April 6-12 marks National Library Week, the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual celebration of libraries, library workers, and the role they play “in transforming lives and strengthening our communities.” With a theme of “Drawn to the Library,” this year’s event encourages readers to “chart [their] next literary adventure” at the library, recognize the contributions of library workers, learn about and utilize library resources, and take action to support libraries and protect the right to read.
Coinciding with National Library Week, the ALA released their annual “Top 10 Most Challenged Books” list highlighting the most frequently banned titles around the country, many of which are written by or are about LGBTQ people and/or people of color. The titles are familiar – including All Boys Aren’t Blue and Gender Queer. What’s new, according to ALA, is that 72% of the challenges are coming from organized pressure groups and politicians they work with to falsely claim inclusive books are offensive or inappropriate.
According to Angie Hayden, a cofounder of Read Freely Alabama, a group that provides resources for fighting library censorship, this misrepresentation is the entire strategy.
“These groups are seeking to define who is an acceptable and valid human being in public spaces,” Hayden tells GLAAD.
Extremist groups like Moms for Liberty create outrage by mischaracterizing entire books based on single pages.“ They will take a sex education book with cartoon depictions of anatomy, and misrepresent it as obscenity,” Hayden explains.
“They’ll find a single curse word in a 300 page novel about racial injustice, and label it inappropriate. Obviously these groups are trying to control what people can access and read, and they’re very willing to villainize and terrorize your local library staff to do it.”
The local spokespeople also misrepresent the community at large, and instead are guided by the national extremist groups and pre-selected target titles.
“The 120 titles most frequently targeted for censorship during 2024 are all identified on partisan book rating sites which provide tools for activists to demand the censorship of library books,” ALA reports.
“The movement to ban books is not a movement of parents, but a movement of partisans who seek to limit our freedom to read and make different choices about things that matter,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
National Library Week serves as an important reminder of one of our most precious resources, libraries, and the passionate workers who serve their communities. Through funding, libraries provide people with barrier-free access to literature, the Internet, technology, research, and employment assistance, genealogical tools, printing services, informative programming, and more. However, recent actions by the Trump administration threaten to reduce libraries into right-wing propaganda outlets, leading some to draw comparisons to attacks against institutions of learning and enrichment in 1930s Nazi Germany.
Following through on his campaign promise to dismantle the federal government, President Donald Trump in March targeted the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) as part of an executive order calling for the gutting of several federal agencies. In the days that followed, IMLS notified by email its entire staff, some 70 employees, that they would be placed on administrative leave.
President Trump selected Keith E. Sonderling, his recent pick for U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor, to oversee the agency. Sonderling released a statement pledging to “revitalize IMLS and restore focus on patriotism,” as well as to “promote American exceptionalism and cultivate love of country in future generations.” Sonderling has no public record of experience or expertise in library science or education. He voted against EEOC guidelines that would protect LGBTQ employees from workplace discrimination including access to accurate restrooms and pronouns.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the sole “federal agency dedicated to funding library services.” In 2024, the institute “awarded $266 million in grants and research funding;” money used to “help staff, fund maintenance and create new programs.” According to EveryLibrary, most funding for public libraries comes from municipal taxes, a meager amount that does little more than fund the essentials. The American Library Association (ALA) noted that IMLS funding supports libraries visited by more than 1.2 billion patrons in person every year for just 0.003 percent of the federal budget.
In a statement, the ALA cautioned many library programs and services are at stake, especially those serving people in rural areas. PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman warned the IMLS cuts will hinder “the ability of all people to exercise their freedom to read and learn.”
The budget cuts would threaten services for nearly every community:
- Interlibrary loan systems such as Massachusetts’ ComCat, Michigan’s MeLCat, New Hampshire’s NHAIS, Vermont’s CLOVER, and Wisconsin’s WISCAT.
- Access to resource databases and supplemental materials. The Oklahoma Department of Education currently provides access to “scholarly articles, magazines, e-books, how-to information and more” through EBSCO. Wisconsin’s BadgerLink connects residents with resources to supplement materials available in K-12 schools, higher education institutions, public libraries, and more.
- Access to some libraries’ Hoopla digital streaming service, offering patrons and families free movies and videos.
- Reading programs that are essential for ongoing education through the “summer slide” and other school holiday periods. Maryland’s Anne Arundel County library system uses IMLS funding to support summer reading programs and literacy workshops. In Ohio, more than 50 libraries have paused their summer reading programs.
- Services for the visually impaired, such as Alabama’s Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled and the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library.
- Career resources, including “job searches and resume workshops.”
- Resources for vets and their families, such as California’s Veterans Connect @ the Library program, which provides information “about benefits, including pensions and post-service employment.”
- Funding for tribal libraries through IMLS programs such as Native American Library Services: Basic Grants, CARES Act Grants for Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum and Library Services, and American Rescue Plan for Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum and Library Services.
Book Riot’s Kelly Jensen compiled a comprehensive roundup from three dozen states explaining the harmful effects IMLS cuts are likely to have on community libraries. The ALA released a FAQ more thoroughly explaining Trump’s executive order and its implications. While the FAQ notes “it is unclear how the executive order may impact current or future grant rounds,” libraries nationwide are reporting IMLS grants approved in 2024 are now being canceled. In response, “attorneys general from 21 states have sued the Trump administration” in hopes of blocking illegal efforts to dismantle IMLS and several other agencies. “Whatever the President’s policy preferences,” the plaintiffs argued, “he cannot override the congressional enactments that authorize federal agencies, appropriate funds for them to administer, and define how they must operate.”
Amanda Jones, a school librarian in Louisiana and a cofounder of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, warned: “Without this funding, patrons and students in the most rural of areas, and those of lower socioeconomic status will be the ones who suffer the most.” Jones, who chronicled her experiences speaking out against book bans, the harassment and death threats she received, and her efforts to combat book censorship and support librarians facing uncertainty threats against their own safety in That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, issued a stark rallying call: “The public needs to wake up before our libraries are gone.”
Communities are starting to heed that call. In Fairhope, Alabama, supporters and city leaders banded together to support Fairhope Public Library after the state library board cut its funding by $42,000 because of two books they claimed “violate new state aid requirements.” In response, Read Freely Alabama created a fundraiser to offset the funding shortfall; an effort that raised nearly $47,000.
“If the APLS board was willing to withhold a library’s funding, we wanted to do what they wouldn’t. So, we partnered with EveryLibrary who facilitated the fundraising site and decided to do the APLS board’s job for them,” Read Freely Alabama’s Angie Hayden told GLAAD.
“I had no doubt we would raise every penny, but I don’t think any of us expected it to happen so quickly. The outpouring of support for the public library in little Fairhope, Alabama was overwhelming, and to top it off, we actually exceeded our goal. Let’s just say there were happy tears.”
Last week, Fairhope city leaders recognized “the Fairhope Library Board as its 2025 Volunteer of the Year.” Sherry Sullivan, Fairhope’s mayor, explained “It is about celebrating the people who started volunteering for their love of the library of the city and how their role sometimes takes a dramatic turn, but they continue to serve, and we appreciate them for being willing to serve through adversity.”
At the heart of it, that’s what National Library Week is all about: celebrating libraries, librarians and library workers, and recognizing the role they play in building stronger communities. Learn more about National Library Week and event programming on the ALA website.