Tennessee Director Fired For Protecting First Amendment, and More Library News

Censorship Updates

• 2026 books about the right to read.
• A legal look at the federal book ban bill.
• The Greenville Eight and library discrimination: then and now.
• The ensh*ttification of the Institute of Museum & Library Services trucks: what’s happening and what you can do.
• Dismantling the Miller Test and exploiting the “government speech” doctrine.
• The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce has advanced HR 7661, aka the federal book ban bill. Here’s what you can do.
• A federal judge has denied a motion to dismiss the Department of Defense’s book removal case.
• New Braunfels ISD (TX) has removed, restricted, or aged up over 1500 books in the district since June 1, 2025.
• The Pine-Richland (PA) school board has taken steps to reverse a controversial library policy.
• New book restrictions are costing Alabama libraries thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of staff time. Quelle surprise.
• “I will not comply”: Rutherford County (TN) director Luanne James refused to move 132 children’s books to the adult section because doing so violated the First Amendment. As a result, the library board fired her, saying her refusal to move the materials amounted to “insubordination.”
• A debate over library funding and “obscene” materials dominated a recent county supervisor’s meeting in Mahaska County, Iowa.
• Oklahoma has not one but two bills targeting “obscene” content in school library materials. (And here is your evergreen reminder that none of the targeted content is actually obscene.)

Readers’ Advisory Resources

• Where to start with Lauren Groff’s work.
• A growing number of romance readers are showing a strong preference for first-person narratives.
• How adults took over YA.
• We should all be reading Black women authors year-round.
• Pop fandoms and literary fandoms have rarely had so much in common.