Library and Book Ban News 5-2-2025

This week’s news about the gutting of the IMLS and book challenges around the country

Hello Friends,

I waited and am posting a bit late in the day because I wanted to add today’s news about the IMLS and Trump’s budget proposal. There’s LOTS of news, so let’s get to it.

Library news

Today, Every Library sent out a newsletter which reads in part:

On May 2, 2025, the Trump Administration released its FY2026 federal budget proposal.

On page 39, it boldly calls for completely eliminating the budget for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the only federal agency dedicated solely to supporting America’s libraries and museums. …

EveryLibrary stands in strong opposition to President Trump’s proposal. IMLS funding provides essential federal funding that supports state library agencies and competitive funding for programs that expand access, build workforce development, and promote lifelong learning across the nation. This funding enables state libraries to extend core services to public, school, academic, and tribal libraries in every community. Cutting it would create chaos for library systems already working with lean budgets, and deeply undermine services for some of the most underserved Americans.

We are urging supporters and stakeholders to take three immediate actions:

1. Sign the petition to show that Americans support this critical funding for libraries and then click to it on Bluesky, Facebook, Twitter, Threads, and Linkedin!

2. Contact Congress to reinforce the importance of continued support for libraries, and then click to share this campaign on Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, Twitter, and Linkedin!

3. Finally, we can't do this work without people like you. Trump's network of supporters has given him access to millions of dollars to push his agenda. Please take a moment and make a $25 donation here so that we can continue to fight back.

Yesterday, the American Library Association posted this about the gutting of the IMLS:

Federal Court Halts Dismantling of Federal Library Agency in ALA Lawsuit which begins:

Washington, DC – Today, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a temporary restraining order to block the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The decision was issued in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Library Association (ALA) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), represented by Democracy Forward and Gair Gallo Eberhard LLP.

IMLS is the only federal agency dedicated to the nation’s libraries and museums. On March 14, President Trump issued Executive Order 14238, which directed the elimination of the agency. Subsequently, the Trump Administration put nearly all agency staff on administrative leave, began mass termination of the agency’s grants, dismissed all members of the IMLS board, and halted crucial data collection and research. These actions left IMLS unable to fulfill its duties required by federal law and threw libraries across the country into a state of chaos.

The ALA recommends taking action on funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services by urging your senators and representatives to sign ‘Dear Appropriator’ letters in support of federal library funding:

Urge the Senate to fund libraries!

Your Senators only have a few weeks to sign on in support of these letters, so it’s important you reach out to them now. There’s a script at the link. This is QUITE EASY, but you can customize the letter if you want to add something personal.

Here’s an Op-Ed from the LA Times about the value of the IMLS.

An attack on an essential service: Trump targets library funding

President Trump has made it clear since his first term that he’s no fan of libraries, or books for that matter. …

Like so much of the Trump 2.0 agenda, it turns out that was just the warm-up. In the last month, Trump — mostly through the fine team at his Department of Government Efficiency, which is not an actual government entity — has gutted the Institute of Museum and Library Services, or IMLS, the federal organization that supports the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums, and demolished the congressionally approved grants that fund them.

California, along with two other states that dared mention diversity and equity in their grant applications, will be especially hard hit. But so will you and I, because for decades libraries have been more than just places to check out a book for free. They’ve evolved into a network of vital services and destinations that provide internet access for those who can’t afford it; literacy classes for kids and adults; in-home programs for vulnerable groups such as the elderly; and so much more. Really, the list of what your local library offers is too long for this space.

But mostly, they offer this — to be a great equalizer between the haves and have-nots. So curtailing their work is another arrow aimed at the heart of democracy, as damaging as the attack on universities and the free press. …

So what exactly did Trump do? In 1996, Congress created the IMLS to handle a system of grants for libraries and museums. In 2024, that was about 600 grants amounting to about $270 million. Peanuts, but important peanuts — especially for rural and tribal libraries that function on shoestring budgets.

In March, DOGE put on leave the entire IMLS staff (then rehired a few). I tried to contact the agency for this story, but it appears its media person is no longer there, and emails went unanswered.

