak up and take action. If I do end up in a library where the majority of my patrons are students, I would want to take the same approach.

One last thing in the module’s materials that resonated with me was something that the therapist interviewed in the video about Gender Queer said. It was about how telling people to just buy the books they want to read shows privilege and that libraries are about providing access to people who can’t go out and buy what they want. It made me think specifically about kids and teenagers who likely don’t even have their own credit cards and who think of the library as a place where they can explore thoughts and feelings they have without getting their parents’ permission. It’s how I used the library growing up, and it’s what I want for my children and community at large.

References

American Library Association. (n.d.). Censorship by the numbers. Banned Books. Retrieved June 20, 2025, from https://www.ala.org/bbooks/censorship-numbers

Konigsberg, B. (2022, March ?). An open letter to parents who wish to ban my books from school libraries. Retrieved June 20, 2025, from https://billkonigsberg.com/an-open-letter-to-parents-who-wish-to-ban-my-books-from-school-libraries/

Rosenberg, A. (2023, April 5). How to fight book bans — and win. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/05/book-bans-how-to-fight/

The New York Public Library. (n.d.). Books for all: Protect the freedom to read. Retrieved June 20, 2025, from https://www.nypl.org/spotlight/freedom-to-read

I was born, raised, and currently live in Los Angeles. Over the last week, parents in my local community and school district have banded together to protect families who may be targets of ICE raids. It’s been extremely difficult to face the fact that some parents were too scared to attend their kids’ graduations—and wholly uplifting to be part of a community where parents made it a priority to protect others by offering to escort people or stand watch on street corners. As you can imagine, “community” is something I’ve spoken about often in recent days. 

My community and my kids’ school would not be what it is without all of the immigrant families who call this place home, and while many of the readings this week resonated with me, the one that impacted me the most was Libraries Resist: A Round-Up of Tolerance, Social Justice, & Resistance in US Libraries by Kelly Jensen.

This quote especially resonated with me: “By inviting all in a community to be in a shared space, libraries embrace the idea of encouraging education, encouraging acceptance and tolerance, and on a much smaller scale, they create policies that ensure these very things happen in their spaces. No act in the library is too small to foster tolerance and acceptance.”

I appreciate that the writer challenged the belief that libraries are not political, even going a step further to say that it’s actually “impossible to be a neutral space with the goal of reaching a community, be it the public or the academic or the special population the library serves.”

“It’s impossible to be a neutral space with the goal of reaching a community, be it the public or the academic or the special population the library serves.”

Especially in today’s political environment, it is more important than ever for libraries (and other public institutions) to serve their communities as a whole and to make its stance clear: that everyone is welcome, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, age, etc. I’m proud that my local library, where I volunteer once a week, has taken similar actions to those mentioned in the article, including creating displays for Pride, Native American heritage, and Black female inventors, to name a few recent ones. The library also demonstrates its commitment to diverse populations by having inclusive signage and providing tax and other important forms in a variety of languages.

In the article, I noticed that the majority of the actions taken were done by children or teen librarians and aimed at those two age groups. These examples of “speaking up and out about social justice, tolerance, or resistance” are inspiring and I hope they continue and multiply as children and teens need to hear and see these messages from a young age. Though this could very well be a reflection of the librarians who chose to submit, it does make me question if adult librarians feel more constraints around what they are able to do (and I plan to ask my supervisor for her thoughts the next time I volunteer!). 

The article also made me wonder how these decisions to make a stand get made. Did the librarians who wrote in unilaterally have the power to take action or were there approval processes? What happens if other patrons have a negative reaction? 

I’m still unsure what librarianship path I plan to pursue, but I do know that wherever I end up, it will be my duty to help make all patrons feel welcome and to create an environment that makes this feeling clear through its signage, displays, events, and collections. It is my goal to work for an organization that champions community and participatory service so that the needs of marginalized groups are not ignored. 

 

References

Jensen, K. (2017, February 10). Libraries resist: A round-up of tolerance, social justice, & resistance in US libraries. Book Riot. https://bookriot.com/libraries-resist-round-tolerance-social-justice-resistance-us-libraries/

 

As the mother of three young children, I am constantly thinking about how technology and social media will impact my kids’ lives and what we collectively as parents, adults, and information professionals can do to help cultivate healthy, fulfilling, and even inspiring relationships with technology. And as a substitute middle and high school librarian (and a volunteer at an elementary school library), I have become even more aware of how much potential there is to better engage students and arm them with the tools to seek out (and verify) information. 

