Save Our Libraries
Alabama libraries are under attack. Please sign up to get updates as we launch our Save Our Libraries Campaign. Save Our Libraries Updates
Timeline of events so far:
On October 4th, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey issued a letter (below) to the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) Director, Dr. Nancy Pack, demanding that AL library rules be changed to “protect” children from “inappropriate content,” making $6.6 million in state funding contingent upon libraries’ making these changes.
On November 21, 2023, Governor Ivey dismissed Virginia Doyle, the APLS board’s most outspoken opponent to these censorship changes, and has since filled two seats with political appointees, likely stacking the board in favor of administrative code changes that will bring censorship into our libraries.
The far right fascist group, Clean Up Alabama (along with their bedfellow, Moms For Liberty) has organized across the state to initiate and push for these changes in our libraries.
Clean Up Alabama's (CUA) end goal is for all “objectionable materials” (code for LGBTQ+ and racial justice themed books) to be removed from the children's and young adult sections of every AL library and for state funding of the library to be contingent on their demands being met. They also want every library and librarian in the state to cease their affiliation with the American Library Association (ALA), to cast the ALA and anyone associated with it as proponents of distributing pornographic materials to children, and for any library staff or board member who continues to be associated with the ALA to be removed and replaced.
As of January 30th, the APLS voted to allow their institutional membership with the American Library Association to lapse. ALA has come under attack in multiple states because the now outgoing president of the ALA (Emily Drabinski) identifies as a lesbian, member of the DSA, and a Marxist scholar in Critical Librarianship. These attacks are red-baiting and homophobic, as Branko Marcetic writes in Jacobin. Clean Up Alabama wants to legislate consequences for noncompliance, including amending AL’s Anti-Obscenity Law that exempts public libraries from criminal punishment when it comes to the "distribution of materials harmful to minors", threatening all AL librarians with criminal charges.
Legislators are listening to these demands and have filed bills such as SB 10, which will allow politicians who appoint library board members to remove those members at any time.
Action Items:
On January 31, 2024, the Alabama Public Library Service board– under pressure from Governor Ivey– published changes to the administrative code that sets the rules for libraries to receive state funding, beginning a 90-day public comment period that will close on April 30th.
Please join us in a letter writing campaign to participate in the public comment period as we work to oppose these attacks. You can find a template for writing your letter here.
Once you've written and mailed your letter, let us know by filling out this form.
Letter to Dr. Nancy Pack from Governor Ivey:
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Governor Ivey's Proposed Amendments to Rule 520-2-2-.03
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Bryan Dawson, CEO of 1819 News, speaking at an event hosted by Clean Up Alabama on Nov. 2, 2023
[Video By: Read Freely Alabama]