Then, in early April, the agency sent out letters canceling those 2024 grants (which run through the fiscal year ending in June) — even though libraries were already using the funds — claiming the way the money was being spent was “unfortunately inconsistent with IMLS’ priorities.”

Cindy Hohl, the president of the American Library Assn., a nonprofit that promotes and advocates for libraries, told me that at this time of year, those priorities include planning for summer reading programs for young kids that help with early literacy and preventing learning loss in older kids while school is out. Some of those programs even provide lunches for children who may otherwise go hungry.

“It’s a safe space for everyone at all times, but especially during the summer, when students aren’t in school,” Hohl said. “It’s harmful to hear that literacy services in America have been deemed as wasteful, and librarians are going to push back on that, because when you look at the data and you look at the research, Americans overwhelmingly love their libraries.”

… Wendt said that the State Library’s portion of the funds was directly supporting 34 staff members, in addition to covering programs including its free service to provide Braille books for blind people. …

But Szabo said even here, the loss of the federal money is causing consternation. When the grants were cut, L.A. was in the process of using its $166,000 award for programs including creating spaces for neurodivergent kids and their families inside some branches. Another portion of the grant was going toward a program that helped older adults learn about science.

Now, those programs are up in the air. …

In the middle of that uncertainty, the news got worse. Applications for next year’s grants, set to begin in July, were sent out in mid-April. The grants have been sliced in half for most states. But California wasn’t even offered an application, Wendt told me. Although there is great uncertainty, right now it looks like the federal government is freezing out Golden State libraries altogether. …

With both Los Angeles and California facing budget crunches, it’s uncertain at best how the loss of the federal funds would be handled. But more than that, Hohl sees the federal actions as another attack on the fabric of American society, an attempt to bury our history and our diversity by controlling information.

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Book challenge and ban news

In his Book Club newsletter (Washington Post), Ron Charles has an interesting take on Mahmoud v. Taylor, which is before the Supreme Court and will probably be decided this summer. (Gentle reminder: you can subscribe to the Charles’s newsletter for free and you don’t need to be a subscriber to the Washington Post.)

Mahmoud v. Taylor grew from a conflict right here in Montgomery County, Maryland, where Kavanaugh and I live. (My wife teaches in a MoCo public high school.) In 2022, the school system adopted several children’s books with titles like “Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope” and “Jacob’s Room to Choose.”

In “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding,” Chloe’s favorite uncle marries a man. The board book “Prince & Knight” tells the story of a prince who prefers a brave knight over the pretty maidens his parents present. The alphabet book “Pride Puppy” invites preschoolers to find words like “leather,” “intersex” and “drag queen.”

Predictably, some parents objected to these books on religious grounds. (I would object on literary grounds, but that’s a different story.) The school system initially allowed children to be excused from lessons, but later denied that accommodation. The parents sued and lost and sued again until, this week, their case reached a Supreme Court inclined to expand the rights of conservative religious citizens.

Unfortunately, our famously liberal school district has a weak case that demonstrates how out of touch it is with the community’s diverse sensibilities. For one thing, some of these books feel ideologically driven, even proselytizing. For another, the district already allows students to opt out of singing religious songs in Choir and studying certain material in Health. So, the school’s denial of opt-outs in this situation feels like it’s picking and choosing which religious objections to honor.

School administrators should have resolved this local conflict long before it escalated into a national case that threatens to erode the foundation of public education in a pluralistic society. But this is the arm-wrestling match we’re stuck in now.

Justice Elena Kagan agreed, imagining a balkanized future in which schools must allow “opt-outs for everyone.”

From what I heard, the Court sounds perilously close to establishing a right not to be exposed to books that offend one’s spiritual sensibilities.

