Welcome to Check Your Shelf. We put up our Pride display last week, and not to use a terrible pun, but I’m pretty proud of it. We were able to decorate the display to reflect Pride Month and our gardening-themed summer reading club at the same time, and my coworkers put in a lot of time to make the display look as inviting as it does. Thankfully we haven’t received any negative pushback thus far, but we’re keeping an eagle eye on things. I’ve got a couple pics below to show off what our little library is doing:
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So now let’s talk about what other libraries are doing.
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
Anchorage (AK) assembly members question former library employees following reports of a hostile work environment.
Cool Library Updates
A Hootie and the Blowfish collection comes to the University of South Carolina. (Okay, not gonna lie…I kinda love this.)
These are the coolest treasures in the Cincinnati Public Library system.
Library cards are the new bus pass in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.
Worth Reading
What to do when you see Pride displays in libraries this month.
How the Great Workplace Exodus is affecting libraries and library employees.
From the top: library leaders talk about EDI and equity.
5 library job titles that are on the rise.
A look at librarians who have been able to apply for federal loan forgiveness.
Book Adaptations in the News
Red, White, and Royal Blue has cast its Alex and Prince Henry.
Hulu orders a series based on Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things.
A look at the five Dr. Seuss projects that Netflix has in the works.
Hideo Yokoyama’s novel Six Four is being adapted into a four-part crime thriller.
Leslie Mann and Tim Robbins have left the adaptation of The Power by Naomi Alderman.
Netflix released the teaser trailer for Mike Flanagan’s The Midnight Club, based on the Christopher Pike novel.
And here are trailers for The Sandman and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Banned & Challenged Books
Moms for Liberty has created nightmares for schools around the country.
The conservative group, CatholicVote, has launched a “parent-led movement” called “Hide the Pride,” which is designed to “empty libraries of LGBTQ content aimed at kids.”
Here is a Twitter thread pertaining to the different “Don’t Say Gay” bills being proposed and debated in various states.
The misinformation age (aka how the State Farm news about ending its partnership with GenderCool was due to a whole bunch of targeted right-wing misinformation.)
LGBTQ+ related books are a hot topic at a recent Abilene City Council Meeting (TX).
How a Texas high school senior packed school board meetings to challenge book bans.
Author George Johnson talks about how Moms for Liberty threatened to ban All Boys Aren’t Blue on the same day as the Uvalde school shooting.
What the Florida CRT controversy means for the future of textbooks.
Brevard County (FL) deputies tell the school board that they will not enforce the board’s speaking policies for members of the public, calling them “unconstitutional.”
A Brevard teacher’s banned book drive raises over $5000 and angers Moms for Liberty. (Generally a sign that your actions are on the right track.)
A former private school teacher says the Gay Straight Alliance at LaGrange Academy (GA) faced censorship from the school administration.
Freedom to Read advocates sound the alarm as the obscenity lawsuit advances in Virginia.
Related: The legal effort in Virginia Beach to get Gender Queer and A Court of Mist and Fury ruled obscene may be a longshot, partially because obscenity is very narrowly defined by the law.
Roanoke County (VA) schools are proposing an enormously wasteful policy that would require three librarians to read and review all media before adding it to the catalog, and if all librarians approve, the item would then be added to the library database for parents to review for 2 weeks before being officially added to the catalog. For EVERY ITEM PURCHASED FOR EVERY SCHOOL LIBRARY. Look, I work at a very small public library, and the number of books ordered each month for the children’s department is absolutely bonkers. This is a ridiculous waste of time, money, and expertise to appease a small group of angry people.
A Spotsylvania (VA) review panel has elected to keep eight challenged books on library shelves, but the parent has already appealed the decision.
The NYPL “Banned Books” library card becomes permanent thanks to its resounding success.
The Wisconsin GOP’s search for inappropriate books in school districts. Plus, Wisconsin governor Tony Evers says that the GOP will continue to ban books if he loses in the upcoming election.
Michigan prisons have banned dictionaries in Spanish and Swahili in order to “prevent inmate disruptions.”
This Missouri school district has created its own book-alert system for parents to opt in to in order to keep track of what their children are reading at school.
The far-right group Liberty Alliance launches an online “heat map,” which singles out some Missouri schools as “hot spots” of “woke” activity.
A Frederick County Board of Education (MD) candidate said that she checked out all of the LGBTQ books from a children’s display at the Brunswick Public Library to make the library “a safe place for children.” (Related, please see the previous news item about the “Hide the Pride” movement.)
ImagineIF (MT) trustees spar over policies aimed at preventing censorship.
Guru Donuts in Boise, Idaho is holding a banned book reading following the Nampa School Board’s decision to ban 22 books.
Cody High School (WY) decides to retain The Color Purple and How to Be An Antiracist.
A new petition calls for books to be removed from middle and high school libraries in Greeley, Colorado.
The Washington County (UT) School District have adopted a new book challenging policy, which only allows parents, school employees, and school board members to initiate a formal challenge.
The Medford School District’s (OR) book removal amounts to censorship, according to the Oregon Library Association.
A California parent alleges that St. Mary’s public schools are “sexualizing” children with LGBTQ propaganda. (This article is bonkers. It claims the book The Thing About Jellyfish sexualizes children because it refers to a homosexual relationship, and that teachers are “sexually grooming” students by wearing rainbow bracelets.)
How a book gets banned in America.
These are the authors of color who censors are trying to silence.
When the culture war comes for the school library.
How to handle in-the-moment requests/demands to ban restricted books.
Gender identity lessons, while banned in some schools, are rising in others.
Now under scrutiny, social-emotional learning was once hoped to stem school violence.
The group banning LGBTQ books wants to replace them with anti-gay propaganda.
Banned books every climate nerd should read.
The fireproof version of The Handmaid’s Tale went for $130,000 at auction.
Books & Authors in the News
Oprah picks Leila Mottley’s debut novel, Nightcrawling, as her latest book club pick.
Authors and publishers provide books and hope to Uvalde children.
Numbers & Trends
First editions of books annotated by authors such as Hilary Mantel, Margaret Atwood, and Bernardine Evaristo are being auctioned off to raise funds for English PEN, a human rights organization that supports freedom of expression.
Why are book sales slipping in big cities?
Award News
Sisters in Crime are accepting submissions from emerging LGBTQIA+ crime writers for their annual Pride Award.
A history of the Lambda Literary Awards.
Pop Cultured
The MTV Movie & TV Awards were announced.
The first few episodes of The Boys Season 3 are available on Amazon, featuring a surprising celebrity cameo. (Spoilers ahead.)
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
Is it so wrong to accessorize with books?
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
On the Riot
Passive programming in school libraries.
Some of the best recent book adaptations.
How to start a historical fiction book club.
You’re missing out if you don’t read picture books as an adult.
This Rioter writes about having bookshelves that reflect who they are.
On reading about animal deaths in fiction.
You didn’t think I’d end the newsletter without a cat photo, did you? Blaine got this impossibly precious photo of Dini and Gilbert snuggling together the other night, so I’m adding it to a collection of photos I’m titling “ADMIT IT, YOU LOVE EACH OTHER!”
Okay, that’s a wrap for me. Don’t forget to contact your elected representatives. Keep the pressure on them. Don’t let them forget the events of the last few weeks.
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.