More State Bills Targeting Books and Libraries
Late last year, I rounded up the pro-censorship and anti-library bills pre-filed in several US states. But now, with legislative sessions fully underway in most states, it should come as no surprise that more similar bills have emerged.
Like before, this roundup is not comprehensive. It’s meant to raise awareness of what’s going on. For readers who are in these states, it’s also a call to action to get on the phones and in the faces of your state representatives.
As important as it is to keep reaching out to your leaders at the federal level, it is equally, if not more, crucial to be making contact at the state level. When federal level institutions like the Department of Education are simply dismantled, responsibility and decision making will fall to the states. That means some states will excel and some will fall deeper down the hole of right wing conspiracy-as-law. (See: the propaganda put out by the Department of Education related to book banning).
It will be the states who also protect students, library workers, and educators from what will come following the Mahmoud v. Taylor decision from the Supreme Court (you can read about that here but in short, it’s about whether or not people can opt out of LGBTQ+ books and curriculum in public schools due to religious beliefs).* There are states seeking to criminalize library workers for as much as having LGBTQ+ books, while there are others writing into their laws that library workers are protected from such prosecution.
Each bill here is linked with a short description of what it would mean. There are a LOT, and I did not include those covered previously.
I will in the near future cover some good legislation hitting the states related to libraries and anti-book censorship. Promise!
Arizona
Senate Bill 1090: Criminalizing Librarians
This bill spells out the kinds of books that could get a librarian or educator criminally prosecuted as a felon for furnishing to anyone under the age of 18. (Read more here)
Given that this state has completely ruined their public education system with a voucher scheme, the goal here is to continue to empty the public schools of educators.
Arkansas
Senate Bill 184: Abolish the Arkansas State Library Board
This would transfer the power of oversight of libraries in the state to the state Department of Education, thereby overriding its independence and decision making authority. This is a big red flag, especially if the federal Department of Education is abolished and states will be in charge of the “oversight” of their public schools.
Senate Bill 181: Eliminate Requirement That Library Directors Have Knowledge of Librarianship
No longer would library directors need to have a master’s degree–THE preeminent education credential for librarians–in order to become library directors. This opens the door wide for unqualified politically-advantageous folks to be put in positions of power in libraries.
This devalues and undermines librarianship as a profession.
Last year in Louisiana, a similar bill passed.
When you look at these two bills in tandem, notice that both would allow for folks without a background in librarianship or library ethics to make significant decisions about what the library does or does not do. This kicks open the door for a few loud, well-connected folks to make the determinations of what a library is for an entire community.
Connecticut
There is an anti-book ban bill on the docket in Connecticut, which is where you should throw your energy if you’re in the state and want to do something. Some republicans, though, are licking the propaganda their colleagues elsewhere are doling out.
Bill 5898 – An Act Prohibiting Availability of Sexually Explicit Material in Public School Libraries
Despite the fact no such thing as pornography for children exists, that and several other specific “sexually explicit” examples are given as the kinds of books that would be prohibited from school libraries. Note, breast touching over the clothes is only deemed sexually explicit if it’s a female character.
Georgia
SB 74 – Librarian Criminalization and Combat The “Naughty Books” Incentive
Georgia’s introduced a bill that would repeal protections granted to librarians as they relate to so-called obscenity in the library’s collections.
As a bonus, this bill would incentive librarians to seek out the books deemed inappropriate and protect those librarians from blowback for being censors. This is literally the opposite of what is happening in many anti-book ban bills.
It shall be an affirmative defense to prosecution under this Code section if the individual charged is a librarian, as such term is defined in Code Section 43-24-1, employed to work as a librarian in public library operated by the state or any of its political subdivisions or any library operated as a part of any school, college, or university, and such individual can demonstrate that he or she has made a good faith attempt to identify and remove from access to minors all physical or electronic material harmful to minors.
