By Keith Whitcomb Jr.
RUTLAND HERALD
Though there haven’t been any incidents reported, the Vermont Library Association is saying it will help support Vermont libraries should they come under pressure to censor their offerings.
“The Vermont Library Association (VLA) stands firmly against any legislation that restricts or impedes any education on Racism, ‘Divisive’ Concepts, Racial Injustice, Black American History and Diversity Education in libraries and educational institutions,” reads the letter, sent out earlier this week. “This includes any books, resources, curriculum or programming that libraries provide. Furthermore, we believe that it is imperative to call attention to portions of our history that have been previously omitted, misrepresented, distorted or misstated.”
Jessamyn West, chapter counselor for the VLA, said Wednesday that the VLA has a Rapid Response Team to help libraries, especially small ones, handle any challenges they might receive related to content.
West said it’s, “basically a way for, let’s say you’ve got a grumpy patron who comes in and starts hollering at you about Martin Luther King and maybe you’re not sure what to do or maybe you don’t have a policy, the Intellectual Freedom Committee has kind of a toolkit and a rapid response team so that we can say, here’s some things you should have in place, here’s an email address where you can get in touch with one of us real quick, here’s some policies you should look into, here’s the American Library Association … and what they recommend in terms of policies and procedures.”
Vermont has many public libraries for a state its size. West said this can make coordination between them tricky, and since many of them are small with small staffs, not all are equipped to manage concerted efforts to censor them.
“One of the best tools we found, in a general sense, is having policies in place for when people come, having training for staff so they know how to deal with an angry patron who has a concern, and a little bit of understanding about the movement to get books on so-called ‘critical race theory’ removed from libraries,” she said.
Critical race theory (CRT) was developed several decades ago by legal scholars positing that racism is embedded in government systems and social structures. Right-wing figures have claimed CRT is damaging to America’s values and have sought to ban its teaching in schools, despite arguments that it’s not being taught.
West said the VLA isn’t aware of anyone giving libraries in Vermont a hard time over books about CRT, though, in the past, literature and programming related to the LGBTQ community has come under criticism.
“It’s important as librarians that we push back against people who are trying to inhibit other people’s access to information,” she said.
Randal Smathers, director of Rutland Free Library, said Wednesday that he’s not had anyone complain about the offerings at the library in recent memory, though about two decades ago there was a heated debate in Rutland over LGBTQ titles.
“It’s not something we’ve encountered,” said Smathers. “I think people expect their public library to have a wide diversity of points of view on their shelves, and we strive to do that.”
He said the Rutland library’s three librarians are always reviewing the collections to keep things pertinent.
He commended the VLA for being ready.
“They didn’t wait until there was a problem and then try to legislate in the middle of a crisis, they got out and made a public statement in advance, and that’s what we try to do,” he said, noting the library has a form folks can fill out should they find something objectionable in the collections.
“We’re prepared to handle concerns about items in our collection, fortunately it’s not something we’ve had to deal with recently,” he said, adding that the library doesn’t support censorship.
keith.whitcomb
@rutlandherald.com
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