In case, you haven't heard, there is an eclipse happening across a wide swath of the North American continent today, April 8, 2024. Here in Eastern Kentucky we can expect to reach about 90% totality by around 3:10 pm. While solar eclipses are not necessarily rare phenomena (we experienced a total solar eclipse back in 2018) there can be long periods of time where a majority of people do not experience one and so it is a special event for many and a testament to the wonder that is the universe.
Far less wondrous and more troubling is the eclipse of our first amendment rights by people who would censor reading materials for all based on the views of a few. It is important to understand that censorship resonates to include all belief systems. Books and other materials chosen for public institutions such as public libraries, K-12 and academic libraries follow professional standards for evaluation and selection. Despite the measures put into place to define collection development appropriately, there are additionally methods of challenging materials deemed inappropriate in the context of their placement. This may mean an item should be moved to a different location, restricted or permission required from a guardian, or total removal from the library. Each library has a challenge process and typically works in good faith to respond to challenges.
What happens when bad faith actors attempt to exploit those processes for political and personal means? We're seeing mass challenges of items, hundreds of books at a time at small institutions who will take years to review according to their guidelines and rarely are the people challenging the materials a member of the community the library is located in. There have been multiple reports of mass challenges submitted with ties to national political organizations.
HCTC Libraries put out a call for volunteers among HCTC employees to share their favorite book from ALA's Most Challenged List from 2010-2019 and here are their responses.
![Professor April Spears: I have 3 favorites [from the top 100 banned/challenged book list]: The Bible, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Hunger Games.](https://libapps.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/125375/images/9.jpg)
Like many of my colleagues choosing just one book from the top 100 2010-2019 is difficult. Many of these books had such an impact on my formative years, going through college, as required reading in high school, middle and elementary school. Each one taught me something new, created empathy in me for a different group of people and overall expanded my world beyond my small corner of it in Eastern Kentucky. Books like The Kite Runner, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Crank were so important because it showed me viewpoints I would never have been exposed to. Many complaints of books, especially for K-12 schools, include book themes being too violent or scary for the audience. But the world can be a scary place and the nightly news, weekly newspapers, and minute by minute social media headlines are already exposing children to the realities of the world beyond the sanctity of their homes. For too many there is no sanctity of home and those children survive on stories of people like them who make it out.
Fighting book bans is not about pushing a single agenda. It is about letting people decide for themselves. Talk to your librarians, teachers, administrators, and library board of trustees about your concerns. Pick up the book whose content you are worried about. For almost every challenge against a book, when the challenger has been asked to read the entirety of the book, they have changed their mind.
That is the power of a free people reading freely.
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