Loving our libraries

My free occasional enews has included some bad news about libraries lately, so I wanted to set the record straight.

Specifically, the poor example of the once-loved State Library of Victoria in weaponising the language of cultural safety to make their venue, programs and workforce less safe; and disturbing calls for the censorship of children’s books in the still-loved Albany Public Library (which gets all the gold stars for their ‘word of the day’ response).

I even made the Albany Advertiser talking about my home town’s growing national reputation for intolerance, censorship and hate speech, and the weaponisation of child safety as an excuse to make local children less safe (which have since been overturned).

As I wrote in my submission to the City of Albany:

Keeping children safe does not come from removing access to information or connections, nor from censorship of libraries, social groups or activities. It certainly doesn’t come from slandering and demonising their communities, or implying that their experiences, identities or contributions are invalid and unwelcome.

In direct contradiction of the ‘Keeping Children Safe Albany’ (KCSA) group’s unfounded and frankly ridiculous accusations, numerous studies have shown that banning, restricting or removing books is hugely damaging and, in some cases, even life threatening. It stops children and young people having access to vital information about themselves and their bodies, about what consent means or how to identify abuses of power, or having their experiences reflected back to them in the books they read. Supporting such decisions further tells those young people that their experiences are wrong or unwanted.

In a week in which the Australian Government has cautioned citizens against travelling to the United Kingdom because of far-right extremism, it is particularly terrifying to see such similar rhetoric playing out so much closer to home. In this case, those calling for censorship are weaponising the language of child safety to preference concerns for their own comfort, ideology or way of life over the actual lives of the children and young people they purport to speak for – while reinforcing bias, racism and other power discrepancies.

While usually fewer in number, more people take the time to send in complaints than endorsements – which means louder groups can drown out larger ones, and ‘concerned citizens’ can be heard more than those you were set up to serve. But this silence should not be seen as our support.

While it should go without saying, let me note for the record that libraries are the ABSOLUTE BEST.

With the cost of living crisis making the radical concept of borrowing books for free ever more necessary, rising censorship, and the tabling of knee-jerk social media bans for teenagers risking cutting them off from information about themselves and their communities, the work of libraries has never been more vital.

As an almost daily library card user, I will never get over the thrill of Public. Open. Space. and The Relationship is the Project being available from local libraries across Australia (Public. Open. Space. was even launched in two of them). And I feel very lucky that a collection of some of my resources on Palestine as a governance issue is helping organisations and boards via The Commons Social Change Library.

Thank you, libraries. Thank you, librarians. We see you. We love you. And we’ve got your back.

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