Indiana
There are a lot of deeply concerning bills related to libraries and education in Indiana. I wrote at length about the one allowing the state to take over public school districts, so I’m going to stick to library side bills here.
Senate Bill 283 – Revoking Library Independence
That’s not the real name of the bill, but it’s the intent of the bill. In Indiana, as in many other states, the public library is a separate taxing entity from the city/county it serves. This bill wants to revoke that and require public libraries to present a budget to the locale under which they operate.
This will defund libraries en masse while also making them subject to the whims of whatever leadership is happening in the local government. It steals public library independence.
House Bill 1195 – Removal of Pornographic Material from Schools
Another bill pretending there’s so-called pornographic material in schools. Another bill where legislators got to dwell upon specific sexual situations they imagine are in the books sitting in classrooms. If these “pornographic books” are in schools, schools must remove them.
Iowa
House File 51 – Anti-Drag Bill
This is a pretty run of the mill anti-drag bill (which when said like that sounds dismissive but should instead be read as there’s nothing new under the sun for bigots in legislation), but there is a particularly worrying element. Any adult of a minor or any minor upon turning 18 can sue for being “knowingly” exposed to “obscene material” or “obscene performances.”
Kentucky
Senate Bill 71 – Judges Appoint Library Trustee Vacancies
So much for local control unless by “local control,” what’s meant is that a judge gets to appoint people to vacant library trustee positions. This can be done without any approval by those with real investment in public libraries, including the Department for Libraries and Archives.
We’ve seen this play out before–judges appoint their political allies into these roles.
Maryland
House Bill 282 – Prohibiting Sexually Explicit Materials in Public Schools
It doesn’t matter Maryland has a “Right to Read” bill. There’s a bill on the docket to codify that public schools cannot have “sexually explicit” materials. Of course, what “sexually explicit” means isn’t defined, and more importantly, no such thing exists (though that doesn’t matter).
Minnesota
House File 235 – Prohibiting Sexually Explicit Materials in Public Schools
One thing you’ll begin to notice is that in states that have anti-book ban laws like Minnesota, the conspiracy theorists are filing bills to state that no schools can have “sexually explicit” or “pornographic” materials. Those materials don’t exist in public school libraries, of course, but with such vague language in these bills, there is room being made for banning books.
I have little doubt that this book ban in Rochester schools over a single part of an image in a picture book will be used as “proof” this bill is necessary.
I wrote at length about this new tactic to undermine anti-book ban bills over on Book Riot this week and encourage you to read it. Notice if you see it happen in other anti-book ban bill states over the year.
Missouri
House Bill 462 – Local School Policies on “Obscene Materials.”
Local schools have to have in their policies information about what parents can do when it comes to concerns over obscene materials. This isn’t a particularly new or interesting part of the bill. What is new is that schools MUST remove materials while they’re under review following a parental complaint. That’s a book ban. So imagine how this will go: one parent decides to, say, complain about 444 books and now all 444 books have to be removed from shelves while “reviewed.” Not like that’s happened before.
Senate Bill 483 – Losing Funds for Employing Those Found Guilty of Distributing Obscene Materials
On the surface, this bill looks pretty straightforward: if someone has been found guilty of distributing or offering “explicit sexual material” to a student and a new school chooses to employ them, that school will not be eligible for state funding.
This will be used to target educators and librarians who have books that certain members of the community don’t like, and those books will be those by or about queer folks. Though this might not be how the bill would be implemented this year, this bill is a setup for something like we’ve seen in Idaho, which permits parents to sue libraries over books they don’t like. It’s a bill meant to send a chilling effect.
Nebraska
Legislature Bill 390 – Giving Parents Access to Student Library Records
This invasion of privacy bill would require schools to implement a system to notify parents each and every time their student borrows a book from the school library. A bill like this further deincentivizes students from using the school library (which is, of course, the point).
