Libraries are important places in the communities they serve. We serve as a center for information, for ideas, for learning. And of course, we are famous for our books!

There are some basic principle in library science. Well, we refer to them as the five laws of library science. They are important, and libraries across the globe live by them.

1. Books are for use.
2. Every reader his or her book.
3. Every book its reader.
4. Save the time of the reader.
5. A library is a growing organism.

You can read about each of them in the Wikipedia article here. Each are important, and have meaning.

But for today, only two are relevant: numbers two and three. They are not the “most” important – there is no real hierarchy here. But for today, they are important.

Every reader his or her book.

Look around your library. There are probably a few that make your heart beat faster with happiness. That you remember with the nostalgia you save for an old friend. That make you feel happy, scared, fizzy, awestruck – all sorts of things.

That is your book. It’s for you. Hurray! You are fulfilling your destiny as a book reader.

Equally true: there are a few that you really aren’t going to read. No interest, the subject is icky, too long, too dull, too young, too girly, too much gore. Whatever. There are a million reason you might not want to read a book.

No problem. That one is not your book. Hurray! You are still fulfilling your destiny! Knowing what you don’t like is important too. Life is too short to read books you don’t like, so avoid it when you can.

Every book its reader.

Every single book in your collection has a reader. The books you love, the books you don’t like, the books you have forgotten are in the collection, the award winners, the self-published stuff. Each of them has a person who will read it.

Your job, in charge of the library and of the collection, is to make that connection between a book and its reader.

Do you love the book? Is it boring to you? Are there too many video games or pictures and not enough words?

Nobody cares.

Every book is not for you. Every book IS for someone. It’s not our place to judge that connection – our job is just to make that connection.

This is important. It matters.

And it matters very much at this moment.

The ALA president has been talking about the increased numbers of book challenges libraries are receiving lately – she’s estimating up to 60% more than usual.

That’s….banana-pants.

I struggle to fathom the reasons people feel the need to squall about books. Especially books they have not read. Books that are award winners, recommended by professional organizations and reading authorities. Books that bring new ideas, new experiences, new people. Books that promote empathy for others. Books that help us learn new things. Books that build emotional intelligence. Dare I say, books that make us better humans.

No.

Nope.

I’m not having it.

I have been a librarian for more than 20 years. I’ve worked in and with libraries, as well as visiting them everywhere. It’s safe to say I’ve been in literally hundreds of libraries. Additionally, I have read thousands of books in that time period. (I read about 250 books every year; so in 20 years I’ve read…a lot of books.) I know books. Books are my thing.

I have absolutely no patience with people who want to ban books. People who are so small-minded and scared that they fear the power of books. People so filled with terror or hate or other terrible things that they feel that need to inflict it on others.

Nope. Just no.

This is not America. This is not democracy.

I usually think it’s a weak argument to fall back on “remember the troops” (as is “won’t someone please think of the children”). But in this specific instance, I have a point to make with it.

I’ve talked about my dad, the combat veteran. (In probably too much detail here.) He has medals, he was wounded, he’s spent the last 50+ years with PTSD – when you think “combat vet who risked their lives to serve their country” his picture is right there. (It’s not the only important thing about him, but it’s one important thing.)

And why is this relevant? Because people fetishize war and soldiers and fighting – but that miss the important point. The important point is WHY this is happening. Why are we wasting people’s lives and potential and causing all this suffering? It’s to protect the values our country holds as important. That means a lot of things – but one of those things is the freedom to read and the freedom to share information and to learn.

Yes, I’m saying this as a professional librarian. And yes, my dad says this – frequently. I have no standing to speak from a veteran’s perspective; but I’ve heard him be enraged at the people who want to say that some twisted sense of personal values some individuals hold would mean they have the right to say other people cannot read books, hear ideas, learn new things. He points out that as someone who literally fought and bled for people’s right to read, to learn, and to have new ideas – he gets furious at people who think they have standing to take those rights away. His perspective on life obviously informed my own stand on a freedom to read.

I want you to also have no patience with book banners. I want you to read about aaaaaalllll these small, scared little people that want to yank books off the shelves, and I want you to feel pity for them and their pathetic little lives. How utterly terrifying it must be to be so afraid of a book. To give a book so much power that just knowing that book is in the same building with other books is enough to destroy lives. No hope for learning, no hope for expanding minds – not even hope that someone might pick it up, shrug as they realize the book is not for them, and put it back.

It’s pathetic. It’s sad.

And when they come to your library, and squall their small little minds out – call me. I can’t fix it for you, but I can be there with you.

Be sure you have a procedure for people to think through an objection they have to a book in your collection. Sure, not every book is right for every collection – but that’s not for the angry, uninformed mob to make that decision. We are a profession, and we have challenge procedures to help make good decisions for everyone – not just mewling whiners.

Remember: every book has a reader. It may not be you, but it’s someone. And yanking books off the shelves, saying they are too scary/dangerous/sexy/whatever – it’s saying that person who belonged to that book is too scary/dangerous/sexy/whatever. It’s never just books that people fling in the trash or onto a fire (and yes: this is a suggestion politicians have made in the last couple of months) – it is people who get thrown away like garbage too.

And as a librarian, as a library professional, as a reader, as an American, an as a person: There is no part of me that can condone throwing away books or people.

This is not what we do. It’s not who we are. And we need to be forceful in letting the few loud squally people know libraries are for everyone. We will always continue to share books – we are a power that cannot be stopped.