Hello Friends,
I have a ‘soft launch’ event for my novel Keep Sweet on Saturday and am traveling out of town Friday morning so I can get set up. Since it’s a hectic week, I’m scheduling this post on Thursday morning—so, if I miss something important from Friday, that’s the reason.
More on the Library of Congress
The goings on at the Library of Congress are still the big news in the library world this week. I admit to enjoying Rebecca Solnit’s snarky comments (I love her books):
All hail the badass defiance of librarians, who of course correctly noted the executive branch has no power over the Library of CONGRESS. But Trump fired the (Black, female) head of the LofC, Carla Hayden, by email; happy to see Congress pushing back, even Republicans, at last.
Also note that the dimwit White House press secretary has no idea what the Library of Congress is, so she made up some allegations that only a stupid person would say or believe.
Hill leaders question Trump’s attempted Library of Congress takeover from Politico
Top congressional leaders are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s attempt to replace two Library of Congress leaders, with the dispute over presidential powers over the institution leaving its future in question Monday.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a brief interview that congressional leaders “want to make sure we’re following precedent and procedure” in naming a replacement for Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress whom Trump dismissed Thursday.
Trump on Monday appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as acting Librarian of Congress, but the official now holding that post, Robert Randolph Newlen, did not immediately recognize the appointment as valid, according to an email Newlen sent to library employees.
The clash included a brief standoff Monday at the Library of Congress in which Justice Department officials arrived claiming to be newly in charge of the agency, said a person familiar with the interaction. After library officials resisted, the DOJ officials departed without resolving the conflict. …
A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson did not immediately return a request for comment. Any GOP objections to Blanche’s appointment would represent rare pushback to Trump’s presidential authority. So far in his second term, Republicans have by and large let Trump have his way in slashing government spending and levying foreign tariffs — both areas where Congress hold clear constitutional powers. …
Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House panel overseeing the library, called for an inspector general investigation into the White House moves — including the possible transfer of congressional files.
“The executive has no authority to demand or receive confidential legislative branch data, and the Library has no legal basis to supply such information without authorization from Congress,” he wrote.
Trump is Trying To Take Control of Congress Through Its Library From Rolling Stone
Donald Trump’s administration is attempting a hostile takeover of the Library of Congress — an agency that is part of the legislative branch and functions as its research arm in addition to maintaining the world’s largest collection of books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and recordings.
While the takeover has been framed as part of Trump’s broader purge of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content, it is the latest effort by the president and his team to subsume the role of Congress and ensure it cannot do its job.
An expert on the Library of Congress tells Rolling Stone that Trump’s takeover attempt is “dangerous,” given that the library’s sub-agencies provide confidential legal advice to members of Congress and help police misconduct by lawmakers.
The expert says the Trump administration is actively trying to place a landing team at the Library of Congress, noting that when Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has done this elsewhere, the first thing that team does is hoover up and gain control over as much sensitive data as possible.
Last week, the Trump administration attempted to fire the librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, before the end of her 10-year term — and today, Trump moved to install Todd Blanche as interim director of the Library of Congress. Blanche, who’s currently serving as a U.S. deputy attorney general, is best known for representing Trump during his New York hush-money trial, in which the president was convicted on all counts. …
Over the weekend, the administration also removed Shira Perlmutter, head of the U.S. Copyright Office, days after the agency issued a report clarifying that tech companies’ efforts to train AI models on data scraped from public websites could run afoul of American copyright law and the intellectual-property rights of the data’s original creators. …
Moreover, they note that the Congressional Research Service (CRS), an agency within the Library of Congress, “provides confidential advice to Congress, including confidential legal advice, and there is a database that has all the questions that every member has asked for the last 50 years and the answers. That cannot be made available.”
Even amid Trump’s broader takeover of the federal agencies — and all of their sensitive data and systems — this effort stands out in that it poses significant risk to Congress, according to the expert.
What goes on in school libraries?
Here’s a column from a new Medium publication for Every Library. One of the authors, Connie Williams, is a longtime leader in the California school library scene. These posts will discuss all the things that school libraries do, so you can get an idea of the many services, the research, the outreach, the books! You can subscribe on Medium.
School Library Musings: Good Noise, Good Trouble!
When it comes to meaningful learning experiences in the school library, noise is often the sound of success.
On the right
I thought I’d add a right-leaning op-ed from an author whose books were removed for a few days and then returned to library shelves. Reviewing a book for content and then returning it sounds like the library followed through on a book challenge—which is what they are supposed to do and is not a ban. Not the equivalent of permanently removing thousands of books from the shelves (hello Texas and Florida!), statewide book bans (Utah and South Carolina) or not allowing students to bring specific titles on campus (hello again, Utah, you wild and crazy state!). But there are some good points in the piece about keeping various POVs on the shelves:
A free speech double-standard is hiding on the shelf of your local library From The Hill
Book ban news
The Librarians Documentary Film Captures the Courage of Library Workers Standing Against Book Censorship From PEN America
Utah Bans 18th Book from All Public Schools Statewide from Book Riot
On May 5, Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants was added to the state’s “Sensitive Materials” list. The book was published in 2006. …
There are now 18 books prohibited in any Utah public school. Of them, 16 are written by women, and their average publication date is 2011. This means that most of these books have been on shelves and available for many years and caused no issues until this manufactured crisis. …
What is important to understand about the law is that despite claims this is about “local control,” schools in the state are forced to follow the decisions made in other districts. There are 42 public school districts in Utah, but two districts account for nearly 80% of the books banned statewide: Davis School District and Washington School District. …
In January, Utah’s State Board of Education also further clarified the law as it applies to students. No students are allowed to bring their own personal or public library copies of any of the state’s banned books onto school campuses. Student freedom to even carry these books to class for their own free reading is against the law. The state goes so far as to issue guidance for how local educational agencies can approach students who bring any of the above 18 books to school.