I pray that the Court issues a narrow ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylorthat somehow upholds the rights of all Americans to live in a diverse, respectful society where no children must learn that their bodies, feelings and families are too shameful for others to acknowledge — and where classrooms and libraries remain full of engaging, challenging books

Here’s a story we’ve been following for several months:

Elizabeth School District loses fight to ban books, ordered to return books from Colorado Public Radio

A U.S. District Court Judge has dismissed a motion to end the legal proceedings in a lawsuit over book bans and removals in Colorado’s Elizabeth School District. The motion filed by the district just south of metro Denver this spring was another effort to keep 19 books — primarily by or about LGBTQ people, people of color, or both — out of school libraries.

The fight began last December when the American Civil Liberties Union sued the 2,600-student district in federal court following the book's removal from school shelves. The plaintiffs, including two students and a chapter of the NAACP, argued the bans were a violation of federal and state free speech protections. …

Over the course of months, the district and the ACLU volleyed legal pursuits back and forth, which led a judge to rule the district was in the wrong. The most recent motion was a final effort by the district to stop that ruling. But, now that it’s been dismissed, the district will have to put the books back. …

But how and when the books will end up back in Elizabeth libraries remains to be seen since the district discarded the original copies.

Here’s another we’ve been following for a while:

PRH and Co-Plaintiffs Push Back on Florida Book Banning Law

Their case takes to task Florida’s state board of education, chaired by Ben Gibson, and Florida House Bill 1069, which “requires the suspension of materials alleged to contain pornography or obscene depictions of sexual conduct…pending resolution of an objection to the material.” HB 1069 was signed into law by governor Ron DeSantis in May 2023, and has enabled the removal of public school and library materials.

In the filing, attorneys for the plaintiffs insisted that “the State Defendants devote nearly half of their brief to repeating virtually verbatim arguments that this Court has already rejected, effectively seeking reconsideration of this Court’s prior rulings,” adding that the plaintiffs “have suffered First Amendment injury that is traceable to and redressable by both sets of Defendants.”

The filing continued: “As the State Defendants admit, preexisting Florida law prohibited the inclusion of books that are obscene for minors in Florida school libraries.” The plaintiffs further note that, “even if the State Defendants had presented any evidence that Florida school libraries contain books that are obscene for minors—which they did not do—the solution would be to enforce the statute,” as established in Miller v. California (argued in 1972) and Ginsberg v. New York (1968).

Should judge Mendoza rule in favor of PRH and its associates, this would require the revision of a “mandatory objection form” for challenging school materials and the admission that HB 1069’s provision for book removal is unconstitutional. In their request for summary judgment, attorneys for PRH et al. write, “the Publisher Plaintiffs, Author Plaintiffs, and Student Plaintiffs ask this Court to remedy their own constitutional injuries, which remedies would also resolve the constitutional injuries suffered by similarly situated parties—other publishers, authors, and students, respectively.”

Colorado bill meant to limit school​ library book bans signed into law from Colorado Newsline

Colorado school districts will need to adopt policies by this fall about when and why library books can be taken from the shelves under a new law signed by Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday.

The goal is to safeguard public school libraries from the growing trend that targets certain books, often about diverse topics or by diverse authors, for removal.

Literary Advocates Condemn Florida Book Banning Bill from Publishers Weekly

A coalition of literary organizations, anti-censorship advocacy groups, and Florida education stakeholders has formally opposed Florida House Bill 1539, legislation they claim would significantly restrict students' access to books in Florida public schools.

The bill would amend existing Florida statutes to require school districts to remove any book deemed "harmful to minors" within five days of a challenge, regardless of whether the material has undergone proper review processes.

[Michigan] Students gather at State Capitol to protest book bans from WLNS.com

“We the people reject the erasure of our stories and the whitewashing of our curricula,” said Student Organizer Demetrius Davis.

Their LGBTQ+ book is the most challenged in America. Here's why they aren't giving up from Advocate

George M. Johnson's novel All Boys Aren't Blue released exactly five years ago Monday. Since then, it has become the most banned book in the country, according to the American Library Association's annual “State of America’s Libraries 2024” report. To mark the anniversary, the writer posted a video to Bluesky urging marginalized communities to continue speaking their truth.

Thanks for standing up for libraries! Hop to see you Sunday when I post “Good Books and Good Dogs.”