Opinion |

Once safe havens, libraries now a surprising battleground

Rancho Peñasquitos?

Glimpsing The New York Times on my recent travels, I was surprised to see a story about the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library. In case you missed it, the branch had a moment in the national spotlight when two local residents checked out nearly all of the books in the Pride month display.

The LBGTQ+-themed content, they said, was inappropriate for children — and unless the library agreed to permanently remove the offending books, they would keep them. In an email to the branch manager and library director, the residents said they acted “to protect our children and the community.”

This notion — of confiscating (or outright banning) books to silence certain voices and ideas — isn’t new or particular to Rancho Peñasquitos. The American Library Association documented 1,269 demands to censor library books or materials last year. More than 2,500 unique titles faced removal, a 38 percent increase over 2021 and a record high. Half of the book bans originated in Florida and Texas.

What captured the attention of Times reporter Jill Cowan was our community’s response. After the Union-Tribune reported on the protest, boxes of replacement books arrived at the library.

Donations to the library system poured in, totaling more than $15,000, an amount to be matched by the city. City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert spearheaded the effort, working with Library Foundation SD.

Way to go, San Diego.

Even, and maybe especially, in our digital age, libraries serve as a trusted, reliable place for learning and connection. Libraries stand for and encourage the free exchange of ideas — including the ones we disagree with.

Today, some of the books that shaped my life — and the lives of many others — are being challenged by people who are offended by or afraid of the diversity of backgrounds, experiences and thoughts in their pages. But exposure to differences only enriches us as members of society.

Books like “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee and “The Lord of the Flies” by William Golding have been challenged, banned or removed from libraries all over the U.S. My favorite tome, “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, made the list, too.

It was also banned in the Soviet Union, United Arab Emirates, Cuba and China.

The company we keep says a lot about us.

In Rancho Peñasquitos, the would-be book banners wanted to rid the library of any content depicting LGBTQ+ characters and families. It was hardly a grassroots initiative: Cowan reported that their email to the branch manager and library director matched a template posted online by an Indiana-based group called CatholicVote, which is not affiliated with the Catholic Church.

The group’s “Hide the Pride” campaign encouraged the action, calling LGBTQ+ books “pornographic and obscene,” and saying they should not be available to young library patrons.

Unquestionably, parents have the right to voice concerns about particular books and what their children choose to read. But they cross a line when their opinions and actions deprive a whole community of a book in the name of protecting children.

In a recent post on Medium, librarian Oleg Kagan wrote about a time when a parent politely expressed concern about a novel that was shelved in the children’s area, which showed a mermaid’s breasts. She left the matter in Kagan’s hands, as library manager. He moved the book to the teen area after consulting with colleagues and supervisors.

Kagan acknowledged that some people would have argued that the book should be removed, rather than relocated. “But we don’t make our decisions in a vacuum of breasts, curse words, and provocative themes,” he said. Instead, Kagan explained, librarians take a holistic view of a book — its subject, themes, location in the library, and fit, in accordance with the library’s collection development policies.

Those decisions aren’t made in a vacuum, Kagan noted; librarians are trained to respond to community needs and desires, and usually do their best to be responsive. A conversation with the library branch manager may have been more fruitful for the unhappy patrons than purging the Pride month display.

In a recent letter to Library Foundation SD donors and supporters, CEO Patrick Stewart shared a list of things each of us can do to preserve the inclusivity and intellectual freedom that libraries promote. At the top of Stewart’s list is reading banned books.

I’m on the hunt right now for my copy of “Animal Farm.” Re-reading its well-worn pages will have special meaning for me now.

Dinkin is president of the National Conflict Resolution Center, a San Diego-based group working to create solutions to challenging issues, including intolerance and incivility. To learn about NCRC’s programming, visit ncrconline.com