The work of this would fall on the local school boards, meaning that some school boards would make this opt-in–so the standard is no one gets these records–while others would make them opt-out–the default is every parent gets these records until they decide otherwise.
Here’s your reminder that one of the most targeted, marginalized groups in America is children. Their rights have been systematically stripped away, especially in the last five years. Children should and do have a right to privacy in libraries.
New Hampshire
House Bill 273 – Parental Access to Minor Library Records
Republicans in New Hampshire want to allow parental access to all library records of their children. Again: the goal is to get the kids to stop using the library so they can then defund the library. It’s a different but related maneuver to book banning.
See the note under Nebraska and how the targeting of children’s rights continues unabated. New Hampshire’s bill also encourages minors to stop using the library so that down the road, legislators can simply defund them.
North Dakota
Senate Bill 2307 – Librarian Criminalization Bill
Library workers could be charged as felons for having “explicit sexual material” in their library collections. This bill specifically just updates current code to add libraries and librarians to it. Read more here.
Oklahoma
Senate Bill 19 – No Pornography in School Libraries Bill
Oklahoma public and public charter school libraries will be required to submit a list of every item in their libraries each year in October to the Department of Education for approval.
Public schools cannot have “pornography” in them (they don’t).
Parents can claim there’s “pornography” in their schools and submit those complaints to the Department of Education, who will investigate. If the Department decides there is porn in the library, the schools will lose a portion of their state funding. You see where this is going.
House Bill 1285 – Online Transparency Portal
So remember how Florida decided to pony up millions of dollars for software that helps parents see if there is inappropriate material in school libraries? And how companies like BookmarkED/OnShelf are selling their services to districts through Texas–and Oklahoma!–that “help” with navigating book bans? Oklahoma wants to spend money to install a similar software statewide. (Private companies are certainly cashing in on the “book ban hoax,” aren’t they?)
Oregon
Senate Bill 212 – Book Ratings Systems
The bill would require that there are book ratings by age for “young library patrons” (their quote) and that books not within a patron’s age ratings would be restricted from them. This is what we’re seeing in places like Idaho, where teenagers cannot even borrow nonfiction or classics since those are rated for “adults.”
The State Librarian would be the one responsible for creating and maintaining said ratings.
Pennsylvania
Senate Bill 230 – Parental Control Related to Sexually Explicit Materials
Schools would be required to retain, update, and provide to parents a list of “sexually explicit materials” used in school curriculum and available in the school libraries. These materials would require an opt-in form be signed by every parent.
The opt-in form must include the following language: By signing this document I am giving permission for my child to be provided books, handouts and instructional material that may include written or visual depictions of sexual conduct. Sexual conduct is defined in law as "acts of masturbation, sexual intercourse, sexual bestiality or physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or, if the person is a female, breast.
This is about the government leaning into paternalism as much as possible.
South Carolina
Senate Bill 104 and House Bill 3850 – Public Library Funding Based on Certification of Not Having “Inappropriate” Material
In order for public libraries to receive their state funding, they have to certify with the state that they do not have “any books or materials that appeal to the prurient interest of children under the age of seventeen in children, youth, or teen book sections.” The vagueness is the point, as is the fact that libraries have to recertify this quarterly to get their next financial disbursement.
Bills like this one put public libraries in the position of guessing what the language means and opens them up to state-sanctioned penalties for not being able to mind-read and/or not simply removing anything potentially deemed inappropriate to young people by those in power (i.e., the LGBTQ+ books).
South Dakota
Last December, governor Kristi Noem proposed a significant cut to the State Library budget, which would deeply impact public libraries throughout the state. With that, legislation like House Bill 1041 seem to be teeing up for the end of the role of the State Library.
Texas
Like with the first roundup of concerning legislation for 2025, I’m going to leave the explanation of bills in Texas to the Texas Freedom to Read Project. They’ve been on the ground and doing the work. Listen to them as they ring the bells and alarms. Texas’s attacks on libraries for 2025 are coming in even harder than in previous sessions, angling for things like a state-sanctioned banned books list akin to those in Utah and South Carolina.
