🥇 Library Champion Newsletter #92 | The War on Books 📚 July 2023 Update
Library Champion,
👋 Welcome to our new subscribers! I am SO GLAD to have you aboard!
The War on Books 📚 July 2023 Update
Across the country, on the state and local level, there are strong efforts to ban books (remove them from specific libraries), restrict the curriculum used in classrooms, and defund libraries that promote the freedom to read. On the bright side, many groups, librarians and people just like you are pushing back to ensure we all have the right to read any book (or not read certain books.) Today I give you an update on the “War on Books.”
The 2023 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago concluded on Tuesday, June 27. Another year removed from the strain of the pandemic restrictions, and in the midst of an ongoing political attack on the freedom to read, this year's conference delivered something the library community has been sorely in need of: a powerful show of support. While I did not attend this conference, I followed the news releases about it.
ALA officials reported 15,842 attendees, a decent bump from the 14,003 who attended last year's post-pandemic comeback show in Washington, D.C. And while attendance still lags well below pre-Covid-19 levels (in 2017, the ALA drew more than 23,000 to Chicago), ALA executive director Tracie D. Hall sounded an optimistic note about the future. "We're having good conversations about inclusion and about equity and diversity and about accessibility and also about LGBTQIA+ and disability voices, and history, and how we need all of that to keep our society strong and that people need to see themselves in libraries and in literature." Hall continued, stating “We're happy to gather. We're heartened. And I think we're a little bit emboldened to imagine not just the future of our organization, but what our conferences are going to look like.”
Some highlights from the ALA conference: Ibram X. Kendi praised librarians as modern-day freedom fighters at the ALA's first ever Rally for the Right to Read; Judy Blume thanked librarians for their work in her opening keynote; advocates surveyed the book banning battlefield in a robust education program; Amanda Gorman and Christian Robinson spoke about sadness and hope in a closing keynote.
The hometown Chicago Tribune covered the 2023 ALA Annual Conference, noticing that “Grade school librarians wore T-shirts reading 'Librarians Threaten Ignorance.' I would love to get one of those shirts!
Elsewhere in America, an editorial in the local Gazette (Iowa) reflects on how librarians have come to be falsely portrayed as pushing obscene materials. "How did we get from there to here? Blame politicians, mainly Republican, who saw electoral gold in those book bans," writes Jerry Elsea.” In Des Moines, Florida-bred Moms for Liberty stalks legislators, demanding removal of materials 'not age-appropriate' from school curriculum and library shelves. The real targets are books dealing with racism and LGBTQ issues. Moms for Liberty pressure has yielded results, including Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal that if one school removes a book, so should all the district’s schools."
Do you feel strongly that everyone, regardless of age, should have the freedom to read (or not read) any book? If so, reach out directly to your elected officials and express yourself!
At the Juniata County Library, we purchase and manage our library collection based on our collection development policy. We have a Freedom to Read Statement and abide by the Library Bill of Rights. We promote your freedom to read.
Just as you wouldn't want someone else telling you or your family what you can read or even have access to, let us respect each others' freedoms and unite against book banning.
If you come across a story about book challenges or bans, please send it my way: vgiordano@juniatalibrary.org
Summer Saturday Hours 🕐
📣 Please note that from July 1st to September 2nd the library will close at 1:00 PM on Saturdays instead of 3:00 PM.
ℹ️ Stay current: click these links for our hours and holiday closures.
📢 No new interlibrary loan requests at this time
📣 Due to the strong likelihood that UPS workers will strike, we will be suspending all new interlibrary loan requests effective immediately (July 5th 2023.)
We depend on UPS to supply materials between libraries. The strike will have a great impact on our ability to receive and return materials.
Updates on our interlibrary loan services will be shared in this newsletter as well as on our website.
Passport Services at the Library! ✈️
Make an appointment at the Juniata County Library to get or renew your passport!
Visit our website to learn more about this new service and how you can get a passport or renew your passport.
Passport agents: Vince Giordano, Christine May and Mercedes Berrier
Book of the week! – if you are going to read one book, give this one a try…
The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man by David Von Drehle
(New adult nonfiction: self-help, biography, history)
In a nutshell: A veteran Washington journalist recounts his long friendship with Charlie White, the centenarian next door who, sharing his good and meaningful life, mastered survival strategies that reflect thousands of years of human wisdom as his sense of adventure guided him through a century of upheaval.
Regarding his motivation for writing this book, Washington Post columnist Von Drehle writes, “I needed to find someone whose early life would have been recognizable to farmers from the age of Napoleon, or of Leonardo da Vinci.” Born in 1905, Charlie White descended from aristocratic Virginia Confederates who shared a family tree with Gen. Robert E. Lee. A boisterous child, he once accidentally set himself on fire while hopping over a flame in fringed pants in an impersonation of an “Indian brave.” After his father’s untimely death in a freak elevator accident, White’s mother designated him “the man of the house,” a responsibility that didn't stop him from traveling across the U.S. in a Model T Ford.
During the journey, he remembers complimenting a Navajo man on his English only to find out the man had graduated from Harvard. After medical school, White served as a doctor in the Air Force during World War II and trained in anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic. In 1948, his wife, Mildred, an alcoholic who also suffered from an eating disorder, committed suicide. Soon after, White married a pilot who divorced him for being “a little too possessive.” White’s third marriage ended when his wife, Lois, died of cancer. Von Drehle attributes White’s survival to his adherence to stoicism, a philosophy that requires focusing on what can be controlled rather than what can’t—an approach White was partly able to take because of his race privilege.
In a well-researched and often poignant narrative, the author rarely interrogates White’s privilege; maintains his subject’s insensitive language without comments; and quotes from thinkers like Theodore Roosevelt and Rudyard Kipling but never women or people of color. Despite the nuggets of wisdom sprinkled throughout the text, these choices make it feel outdated.
Bottom line: A story of a 109-year-old man’s life told through a White male gaze.
Borrow the book: The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man by David Von Drehle
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Thank you for being a library champion. You make a difference each day!
--Vince Giordano
Librarian and Director of the Juniata County Library.
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