Library and Book Ban News 5-9-2025
Trump fires the Librarian of Congress; South Carolina leads the nation in statewide book bans
Hi Friends,
With so much crazy going on, I know it’s hard to focus on libraries and books, but we need to give a bit of our attention to them because we don’t want the range of ideas available to us to shrink. Or—the metaphor I think of, we don’t want to be a ship with all the people and equipment moved to one side. It simply tips to that side and sinks. (Maybe another image is how we are losing wildly expensive F/A-18 F fighter jets overboard the USS Harry Truman. “Failed arrestment” and over the side it goes.)
I know the big news this week is the new pope and the possible political statements behind his election. (For a laugh,
lenz, after saying many nice things about Leo XIV: “That said, he possesses an important characteristic, one that shines above all the others. And no, it’s not that as a guy from Chicago, he can drive on Lower Wacker. It’s that he seems to hate JD Vance.”)Yet—while all the attention is focused on popes, tariffs and wacky Cabinet picks—(digression: I have to watch SNL tomorrow night to see if Cecily Strong comes back with her fabulous Jeanine Pirro parody)—Trump fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, yesterday. And that’s big news in the ‘throw people and ideas off one side of the ship’ category.
Trump fires Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden
President Trump fires Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump abruptly fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden as the White House continues to purge the federal government of those perceived to oppose the president and his agenda.
Hayden was notified in an email late Thursday from the White House’s Presidential Personnel Office, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press. Confirmed by the Senate to the job in 2016, Hayden was the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress.
“Carla,” the email began. “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.” A spokesperson for the Library of Congress confirmed that the White House told Hayden she was dismissed.
Hayden, whose 10-year term was set to expire next year, had come under backlash from a conservative advocacy group that had vowed to root out those standing in the way of Trump’s agenda. The group, American Accountability Foundation, accused her and other library leaders of promoting children’s books with “radical” content and literary material authored by Trump opponents.
…
Hayden spoke recently of how libraries changed her own life, and opened her to the world.
“Libraries are the great equalizer,” she posted on X during National Library Week last month.
“And when you have a free public library in particular,” she said, it’s an “opportunity center for people all walks of life, and you are giving them the opportunity to make choices on which information, entertainment and inspiration means the most to them.”
As one of my teacher librarian colleagues put it: “Carla Hayden came to her role as one of the most qualified Librarians of Congress in history, and she has been doing an outstanding job and is beloved by everyone in the field. Her firing is an outrage and assault on libraries and the freedom to read freely.”
Texas voters push back
Conservative Texas School Board Voted Out Amid Book Bans from Newsweek
Voters in Mansfield Independent School District (ISD) overhauled the school board in the May 3 election, with challengers unseating incumbents—including the board president and secretary—in all three contested races.
Texas is among the states that have seen a recent rise in book bans, with the Lone Star State issuing 625 bans during the 2022-23 academic year. The vote also followed a charged election season, fueled by heightened outside political involvement and growing debate over the influence of partisanship in local school governance.
South Carolina leads the U.S. in statewide book bans
SC now leads nation in state-mandated book bans after 10 more titles struck Tuesday from ABC News
SOUTH CAROLINA (WCIV) — With the South Carolina Board of Education voting to remove 10 more books from public school libraries Tuesday afternoon, the Palmetto State now leads the nation in the number of state-mandated school book bans.
22 titles have now been removed or restricted statewide in South Carolina public schools since the state Board of Education gained the power to take books out of classrooms and school librarieslast year with the adoption of Regulation 43-170. Before Tuesday, Utah led the nation with 16 books banned.
Tuesday's vote saw 10 titles added to the list of books to be removed from South Carolina K-12 public school libraries and classrooms regardless of grade level:
Collateral by Ellen Hopkins
Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Hopeless by Colleen Hoover
Identical by Ellen Hopkins
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Lucky by Alice Sebold
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Titles previously banned include:
Damsel by Elana Arnold
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Flamer by Mike Curato
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Push by Sapphire
Malinda Lo, author of one of the books banned statewide in South Carolina, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, defends her book.
An author responds: Why is sex so scary to book banners? From the South Carolina Daily Gazette
“Last Night at the Telegraph Club” is a historical coming-of-age novel about a 17-year-old Chinese American girl discovering her identity as a lesbian in 1950s San Francisco.
In addition to the National Book Award, it won the Stonewall Book Award, the Asian Pacific American Literature Award, a Printz Honor, a Walter Dean Myers Honor, and dozens more accolades.
And yet South Carolina’s Board of Education has reduced it to a few paragraphs about sex. This is a fundamental misreading of the novel and a gross misunderstanding of the purpose of fiction.
In its decision to ban my novel, the board is following Regulation 43-170, which prohibits any books in schools that include “descriptions or visual depictions of ‘sexual conduct,'” as defined by the state criminal code.
This regulation deliberately sidesteps literary merit and the work as a whole in favor of focusing only on “sexual conduct.”
So, let’s talk about sex. Why is it so bad — so “inappropriate,” in the words of the regulation — for a book to include descriptions of “sexual conduct”?
The main character in “Telegraph Club” is a teen named Lily who is coming to understand her sexual identity during the 1950s, a time in which sexuality was highly repressed.
The scenes in the novel that focus on sexuality are about Lily testing her own freedoms — both emotional and physical. They are about Lily claiming the freedom to be who she is.
Sexuality is a natural part of being human. As a writer, writing about sex and sexuality enables me to engage with questions about what makes us the people we become. It is an essential tool in a writer’s creative toolbox, and it’s one of the best ways we can get up and close and personal with a character and their emotions, desires, and fears.
Florida
Literary Advocates Condemn Florida Book Banning Bill From Book Riot
Florida introduced another highly controversial piece of book banning legislation, and a coalition of “literary organizations, anti-censorship advocacy groups, and Florida education stakeholders” are speaking out very strongly against the bill. This bill would require school districts to remove any book deemed “harmful to minors” within five days of a challenge, regardless of whether or not the book has been through an official review process. In addition, the bill contains a revised (and expanded) definition of what “harmful to minors” actually means, and explicitly rejects “consideration of a book’s literary, artistic, political, or scientific value if sexual content is present.”
Thanks!
Thanks for being here. I hope to connect with you on Sunday with some thoughts on the Pulitzer Prize and some good books.
Every day is another assault. 😩
The 🍊🤡’s DEI attacks will never be forgotten.