CyberpunkLibrarian

A bill aimed at limiting book bans in public schools and libraries and protecting librarians from lawsuits and criminal charges is now on the governor’s desk.

Titled the “Freedom to Read Act,” the legislation would require the state’s education commissioner to develop policies on how library materials are selected and how challenges to books on library shelves should be evaluated. Local school boards and library boards would then adopt their own policies using this model.

Anti-censorship and pro-book advocates prevailed in Montgomery County on Tuesday as a children’s book about indigenous history was returned to its nonfiction categorization.

Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs was moved to the fiction shelves of Montgomery County public libraries earlier this month. The move followed a decision made by the Montgomery County Citizens Reconsideration Committee, a group of community members that reviews children’s, young adult and parenting books.

Poor recording keeping, debates over what was or was not said and voted on, and special interests plague more than just this library system.