What began at the local public school level moved to the public library level. Book bans, overtaking of boards, and cruel budgetary slashes have played out precisely as anticipated back at the beginning of the rise in censorship in 2021, despite claims by book banners that they were simply “curating” “appropriate” books in their local schools. We knew pretty quickly that that wouldn’t be the end of the ride, either. The goal was–and is–dismantling and defunding public institutions.
Public institutions constitute a shared responsibility and shared ownership of goods. They stand in opposition to privately funded institutions, to capitalism, and to beliefs of a superior breed of well-off entrepreneurs. Anywhere that the far right could choke out access to materials; education around mis- and dis- information; and voices outside of their manufactured ideal of white, male, cishet, able-bodied, and a specific brand of Christian was going to be a target. This is why librarian criminalization bills popping up so frequently this year wasn’t exactly a surprise to those who’ve been active in the anti-book ban space. They weren’t new. They were just happening more frequently.
One of the biggest shifts in the censorship landscape so far in 2025 is that the target has once again shifted higher. Legislators have set their sights on state libraries in a way that, while not surprising, happened far faster than anticipated. What, again, of those lies about “curating” “appropriate” school collections and the websites purporting that books were not being banned? Perhaps they deserve some credit here. They weren’t banning books. They were working to take down the futures of the few spaces of public good still left in America.
Three states floated legislation this year that directly targeted the future of their state libraries. State libraries, as more folks have come to understand thanks to the dismantling of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) at the federal level, help their local and regional level libraries in a variety of ways. Each state library operates differently, just as each state librarian is appointed, elected, or hired differently (in Illinois, for example, the Secretary of State is also the State Librarian). But ultimately, state libraries distribute funds to public libraries under their umbrella, provide programming and professional development, offer consulting and legal counsel, negotiate vendor contracts, and more. They are an authority accessible to smaller libraries, even if they do not oversee the day-to-day at any of these libraries.
Arkansas, New Hampshire, and South Dakota legislators saw it fit to suggest defunding and removing state libraries this year. Why? “To save money” was one of the phrases bandied around as a means of distracting from the real reason: state libraries follow the law, practice ethics, and stand in between power-hungry legislators and the library users in their state.
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South Dakota was the first state to propose a massive cut in their state library’s budget. It came from Kristi Noem, current member of the 47 administration in the months before she was confirmed. The bill would have made significant changes to library services statewide, as well as required laying off a sizable number of people working at the state library. It was, fortunately, cut off before it could progress. But that it ever came to pass is and of itself a major red flag.
The very first state library celebrated its 300th birthday in 2017, and in honor of its 308th, lawmakers proposed shuttering the institution. Why? “Budget reasons.” This was, of course, a baldfaced lie. Just months earlier, former Governor Sununu made it clear that he was a tool of the far-right and their rhetoric about inappropriate books in libraries when he withdrew the nomination of a state librarian because they would not be in favor of banning books. New Hampshire State Representative, in discussing the bill to shutter the state library, emphasized that there was no constitutional need to fund the institution. (Live free or die for me, not for thee).
Library supporters acted in New Hampshire, and they acted quickly. Thanks to efforts from on-the-ground local library activists and EveryLibrary, the bill that would kill the state library was tossed just 24 hours after its proposal.
New Hampshire does not yet have a new state librarian, however, though they do have an active acting director. Republican Kelly Ayotte seems to be in no hurry to help support the institution, even if it is no longer on the chopping block.
The future of Arkansas’s state library is more dramatic, though, than those in South Dakota and New Hampshire. Their bill, State Bill 536, would end both their state library and its board–moving operations under the state’s Department of Education, which has been easier to manipulate by bad action lawmakers; it also would require public libraries statewide to make “inappropriate materials” inaccessible to anyone under the age of 16 (definitions of which, of course, fluid and flexible flexible to suit the needs of the book banners).
The bill progressed through legislation, despite widespread, vocal opposition. State Senator Dan Sullivan was one of the loudest proponents of the bill as its sponsor, having earlier this year proposed to not only abolish the state library board but also the state educational television commission–he wants no one standing up for or promoting facts or well-being (and yes, Book Ban Dan is fixated on the genitals of the children using bathrooms, a common secondary hobby to obsessing over a fake porn epidemic in public schools and libraries).
In early April, the bill passed through the Arkansas Senate. However, it did not receive enough support to be filed as an emergency bill, meaning that it is sitting in a bit of a purgatory. It’s not yet been killed, but it is not yet rising to the level where it needs to be passed and effective by July 1. The bill did not pass through a House Committee.
Despite this, in late April, another bill swiftly moved through the state legislature. State Bill 640/Act 903 was filed in the Senate April 9, quickly passed, and then hit the House floor on April 10, one day later. A mere week later, the bill–which required the removal of all members of the current state library board and allowed Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders to appoint a new board–passed through.
The Arkansas State Library may not have been dissolved this session, but the board overseeing that institution has been . . . and it will soon be entirely decided by a lawmaker whose entire career has been built upon conspiracy theory and far-right doctrine. It would be naive to think that the board or governor wouldn’t see their ability to dismantle the state library from the inside. The bill would have just been a permission slip of a different color.
What needs to be emphasized here is that these attacks on state libraries were not only intentional, they are aligned with the federal administration’s goals of cutting off aid at the local level. IMLS funding is distributed to the state library, which is then disbursed more locally. If a state has no state library to which money can be disbursed, then the government has no obligation to pass along tax money to serve those states. Without the tax money, those states–all of which rely more heavily on federal funding than, say, their blue-state counterparts, thanks to being far more rural states–would be left to figure out how to keep crucial services afloat. The answer is that those services would disappear entirely, and as use of libraries declined because they no longer offered vital services, then libraries would be much easier to shut down.
