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* Press release…
Landmark legislation designed to prevent book banning passed the Illinois Senate, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced [yesterday].
HB 2789, which now awaits the Governor’s signature, sets a nationwide precedent in the fight against book bans, as libraries and librarians face unprecedented censorship of books and resources, including in Illinois. The bill passed the Illinois House in March.
Giannoulias, who also serves as the State Librarian, initiated HB 2789 after extremist groups – including the far-right nationalist group, the Proud Boys – targeted Illinois libraries, divided communities and harassed librarians, despite that the books are not required reading. […]
House Bill 2789, sponsored by State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray (81st District – Downers Grove) and Sen. Laura Murphy (28th District – Elk Grove Village), allow Giannoulias’ office to authorize grant funding only to libraries that adhere to the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights states that reading materials should not be removed or restricted because of partisan or personal disapproval, or that issue a statement prohibiting the practice of banning books or resources.
Currently, Illinois law does not contain language related to book banning or the eligibility for state grants if a library bans items from its collection. Last fiscal year, the Secretary of State’s office awarded 1,631 grants to Illinois libraries totaling more than $62 million. Of those, 97% of the grants were awarded to public and school libraries, with public libraries receiving 877 grants and school libraries securing 712 grants.
According to the Chicago-based American Library Association (ALA), there were 67 attempts to ban books in Illinois in 2022, increasing from 41 the previous year.
Nationally, the number of attempts to ban books has been surging. According to the ALA, last year more than 2,500 different books were objected to, compared to 1,858 in 2021 and just 566 in 2019. […]
If signed into law, HB 2789 would take effect on January 1, 2024.
* From Giannoulias’ press conference…
At the state’s librarian, we’ve traveled the state. We’ve spoken to librarians, and what we’ve heard unequivocally across the board is that librarians have never dealt with this level of intimidation, hatred. They’re scared, they’re quitting their jobs. It’s tougher to get new librarians for doing what they’ve always done … That, to me is absolutely unacceptable.
He went on to say that he was “blown away that this has become a partisan issue,” which, he said, “has been the most disheartening part of this whole process.”
* Sen. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport)…
“This is yet another example of extreme Democrats in the General Assembly taking rights away from parents and local communities and deciding what is best for people. This law, if signed by the Governor, installs a statewide doctrine that provides that all content will be equally available to minors and adults. Through its very nature, this legislation will subject minor children to inappropriate adult content.
“It is becoming commonplace at the Capitol for the majority party to push through legislation that tramples on the rights of people who don’t agree with them or don’t share their same liberal ideology. They’ve been pushing their agenda in our schools, and now they are forcing it upon our libraries. This isn’t about adults going to their library and viewing adult content. It’s about children having unfettered access to that same content, and that’s simply unacceptable.”
* Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville)…
This bill is another attempt by the super majority to make it easier to force their extreme ideology on communities across this state, by taking control away from locally elected library boards, and handing it to an outside national organization. It’s offensive to the ideals of good government to threaten to take public funding away from the very communities that generated that funding through their taxes. The members of locally elected library boards, who work to increase literacy in their communities, don’t need a book-ban agenda foisted on them by Chicago politicians who are just trying to get cheap publicity. I will continue to fight against these repeated attempts to take away local control from our communities, whether their target is schools, libraries, or other units of local government.
Sen. Plummer professed not to know what the American Library Association even is. He called it a “random organization” four times during floor debate. One excerpt…
A yes vote on this bill does two things that I think everyone in this chamber should really think about. One, it deprives local taxpayers of the very revenue that they spend to support their local schools and libraries. And it allows unelected and unidentified random people in some organization at the national level to ban books, to set local policy and to usurp the authority of the local elected officials that our constituents voted into their position to make decisions on their behalf. None of your constituents voted for this random organization. None of your constituents are funding this random organization. They’re funding their local libraries, they’re electing their local library boards, and you’re taking their powers away from them simply because you may not agree with their beliefs.
Yeah, no. First, the American Library Association was founded in 1876. It’s a pretty durable American institution. They published a Library Bill of Rights in 1939. It ain’t some rando.
Second, we covered this library board topic in March…
According to the Illinois Public Library Trustee Manual, issued by the secretary of state’s office, only library directors and their staff should be selecting library materials, not library boards.
And the comments by more moderate Senate Republicans during debate (including about drag shows) just confirms my belief that the party’s center is too willing to enable its far right wing to the point where the center (such as it remains) will soon disappear.
* More of that in Isabel’s roundup…
* WCIA | Illinois bill preventing library book bans passes Senate: “This is just a layer of bureaucracy and a threat to these local districts, a bureaucratic threat of taking away their funding that they desperately need,” Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) said.
* Capitol News Illinois | Bill blocking libraries from state funding if they ban books clears General Assembly: “I think what I heard is, regarding the Bill of Rights here, that if a library does not make its public space available for anyone who wants to use it, including, say, a drag show, because of what the local officials of that library feel is not appropriate for the library, that library can now potentially lose their state funding,” [Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris] said. Likewise, Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, said that prohibiting libraries from banning books for any reason would mean they could not reject the donation of books from the public, including books that are purely hate speech or books offering directions on how to build a bomb. … At his news conference, Giannoulias described those arguments as “ludicrous” and said the legislation does not deal with drag shows or dictate to librarians what materials they have to maintain. “We’re not telling you what books to buy or not buy,” he said. “What we’re saying is, if a book is in circulation as determined by the libraries and the librarians, that book cannot be banned because a group of individuals don’t like or want that book in their library. That’s what the legislation is all about.”
