More libraries are cutting ties with the American Library Association as the professional group stands up for books some say children shouldn't have access to because of their content.

After parents in a rural and staunchly conservative Wyoming county joined nationwide pressure on librarians to pull books they considered harmful to youngsters, the local library board obliged with new policies making such books a higher priority for removal — and keeping out of collections.

But that’s not all the library board has done.

Campbell County also withdrew from the American Library Association, in what’s become a movement against the professional organization that has fought against book bans.

This summer, the state libraries in Montana, Missouri and Texas and the local library in Midland, Texas, announced they’re leaving the ALA, with possibly more to come. Right-wing lawmakers in at least nine other states — Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming — demand similar action.

  • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
    20·
    1 year ago

    Wyoming librarians are being “constantly critiqued” but they — not the ALA — are the ones who control their collections based on community needs, Saldivar added.

    “ALA is not telling our library workers, our collection development librarians, you have to have this book in your library collection,” Saldivar said.

    Republican Gov. Mark Gordon looks to be on the same page, criticizing as a “media stunt” a recent letter from 13 state lawmakers and Wyoming’s secretary of state asking him to pull the Wyoming State Library from the ALA.

    “The letter implies that Wyoming citizens — Wyoming parents — are not capable of deciding how best to govern themselves and need the self-appointed morality police to show them the way,” Gordon said in a statement.

    • teft@startrek.website
      25·
      1 year ago

      The letter implies that Wyoming citizens — Wyoming parents — are not capable of deciding how best to govern themselves and need the self-appointed morality police to show them the way,

      I thought conservatives hated nanny states? Weird how everything they hate they end up advocating for. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.

    • Jo Miran
      8·
      1 year ago

      Governor Gordon is what a conservative is supposed to be. The rest are just looking to inject government oversight and morality police unto others.

      • snooggums@kbin.social
        4·
        1 year ago

        This isn’t oversight. Oversight is a good thing where a group keeps an eye on another to avoid corruption.

        This is just morality police forcing their views on others.