Targeting state libraries is also how a political cult can reinvent their purposes and bring them back in future bills.
The closure of the IMLS made this pathway moot, at least for now while two lawsuits against the Trump administration’s actions are underway; indeed, future dismantling of the IMLS is currently on hold, thanks to a judge’s early ruling in one case. But that doesn’t mean any of these states nor others won’t try to continue closing state libraries in the next legislative session.
Indeed, there is a perfect opportunity here to take away something people like–a library–and then bring it back in service of administrative propaganda. Given the emphasis on how the IMLS will play a significant role in America 250, the scenario is nowhere near far-fetched. You want your state library back? Cool, we’ll give it to you, so long as it’s operated as a tool to whitewash American history and distribute mis- and dis- information about what is going on right now.
If you’re looking for a new action item in the fight against book censorship and the disintegration of public goods, write your legislators in support of your state library and all it offers to its citizens.
Book Censorship News: May 9, 2025
As noted last week, this roundup will be shorter than usual because of some time constraints. This roundup constitutes last Wednesday, April 30, through Wednesday, May 7, 2025. We’ll be back to normal programming with the complete news roundup next week!
- Remember how it was “only” the school libraries? Then it was “only” the public libraries? You could just buy the books! Anyway, a bill in Texas would make it against the law for bookstores to sell books that the genital-obsessed bigotry party doesn’t like.
- A look at the landscape of book bans in Tennessee.
- Colorado passed an anti-book ban bill that applies to what can and cannot be pulled from public schools in the state.
- Here’s an update on the Oregon anti-book ban bill moving through the state.
- In some more good news, extremist school board members running for a seat in various Texas districts–including those funded by mega right-wing donors at Patriot Mobile–lost their races. Know why? People showed up. Here’s a reminder that that simple action folks have been urging for four+ years now, showing up to midterm elections and voting with knowledge of the candidates, makes a huge effing difference.
- New Hanover County Board of Education (NC) banned the book Stamped back in 2023 and part of the deal was they’d find an alternate suitable title. When asked for an update on this now, in 2025, they refuse to provide one. There may be an update come June.
- While we’re in North Carolina, a look at the current status of several bills targeting school and public libraries.
- Still in North Carolina is this story: one bigoted parent, who absolutely could not stand the idea LGBTQ+ people existed in 2022, got a whole-ass feature in the local newspaper about how she helped the county write a policy to apply labels to books deemed “inappropriate” in the public library. For real.
- “Maricopa County [AZ] will introduce a new pilot program allowing parents to place restrictions on what books their children can check out in the Queen Creek Library, the first of several potential changes at the county libraries amid criticism by conservative activists over books available on the shelves.” To be clear, this is the public library district.
- An update on the lawsuit from Penguin Random House in the state of Florida about book censorship.
- Mat-Su Borough (AK) is asking parents if they want notification any time their children check out a book from the public library. This is a blatant violation of privacy, to begin, but it’s also the perfect storm for turning kids off the public library.
- The latest from Fairhope Public Library (AL), where you might remember the library was the first to lose state funding under a new law allowing such actions to take place. This is over some queer books that the bigot groups don’t like, and the library is doing its job keeping them on shelves.
- Who foots the bill for library-based lawsuits? In the case of Crawford County Library (AR), it’s the county library, which was in the wrong.
- The former Montgomery County Library (TX) director is suing her former employers over discriminatory firing.
- The May 20 election in Oregon will put the Salem Public Library’s future in the hands of voters. But while we’re in Oregon, it’s worth noting that the future of the Eugene Public Library is also in deep limbo.
- “Staff members at Bodacious Bookstore & Café, an independent bookstore in Pensacola, Florida, say that when they were instructed to remove LGBTQ titles from the shelves, some refused, while others resigned in protest or quietly hid queer books to protect them.” This is in Escambia County, Florida, home of two lawsuits against the public school for banning books and a public library system that also censored titles based on a complaint from one of the leaders of the school book bans.
- U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who you might remember for being the Senator who flew down to El Salvador to talk with unjustly and illegally imprisoned and trafficked Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wants to introduce a motion to return all of the books banned from the Naval Academy.
- Spanish Fort Public Library (AL) has moved the LGBTQ+ picture books into the adult section of the library. Only those 18 or older or explicit permission can access these books written for children. Censorship. It’s censorship.
- The largest school district in Minnesota, Anoka-Hennepin, approved some of the textbooks that the politically-right board didn’t initially like . . . at the expense of delaying implementing state-required diversity, equity, and inclusion lessons as well as social emotional learning curriculum. Remember: this is an anti-book ban state. They’ll go about their bigotry and banning in different ways.
- Robin Stevenson shares how her book Pride Puppy showed up before the Supreme Court case Mahmoud vs. Taylor.
- Robertsdale Public Library (AL) preemptively censoring books for young people with their new parental opt-in card requirements. It’s worth reiterating this every time: these leveled cards are a tremendous library liability.
- Erica S Perl talks about having an author visit canceled, how she fought back, and how she won.
- Wendy Voulopos was appointed to the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, public library board by a republican county council and is eager to start banning books.
In case you missed the news from Literary Activism this week: the judge in one of the lawsuits related to the dismantling of the IMLS has issued an injuncture so that further dismantling is on pause, South Carolina has banned 10 more books from all public schools statewide, and Utah added another book to its list of books banned from all public schools in the state.