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 1:10 pm
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It’s simple folks if you don’t want your child to read a certain book, you don’t let them. Parents need to monitor for themselves what children read, watch and listen to,
Comment by Seymourkid Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 1:15 pm
==to push through legislation that tramples on the rights of people who don’t agree with them==
Maybe you should talk to the extreme minority who want to ban books. The fact that a few people can throw a fit about a book and get it banned is absurd.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 1:19 pm
==“This is yet another example of extreme Democrats in the General Assembly taking rights away from parents and local communities and deciding what is best for people. This law, if signed by the Governor, installs a statewide doctrine that provides that all content will be equally available to minors and adults. Through its very nature, this legislation will subject minor children to inappropriate adult content.”==
As the popular feature goes: Meanwhile, in Opposite Land…
Comment by Roadrager Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 1:22 pm
===to push through legislation that tramples on the rights of people who don’t agree with them==
Maybe you should talk to the extreme minority who want to ban books. The fact that a few people can throw a fit about a book and get it banned is absurd.=
Maybe he can take his act on the road to say Wisconsin or Missouri or Florida.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 1:24 pm
–Democrats in the General Assembly taking rights away from parents and local communities and deciding what is best for people.–
I thought this bill only took funding away from communities who made the local choice to ban books in their local libraries.
Every single local community still has the exact same rights after this bill is signed, as before the bill was signed.
I do have some concerns that there will be a library board who deliberately bans some books, in order to reduce state funding to that library. The next step a library board like that will make will be making the claim of ‘we now don’t have enough money to continue to operate the library, so we are closing it permanently’. This gives them the mechanism to do such a thing, and at the same time blame the state for it.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 1:29 pm
Just finished a banned book last night. Excellent read. I’m proud that my home state is a haven from book burners.
Comment by Norseman Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 1:34 pm
Everybody proposing book banning should only be laughed at, every time they open their mouths, until they shut up with this anti-American garbage.
Comment by Larry Bowa Jr. Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 1:35 pm
The so-called “conservative” book banners have a unique interpretation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.
First Amendment rights for me, but not for thee.
Comment by Jerry Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 1:38 pm
Those who ban books won’t stop…there…beware.
Comment by Dotnonymous Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 1:43 pm
Jason Plummner doesn’t strike me as someone who spends a lot of time inside libraries.
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 1:49 pm
“Where they burn books, they will also burn people.” — Heinrich Heine Almansor: A Tragedy (1823)
– MrJM
Comment by MisterJayEm Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 2:04 pm
==this legislation will subject minor children to inappropriate adult content.==
Like Fahrenheit 451 by Waukegan’s Ray Bradbury.
Comment by Jocko Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 2:09 pm
Times have changed from when I was in High School during the (LBJ & Nixon) late 1960s. Pornographic material was very much banned along with material advocating “Sex, Drugs, Rock n Roll,” “Free Love,” “Tune in, Turn On, Drop Out”, and “Burn Your Draft Card” and similar topics. Librarians would determine what books and magazines were in the school library following guidelines set by the school board.
Comment by DuPage Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 2:20 pm
=== This bill is another attempt by the super majority to make it easier to force their extreme ideology on communities across this state ===
I’m pretty sure that, by definition, an extreme ideology can’t win a super majority. If most of the people agree with it, that’s the center. A super minority, on the other hand…
Comment by vern Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 2:25 pm
Book banning is wrong.
Full stop.
The GOP cult has lost its way.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 2:27 pm
On the flip side, Republicans in some states are voting to eliminate all library funding, not just for refusing to comply with demands to remove certain books.
Comment by Wensicia Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 2:27 pm
I’m wondering if Jil is the one that turned her brother-in-law into a Republican. They sure sound the same whenever quoted.
Comment by Lurker Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 3:06 pm
So as long as a library director is ok with a specific material, then it’s fine. But if a library board disagreed with the director’s decision, they could fire the director and replace them with someone who would remove what they want? If so, then won’t the end result still be the same? Actually it could be worse. Library board positions will become as ideological and partisan as school board positions have become.
Comment by VoterSayWhat Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 3:11 pm
===Library board positions will become===
So, don’t punish book-banning because it’ll make the book-banners mad.
Please.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 3:19 pm
==Library board positions will become as ideological and partisan==
Will become? Too late. That’s the trend all over the country now. Heck, there’s a library in Texas whose Board was considering closing the entire library because a judge made them put back some books that they had banned.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 4:11 pm
“When the Regime ordered that books with dangerous teachings
Should be publicly burnt and everywhere
Oxen were forced to draw carts full of books
To the funeral pyre, an exiled poet,
One of the best, discovered with fury, when he studied the list
Of the burned, that his books
Had been forgotten. He rushed to his writing table
On wings of anger and wrote a letter to those in power.
Burn me, he wrote with hurrying pen, burn me!
Do not treat me in this fashion. Don’t leave me out. Have I not
Always spoken the truth in my books? And now
You treat me like a liar! I order you:
Burn me!”
Bertolt Brecht (H.R. Hays translation)
Comment by JoanP Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 5:06 pm
= This law, if signed by the Governor, installs a statewide doctrine that provides that all content will be equally available to minors and adults. =
This was used as an argument against the bill.
Presenting the Illinois Republican Party of 2023. Any more questions as to why they’re in the super minority and retain ZERO statewide offices may be referred to this remark in the same way we remember, “I’m frustrated, too, but…”
Comment by Dirty Red Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 10:48 pm