How Librarians Found Themselves on the Front Line of the Culture War from LA Review of Books
Indeed, writing almost a year after the publication of her harrowing book, amid the unprecedented use of federal budget cuts to punish free speech and intervene in higher education, one can only imagine that the worst—whether it be book bans, defamation, or other attacks on vital public spaces—is yet to come. A recent example makes clear just how precarious the future is: in April 2025, North Dakota lawmakers passed a bill that would have made it a criminal offense for school or public librarians to provide materials deemed “sexually explicit,” a term left notably vague in the legislation. The bill, which passed both chambers of the state legislature, would have exposed librarians to fines or jail time merely for fulfilling their role in offering broad access to literature. It was ultimately vetoed by Governor Kelly Armstrong, who argued that the law put librarians in an “untenable situation,” trapping them in a “completely unworkable” process, even as he acknowledged concerns about age-appropriate materials. Yet the fact that such legislation advanced as far as it did underscores how deeply libraries—and the individuals who sustain them—have been drawn into broader cultural and political conflicts. If there is a lesson to take from Amanda Jones’s story, it is that librarians are not merely guardians of books, but also participants, willingly or not, in a struggle over what public life in the United States should be.
ACLU seeks injunction to block book bans in military schools from Virginia Mercury
New court filing targets Trump-era censorship at Quantico and other DoDEA campuses.
“The Trump administration cannot violate the First Amendment by removing books and curricula it doesn’t like,” said Matt Callahan, senior supervising attorney at the ACLU of Virginia. “Students have a right to see themselves reflected in their libraries and classrooms, and they also have a right to learn from the perspectives of people who aren’t like them. That’s no less true for military families than for anyone else.”
Pete Hegseth orders LGBTQ+ & discrimination-themed books banned from military libraries from LGBTQ Nation
The Pentagon issued a memo directing all military leaders and commands to pull and review books that address anti-racism, diversity, or gender issues from libraries operated by branches of the military. He initially focused on removing any so-called pro-DEI reading material from libraries within DOD-run schools.
The memo is perhaps the Department of Defense’s (DOD) broadest and most detailed directive so far in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s campaign to rid the military of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and materials.
Book Bans vs. the Right to Read: Kelly Jensen and Rev. Amos Brown from The State of Belief podcast
This week on The State of Belief, host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush welcomes Kelly Jensen. She’s a passionate advocate for intellectual freedom, democracy, and the right to read. As an editor at Book Riot and a former librarian, Kelly has been at the forefront of the fight against book bans and censorship. The urgent conversation covers the growing wave of censorship, the role of religious extremism in book-banning efforts, and what we can do to safeguard free expression and democratic values.
Kelly shares her personal experiences and insights on the emotional impact of censorship, the importance of diverse stories, and how communities can come together to support libraries and schools. The discussion includes practical steps each of us can take, such as attending library board meetings, writing letters of support, and engaging in local elections to protect the freedom to read.
'Freedom to Read Act' passes in RI Senate from the Providence Journal
The Freedom to Read Act seeks to prevent governments from removing books they disagree with politically from the public while shielding librarians, schools and teachers from harassment and prosecution.
It would give authors, booksellers or publishers the right to sue any government entity found to "enforce censorship" and claim damages of up to $5,000 per censored work.
Sen. Mark McKenney, D-Warwick, the lead sponsor of the Freedom to Read Act, said the bill contains a procedure for residents to object to specific books being in a library, but would not allow that to turn into "harassment" like the case of a Westerly librarian who testified a year ago
The procedures apply to school libraries as well as public libraries.
The bill "includes criteria and a procedure that are in line with professional standards. Professional standards include requirements for age appropriateness and if necessary for removal of books," McKenney said.
7 more books facing bans in Rockingham County [VA] schools from the Daily News-Record
At one of its final meetings before the end of the academic year, the Rockingham County school board voted to ban seven books from county schools, removing two of them against the recommendations of the Content Review Committee.
The board voted 4-1 to remove “Perfect” by Ellen Hopkins from schools due to what school board member Hollie Cave found to be sexual content. However, the school division’s Content Review Committee had recommended that the book be retained. …
The second book the school board voted to remove was “Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines” by Nic Sheff. It is a memoir of the author’s battle with meth addiction and how he overcame it. …
The book deals with the mature themes of violence, addiction, and sex, and is widely banned and challenged in schools. However, proponents of the book, including publisher Simon & Schuster, say it is a “cautionary tale” that warns young people of the dangers of drug addiction.
Although the CRC recommended retaining the book, the board voted against it. …
The Content Review Committee recommended removal of five books due to sexually-explicit content: “Forever” by Judy Blume, “The Infinite Moment of Us” by Lauren Myracle, “Yolk” by Mary H.K. Choi, “Breathless” by Jennifer Niven, and “How Beautiful the Ordinary” by Michael Cart. All five school board members voted to remove these five books from Rockingham County schools.

Thank you for keeping us updated!
Victoria, you continue to do such an exceptional job with this column. It is appalling what is happening. Thank you for all you do. Keep it up. Dr. MJ Koerper