The Library Trust Matrix: Book Censorship News, January 26, 2024

There are myriad reasons why parents have likely never met their school librarian. First — and perhaps most important — is that it is likely there is not a full-time school librarian. In the 2020-2021 school year, 3 out of every 10 school districts in the country did not have a single librarian in any of their schools. The downward trajectory of the profession became apparent in data exploring school librarians between 2010 and 2019, where 20% of full-time school librarian jobs were eliminated. All signs point to this trend continuing through the pandemic, and it’s not because of reductions in school staff overall; indeed, in districts that reported losing school librarians, half gained teachers, 40% gained school or district administrators, and 33% gained instructional coordinators. This structural devaluing of the profession, unfortunately, aids in the perception that school librarians are not fundamental in the schools themselves, even if parents claim they want school librarians.

If schools do have a librarian, chances are that they are part-time. As of 2019, of the schools that employed a school librarian, 61% were full-time.

School librarians, who might also go by titles such as teacher librarian or media specialist, are highly trained, skilled, and credentialed professionals.* But the lack of jobs and, therefore, lack of visibility makes awareness of their expertise challenging to not only articulate but to literally see. They work school hours in the school building, but most of the time, they do not have their own regular class to teach. Instead, they serve as a teacher for all students, including those who might have teachers scheduling regular classes with the librarian or periodic sessions prior to a class project to help students find, evaluate, and understand the resources available to them. They’re there before class begins, during lunch periods, and after classes end to help students find and borrow materials that support both their education and their recreational needs. Though school librarians may try to have contact with parents, it isn’t going to be as easy or as frequent as teachers. Even at open house or back-to-school nights, it’s likely that parents are not prioritizing meeting the librarian in the same way they are their students’ classroom teachers.

Some blame belongs to the leadership teams in schools, too. If the administration or the board of education do not champion their school librarians or are actively aiding in the efforts to undermine them, then they are further invisible.

It is difficult to establish trust in a profession when you have not spent time utilizing it. But thanks to book banning, the visibility of the school library has come into greater public focus, and even those who’ve never stepped foot inside their student’s school library have been influenced by certain perceptions of the experts who work within it.

82% of parents, though, trust school librarians to select age- and content-appropriate material for their students. Likewise, a slightly higher percentage of parents believe that their child is safe at the school library (93%) than in the public library (92%). Even if they do not know their school librarian, they feel their student is safe in the library and that, for the most part, the collection has been managed professionally and appropriately.

We know what happens in school libraries will — and does — enter the public library. Right now, we’re seeing it occur in ways that, to the general public, might not be obvious. While public librarians may have a higher trustworthiness perception by parents, given that book bans are continuing to grow in numbers at public libraries, the reality is this, too, will change. But it won’t just be book bans that do it. There is a systematic dismantling of the profession happening that, in isolation, appears to be odd; in conjunction, they add up to a purposeful plot to delegitimize the profession.

It begins with claims that public libraries are full of pornography. With claims that public librarians are “groomers” or “pedophiles” for having books by or about LGBTQ+ people or for hosting events that celebrate diversity. These claims are then “backed up” with “research” from biased outlets who quote “experts.” We’ve seen this in the refusal to vaccinate and the refusal to acknowledge the science conducted by experts; the “I did my own research” calls come from folks who wouldn’t know how to evaluate a source if it smacked them in the face because they don’t have to care. The data they want, they can find, or they can make up. This is why information literacy is under attack — get rid of the means to teach people how to swim in a sea of “sources,” and they’re easier to persuade on any given topic. Going to Google has never been reliable without some kind of roadmap to what information is actually factual, but it’s only gotten worse these last few years.

Librarians do heavy lifting when it comes to teaching information and digital literacy. School librarians, in particular, take on an outsized role in this type of education. Remove the school librarians, and you directly harm the developmental and educational needs of students.

What makes a profession distinct from a trade or a job is that it is a group of people who agree to uphold certain common principles, standards, and ethics, alongside possessing specific skills and education in order to complete their work. More often than not, a professional body will help guide the ethics of the profession and set the standards by which professions must adhere — in some states, this might also include necessary licenses or certifications on top of a particular education. Not everyone works within a profession, and not anyone can step into the role of a profession.

So, it makes sense that another tactic being employed by book banners right now is to discredit the profession. The target is the American Library Association (ALA), the largest professional organization for librarians in the country. Not all librarians are members, but because it is primarily an organization run by professionals in the field, ALA seeks to address the challenges, the ethical issues, and the needs of those working as librarians.**

Book banners have turned ALA into the machine they need to take down and have done so by targeting the organization as a whole, as well as some of its most visible members. ALA President Emily Drabinski has been derided for over two years, with right-wing media regularly conflating her personal beliefs and practices with what the organization of nearly 50,000 thinks. They have crafted endless disinformation campaigns about Drabinski and the organization, and some have gone so far as to attempt to establish their own “professional library association” (none of the people involved in it have any professional background in librarianship except as provocateurs). Several states have called for and implemented bans on association membership by state and local libraries, stating that being members of ALA will mean forfeiting their ability to seek funding from the state. In some spaces, anything that could potentially be linked to the American Library Association — from its prestigious book awards to its professional trade journal and review resource Booklist — is unilaterally discredited as biased and unfit for use by those in the field.

By creating a villain of the biggest professional organization for library workers, book banners pound away at the institutions that establish and uphold librarianship as a profession. Librarians lose their place as experts in their field, with the skills, knowledge, and passion for helping connect people to vetted, accurate, verifiable information. To real facts.

Hope is not lost, though.

Returning back to the parental perceptions survey, it’s clear that even at its lowest, 4 out of 5 parents trust school librarians. Nine out of ten trust public librarians.

The opportunity is here to amplify this trust parents have in their public institutions. There is a lot to be said that even though most parents have never met their school librarian, they still trust them as professionals. They trust their abilities to select age- and content-appropriate materials for the collection. Rarely have parents or their children borrowed or been exposed to material that made either of them uncomfortable, further bolstering the reality that not only do librarians curate appropriate material but also that parents themselves are asserting their rights by teaching their own children what is and is not appropriate material for them to access. More than 8 out of 10 parents agree that librarians know the kinds of books kids will love, too: almost as if trained professionals in the field have dedicated time, energy, and resources into learning what their jobs are and how to do them well.

More, 78% of parents believe librarians care about the lifelong learning needs of the whole community. This number, right here, is what we need to turn to again and again when we look at the ways the profession is being misrepresented and vilified. The vast majority of parents believe the library is there to cultivate the life-long learning needs of its community.

And isn’t that the purpose of a library?

*Note: there are other people who work as school librarians, too. Oftentimes, there are people with the title librarian or media specialist who do not have the “typical” master’s degree or teaching credentials that are fairly standard across the field. This does not diminish their work, nor the work of library aids and assistants. Instead, the focus here is on the “typical” school librarian.

**Note: See above, but for library workers. ALA offers sections for a wide range of library workers, whether or not they have been degreed or accredited, to help them meet their goals and interests, too.