You’ll find the bill names below, and explanations are in this handy writeup as well as in the full guide to the 2025 anti-library/anti-book legislation guide available here. Some bills are not yet available to view on the Texas legislative website, thus why they are not linked.
Senate Bill 2 – School “Choice”
Senate Bill 12 – A “Parental Bill of Rights”
Senate Bill 13 – Guarding Against Inappropriate Books in Public Schools
Senate Bill 18 – Stopping Drag Time Story Hour
House Bill 267, House Bill 947, House Bill 995, House Bill 1025, House Bill 1434, House Bill 2030, Senate Bill 88, Senate Bill 89, Senate Bill 242, and Senate Bill 412 – Criminalization of Librarians
House Bill 183 – This is the bill that would allow the State Board of Education to make decisions on whether specific books would need to be banned in every school in the state.
Virginia
House Bill 2190 – Public Catalog Bill
Public schools must have a catalog of every single item available in school libraries available for perusal to the public. This isn’t just having a catalog. It’s having a spreadsheet or something similar for people to control search for titles they don’t like. The purpose is to waste time and money while making it easier to lodge complaints.
House Bill 2400 – Banning “Sexually Explicit” Material in Public School Libraries
We know by now no such thing exists, but the state is going to provide model policies to school boards for how to determine what is or is not considered “sexually explicit.” This will encourage further book banning.
This bill works in tandem with the prior.
Wyoming
House Bill 194 – Librarian Criminalization Bill
If librarians are deemed distributing or housing “obscene material” to minors, they can be charged up to $6,000 or do prison time.
Among the things deemed inappropriate? “[T]he female breast with no covering or less than a fully opaque covering of any portion of the female breast below the top of the nipple.” Also “showing of the human male or female genitals, pubic area or buttocks with no covering or less than a fully opaque covering.” Descriptions used in legislative bills like this are far more sexually explicit than any single book available to those under thee age of 18. Read more about the bill here.
As a citizen in a democracy, it is your duty to keep an eye on bills within your own state. Know when your state legislation is in session and have the contact information of your representatives handy. If you’re feeling really ambitious, have a few email templates ready to go that offer facts from research and statistics about the value and necessity of libraries that you can include in your correspondence relating to any bills coming up in your state.
You have the power to keep yourself informed not only about the future of these bills but about the bills that will inevitably emerge between January and May of 2025 at the state level. EveryLibrary has a regularly updated bill tracker you will want to check in on as part of your regular activism and educational work.
Keep track of what’s happening in your own state as well. You can do that by regularly searching LegiScan by state and keyword (I use “library” and “librarian”). You may need to click through to ensure those bills are for the current legislative session and/or actually related to the topic of interest.
Many states have an option for you to set up an RSS feed to bills of interest. Here’s what it looks like on the Ohio House of Representatives website:
Other states share on their websites what tools are available to use. Here’s an example from the Iowa legislature with tons of options.
Depending on your job or your access to public or academic libraries, you may be able to find additional proprietary tracking software and apps.
Telling people where to find free books that have been banned is useless for solving the underlying issue here of intentional dismantling and destruction of public libraries and public school libraries. It’s sitting on the sidelines and pretending to have been involved in getting the job done. No matter how well intentioned, it’s not the solution here.
Showing up in board rooms, talking with those making these decisions is, and voting for local representation that cares about publicly funded democratic institutions of civic engagement that honor and defend the rights of every person within a community is.
Notes:
*If you live in Maryland and are part of a religious organization or have connections to leaders in the church, consider where and how you can get your voice heard. This is a case about “religious freedom,” but as it pertains to being able to discriminate against LGBTQ+ books and content. Power would be in having people of faith writing amicus briefs, speaking up, and having your voices heard related to the fact religious freedom means inclusion of all and not exclusion of some.