Besides the banning such great books by such profoundly ignorant people, Richard Ovenden was also troubled about the “demonization of librarians as combatants in the war for our minds.” This has been particularly egregious in the United States.
Of course, we know things will only get worse, particularly in the US, as the presidential election gets closer. One party, the Republican Party has staked its territory on the side of compelling the banishment not just of books, but truth itself. Sadly, we in Canada have come to realize that the craziness inevitably flows from them to us. We have a party in Canada that slavishly follows every ugly trend thrown up by our American neighbours. The latest is the Republican War on Woke and Trans, swiftly mimicked by Conservatives in Canada who seem to have very few original ideas.
“The American Library Association reports that during 2021-22 there were more than 2,500 book bans in 138 different U.S. school districts and libraries, spread across 32 states covering four million pupils.”
Librarians are highly skilled and trained professionals. Yet in the US and in Canada there have been attacks against librarians as sexual deviants who are grooming children for exploitation. All of this has been done on the thinnest of grounds. Some want to remove all books with sexual content. Others limit the attacks based on gender issues that they don’t want discussed in schools. Such cases are extremely stressing to librarians but are becoming normalized much of it under the dubious rubric of parental rights. We have had parental groups launching attacks against libraries and their staff in Canada by what certainly appears to be a tsunami of ignorance. So far it seems the attacks have not been as successful in Canada as they have been in the US. Perhaps that is sign that the conservative movement is not yet as strong as it is in the US. But it’s getting there.
Fortunately, so far, defenders of libraries have been successful in advocating for the freedom to read and the complementary freedom to learn. Ovenden is not blind to “the irony that the more people want to ban books the greater the desire of people to read the books.”
Margaret Atwood is one of the most banned authors and she has stood up to the banners saying in effect, go ahead, your efforts will only make people want to read my books the more. And this is likely true. The fact is the book banners are still in a small minority, though admittedly, a loud minority.
At one time Bodley’s Library in London used the Roman Catholic index of banned books as a convenient shopping list for books it should acquire.
As Ovenden said, “book banners aren’t very bright.” Smart people know diversity in books is one the treasuries of a good library. Book banners are engaged in an assault by the ignorant.
All of this may be amusing, but the sad fact is that in the US, the land of extremes, it is now dangerous to work in libraries in many parts of that country.
That is why it is so important for all of us to support the library staff who are standing on the front line in defense of our core freedoms. As Ovenden said, “libraries and librarians are worth fighting for.
I couldn’t agree more.