When I first subbed at the middle school last fall, I noticed 6th and 7th graders coming into the library during recess and lunch to play Minecraft on the computers. I admit that my first thought was, “I can’t believe the school allows this.” It frankly disappointed me that kids weren’t coming in to check out books for fun or for a quiet place to read or study. After all, that’s how I used the library growing up. 

But as I watched them come in every day, I began to see that this was a way for kids to connect and socialize with their peers. This echoes what Dana Boyd writes in It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens and what Professor Stephens includes in Heart of Librarianship: “Most teens are not compelled by gadgetry as such—they are compelled by friendship. The gadgets are interesting to them primarily as a means to a social end.”

However, for me, having fun and socializing still didn’t feel like enough. I sat there trying to think of different ways the full-time librarian could expand the students’ engagement in the library without necessarily eliminating Minecraft (or perhaps engaging them so much that they wouldn’t even want to play anymore!). I thought, why not ask them? As the Hyperlinked Library model makes clear, transparency and asking for user feedback is essential—and children and teens shouldn’t be an exception. 

But I am more interested in the participatory service aspect of the Hyperlinked Library, specifically as it relates to the younger demographics and technology. It’s heartening to see successful examples of libraries meeting teenagers where they are, such as the Chicago Public Library’s YOUMedia space and the media center (or “The Unquiet Library”) at Creekview High School in Georgia. I especially love how the high school librarians work together with teachers to plan lessons. The article The Hyperlinked School Library: Engage, Explore, Celebrate also had some great ideas for incorporating technology into the learning environment, including recording and editing podcasts, connecting with a classroom in a different location, or creating stories with images taken on a digital camera. (Stephens, 2010)

In Wholehearted Librarianship, Professor Stephens talks about “zones with heart,” listing areas for community, creativity, curiosity, collaboration, and caring. He writes, “We need technology (all shapes, sizes, and cost factors) to create some of these spaces, but we also need dedicated encouragers and facilitators to help people learn, experience, and utilize the space. The most important thread here is the people, of course. A caring mindset trumps spiffy, expensive technology every day.” This addresses one of my personal concerns; no new technology is worth it if it means losing out on personal connections, especially for young people who often need them most. 

What I struggle with is how much technology is too much? What is the ideal balance between learning through innovation and doing it the old fashioned way of books, pen, and paper? What is the best way to arm kids with the necessary skills to seek out and verify accurate information, especially in the world we live in today? When I take my kids to the public library, I audibly groan when they inevitably go to the computer station instead of looking at books. And then I ask myself, why is that my reaction?

I find myself in an interesting intersection as both a parent who is wary of tech in the classroom and as a future information professional who wants nothing more than to inspire kids and teens to spend more time in libraries. The Hyperlinked Library is already opening up my eyes to the possibilities of how—when done right—tech and innovation can meet the specific needs of young people and inspire them. 

 

References

Mathews, B. (2010, June 21). Unquiet library has high-schoolers geeked. American Libraries Magazine. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2010/06/21/unquiet-library-has-high-schoolers-geeked/

Mathews, B. [American Libraries Magazine]. (2010, June 21). Unquiet library has high-schoolers geeked [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8G4nnlgKmk

Stephens, M. (2019). Wholehearted librarianship: Finding hope, inspiration, and balance. ALA Editions.

Stephens, M. (2010, March 2). The hyperlinked school library: Engage, explore, celebrate. Tame the Web. https://tametheweb.com/2010/03/02/the-hyperlinked-school-library-engage-explore-celebrate/

Hi!

My name is Brooke Katz (she/her), and I’m based in Los Angeles, where I was born and raised. I moved back here in 2022 after 17 years in New York City (with brief stints in Jersey City, NJ, and Mexico City). I have a BA in English from Emory University, and spent almost two decades working in publishing/media, first as a travel magazine editor and then creating branded content for businesses. I continue to freelance as a writer, editor, and content strategist.

When I graduated college, I had thought about earning my MLIS but was unable to attend grad school at the time and then my career/life happened. In March 2024 I was laid off and decided it wasn’t too late to make a career switch. As of now, I’m unsure exactly what I want to do, but a few interests are elementary school librarian or working at a cultural institution or within higher education as a librarian or archivist. I’ve spent the last year volunteering at my local public library and my kids’ elementary school library.

This semester is my second at SJSU, and I’ll be completing my prerequisites with Info 202. (I’m excited to finish it because it will open up a lot more electives for the Fall semester!) I was introduced to the idea of hyperlinked libraries last semester in Info 200, and was incredibly intrigued and interested in learning more. As a future LIS professional, I think it’s imperative to become educated in the latest technologies and ideas within the industry.

Can’t wait to work with and get to know everyone here!