What is a book sanctuary and how will they combat censorship?

I’m going to hold your hand when I tell you this—things aren’t looking very good for intellectual freedom right now. It is looking more and more likely that Project 2025 is the roadmap for the second Trump administration.

Let’s remember that during his campaign, Trump stated many times that he had no idea about the Project 2025 document. Unfortunately, he is a liar, so here we are. A fully realized Project 2025 will have a profound impact on the freedom to read. In just the first 5 pages of the document, libraries are called out specifically as organizations that distribute pornography. If you’ve been paying attention in the past four years since Trump lost the 2020 election, you can see the way the Heritage Foundation and allies like Moms 4 Liberty have been strategically working to change the reputation of libraries and librarians in the public imagination.

Libraries—from universally loved to ideological battlegrounds

It’s nothing new for libraries to face book challenges and challenges to library programs. It’s the reason why the Office of Intellectual Freedom and EveryLibrary exist. However, librarians across the country are facing an uptick in the amount of book challenges and personal attacks.

In her book That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, Amanda Jones details how a speech at the Livingston Parish Library Board of Control meeting in Louisiana turned into a years-long harassment campaign against her. Jones was named School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year in 2021 and awarded the 2023 Intellectual Freedom Award. In other words, she is a nationally recognized leader in this field. Groups like Citizens for a New Louisiana alleged that she advocated for distributing pornography in her school library. The coordinated attack on her personal and professional character has had a significant toll on her health and personal safety.

What stands out here is the redefining of library materials the radical right deems as objectionable to pornography. This is how the outrage machine starts. Books that acknowledge gay and transgender people exist are often the targets of censorship, redefined as pornographic materials. But see how the language of book censorship is starting to align with the language of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation? It’s a frightening time for librarians when Project 2025 states: “Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders.”

Book sanctuaries enter the chat

Seeing the pervasiveness of the pro-censorship movement caused Chicago Public Library Commissioner, Chris Brown to want to take some kind of action. The modern librarian should prepare for the censors to knock on their door. In 1936, at the height of McCarthyism, the Chicago Public Library authored the first intellectual freedom statement. That commitment continues under Brown’s leadership with the Book Sanctuary movement.

“We wanted to do something that added a vocabulary and a way of thinking about the work that libraries do,” Brown says. All 81 Chicago Public Library branches are now Book Sanctuaries. They collect and protect endangered books, make those books broadly accessible, host book talks and events about diverse characters and stories, and educate others on the history of book banning and burning.

Through library collection policies, librarians have a framework for making appropriate selections for their library. However, the important part of establishing a Book Sanctuary is the administrative support to librarians. “Part of our Book Sanctuary effort was also out of recognition that there are many librarians across our country that can’t say anything or there are real repercussions,” Brown says, especially citing the case of Amanda Jones in Louisiana. This is the strength of Book Sanctuaries. It assures librarians that their administrators have their backs and trust them to do their jobs. There are currently 4,540 Book Sanctuaries across the United States including in Florida and Texas. It will not stop the challenges from coming, but ensures that libraries and librarians are ready if they do.