Requests to ban certain books from school and public libraries – some of which target materials aimed at marginalized groups – have surged in recent years in Colorado and across the United States, said Luke Alvey-Henderson, director of Durango Public Library.
The Colorado Legislature passed SB24-216, the Standards for Decisions Regarding Library Resources, this year to protect books and materials held by libraries from censorship. Now, Durango Public Library is updating its policies to remain aligned with the law.
Alvey-Henderson said the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom documented 1,247 demands to censor library books and other resources last year. That is a 65% increase from 2022 and the highest level of attacks on books in over 20 years of monitoring.
Libraries across Colorado received over 140 challenges to books or content contained within their collections last year versus just 12 challenges in 2022, he said.
Censorship attempts often target social justice and LGBTQ content, he said in an email to The Durango Herald on Wednesday. The far-right conservative group Moms for Liberty – which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as an enthusiastic opponent of COVID-19 health regulations, LGBTQ curriculum and racially inclusive school curriculum – is an example of a group that has pursued book bans across the country and has an active chapter in El Paso County.
“Libraries nationwide are under attack,” Alvey-Henderson said. “This Colorado law is one of the strongest defenses you’re going to find on the books. But you can see nationwide it is all-out war on public libraries.”
Durango Public Library already prevents people from making batch requests to remove book titles, meaning a separate request must be made for each objectionable title. That effectively prevents people from trying to ban books en masse.
But until SB24-216, the identities of people who attempted to have books removed from libraries were kept confidential as a matter of privacy.
The bill renders attempts to remove books from public libraries subject to the Colorado Open Records Act.
The act introduces several other new standards: an individual seeking a book’s removal from a library must live within that library service area; a book cannot be removed while it is still under consideration for removal; two years must pass before a book that’s been challenged can be challenged again.
While all of the new standards bode well for public libraries across the state, Alvey-Henderson said requiring two years to pass between attempts to remove a given title is a welcome addition to Durango Public Library’s policy.
Despite expressing strong support for privacy, he said subjecting book ban requests to CORA is also an important new standard.
Alvey-Henderson said people have the right to privacy when they go to a library and seek out a book or resources. But book challenges are “the opposite of someone seeking materials,” he said.
“This is someone saying for the entirety of a community, ‘I want to move that item or remove it altogether,’” he said. “That is an act of exclusion, not of seeking information.”
Book challenges are an infrequent occurrence at Durango Public Library, something Alvey-Henderson credits to the library’s already strong policy. He said the last challenge was filed in 2019.
A records request submitted by The Durango Herald revealed the last challenge received by the library was submitted April 22, 2019, by Durango resident Joe Bodewes, who was concerned the book “Just for Now” by Abbi Glines is “adult erotica that is portrayed as teen romance.”
“The prologue starts with a graphic and explicit sex scene and the theme continues throughout the book,” Bodewes says in his challenge.
Durango Public Library still carries the title, according to its online catalog. Bodewes’ challenge was submitted to the library well before Alvey-Henderson was hired in 2022.
Alvey-Henderson said Durango Public Library adheres to the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights, which enshrines the concepts of open information, the enlightenment of all people, and that nothing should be censored or excluded based on a creator’s background, origin or views.
“It’s very important (that) we protect materials if they are challenged,” he said. “It’s also that libraries need to promote all points of view and should not be removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”
Despite Durango Public Library’s commitment to keeping diverse books and the varying viewpoints, ideas, theories and histories within their pages open to the public, there are rare instances in which it is appropriate to remove books, Alvey-Henderson said.
“While rare, mistakes happen either on the library end or the vendor end,” he said.
At a library Alvey-Henderson previously worked at, a book vendor mistakenly sent an adult book with the same title as a children’s book, he said.
It didn’t take long for a parent to find the book and point it out to library staff. The library removed and returned the book, he said.
Sometimes, books are innocently placed into the wrong section at the library, he said.
Durango City Council unanimously approved the library’s policy updates reflecting SB24-216 at its regular meeting Tuesday.
cburney@durangoherald.com
