The Coconut Grove: Academic freedom and responsibility to the communities we live in

By Carrie Hill, digital scholarship librarian, Auburn University Libraries

What are your concerns related to book bans and censorship in higher education and for librarianship? Why is academic freedom so important? What do you want your colleagues in higher ed to know and what can they do to help? 

The January 2023 minutes of my local public library board’s monthly meeting summarize in two sentences one woman’s 45-minute tirade of complaints and calls for the removal books that feature or relate to members of the LGBTQ+ community. Before that meeting, the library had never needed to limit how long a community member could have the floor during citizens’ communications, but clearly, the time had come to set some boundaries.

Across the state where I live, public libraries have scrambled in the last two years to create or strengthen policies around responding to book challenges. Libraries that have never faced issues like this are now receiving requests for multiple books to be removed or relocated––sometimes without regard for whether the library even has the book in their collection.

Data from the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom reflect the meteoric rise in book challenges behind anecdotes like these. Between the years 2000 and 2020, the average number of unique titles targeted for censorship per year was 273. The last three years of documented challenges far surpass that: 1,858 unique titles challenged in 2021, 2,571 challenged in 2022, and 4,420 in 2023.  

Still, with only 2 percent of documented challenges originating in higher education, you might be wondering what this has to do with academic librarianship. To that I say, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live!” Although college and university libraries are least directly impacted by book challenges, we are in no way immune to their effects in the broader context of how they impact our communities.  

Carrie Hill, digital scholarship librarian, Auburn University Libraries

We all know that a library is far more than its collection. Every library process—every reference interview, every ILL request, every instruction session—requires the work of library faculty and staff who form the backbone of our institutions. A recent Ithaka research report found that “library directors in certain states feel it has become more difficult to recruit and retain top talent, especially when prospective employees or their family members are LGBTQ+.”  

When news of book challenges in your community reaches potential employees, it may be the headline that shows them their family won’t be welcome there. In recruiting talent, we have to convince potential employees to believe in not just our college or university, but in the town they will live in if they accept a job offer. The same is true once a person has joined a library’s workforce. Can anyone reasonably expect people to be happy living and working in a town, city, or state that’s passing laws that limit their right to exist in the public sphere?  

It's easy to be bogged down in the news we see every day of censorship challenges on the rise across our nation. Rather than letting it overwhelm you, I challenge you to see the power you have as a member of your community. Become an engaged citizen at a local level. Academic freedom protects not just your ability to choose what you teach and research, but also your ability to speak freely as a citizen.  

Calls for inclusivity that come from national organizations are often seen as attacks from outsiders demanding that communities change their values, and the public and school librarians in your area are more likely to be barred from speaking publicly about the challenges presented where they work. In our local communities, we have not only the opportunity, but also the responsibility to speak up—if not for ourselves, then for our friends, coworkers, family members, and neighbors.  

So go to library board meetings, and speak to your city council—not as an expert in your field of research, but as a local person who wants everyone to feel safe and welcome in the community they call home.

About

Carrie Hill works as the digital scholarship librarian at Auburn University Libraries, where she supports the digital research projects of faculty and students from departments that do not traditionally have high levels of technical support and training and leads student engagement in the library Makerspace. She graduated with an M.S. in Information Science from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before returning to Auburn, her undergraduate alma mater. Her personal research focuses on digital project metadata, linked open data, and fandom studies. She’s actively involved in advocating against censorship and book banning at the state and local levels, which she considers a necessary and important task for academic librarians in our current political atmosphere.

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