What Gives Carla Hayden Hope, Plus More News For Library Workers

22 hours ago 2

photo of Carla Hayden in the Library of Congress

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Katie's parents never told her "no" when she asked for a book, which was the start of most of her problems. She has an MLIS from the University of Illinois and works full time as a Circulation & Reference Manager in Illinois. She has a deep-rooted love of all things disturbing, twisted, and terrifying and takes enormous pleasure in creeping out her coworkers. When she's not at work, she's at home watching the Cubs with her cats and her cardigan collection. Other hobbies include scrapbooking, introducing more readers to the Church of Tana French, and convincing her husband that she can, in fact, fit more books onto her shelves. Twitter: @kt_librarylady

View All posts by Katie McLain Horner

Before we jump into the usual library news roundup, I want to highlight this very important post from Kelly Jensen about how we can still potentially save IMLS in spite of the recent budget & taxing bill that Republicans recently passed. It will require reaching out to members of Congress and sharing information with the people in your social and professional circles, but she provides multiple scripts and concrete examples of ways you can have an impact. Make sure to read, share, and make those calls.

And now, on to the rest of this week’s library news.

Censorship Updates

Pride is disappearing in libraries across the country.
“Chipping away at democracy:” Authors fear the outcome of the Supreme Court’s LGBTQ+ book ruling.
Rhode Island has signed its Freedom to Read Act into law.
It just got tougher to ban books in Maryland school libraries.
Lavonnia Moore, a branch manager at the Pierce County Library (GA) was fired for featuring a trans-inclusive children’s book on a display.
Deidre Grzymala, former Crawford County Library System (AR) director, “is suing the county and a current library board member for defamation and breach of contract related to the ongoing dispute over the placement of LGBTQ+ books in the library.”
The LaRue County Board of Education (KY) rejected a request to ban 14 books from the high school library, “citing the need to uphold the constitutional rights of students.” This is good because Kentucky library book challenges rose 1,000% in 2024. (Yes, that’s a 1 followed by three 0’s. One thousand percent.)
“Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri have joined 17 states supporting a legal challenge that prohibits public school libraries from having books that describe sexual acts.”