EDITOR'S NOTE
Book Banning Reaches a Fever Pitch
by Brandi Scardilli
In November 2021, ALA issued a statement condemning the recent uptick in book banning across the U.S., and EveryLibrary started a petition to lawmakers called Don’t Ban Books in the United States. Reports of book challenges didn’t let up all winter, with the topic going mainstream once news broke that Texas schools are attempting to ban hundreds of titles because they deal with race and/or sexuality. Amy Affelt digs into the psychology of book challenges and shares how info pros can help push back (page 32). Anthony Aycock chronicles his own experience as a young person trying to learn about sexual topics from books, underscoring the importance of keeping this information on library shelves (page 14).
We Don’t Talk About Bruno, but unfortunately, we still have to talk about COVID. We’ve got lots of pandemic content this issue (when do we not, these days?!), including “Together/Apart—Online” (page 10), “Pivoting to Direct Mail for Library Marketing” (page 30), and “When Your Home Office Becomes Quarantine Central” (page 37). I hope you find these articles informative.
Happy Reading,
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