TikTok creator, expert Werner Herzog impersonator, and librarian SadBeige wants us all to understand how book bans work… and how they might just work without anyone noticing. To illustrate her point, she recently presented viewers with a challenge on her account.
First, she shows us one of her library’s many shelves, complete with a display of assorted books. After lingering on the scene for a few seconds, she cuts to the same shelf only now it looks… different. We know it’s different, but we can’t quite say how it’s different. Yes, there are fewer books. But… which books are no longer on display? What were they called? What were they about? How many books? Maybe three?
It was eight books.
“Did you notice?” she asks. “They’re counting on people not noticing that the books that they don’t want you to access are gone.”
But while we know bans and restrictions are happening, and may even be familiar with certain popular titles that are routinely challenged or outright banned, there’s even more titles that fit the description of books some would strike from shelves that we’ve never heard of. As such, we wouldn’t necessarily miss them if they were no longer accessible to us.
But we — our children and ourselves — would also miss the opportunity to discover these books on our own, browsing the shelves or asking the librarian for recommendations. This will also happen if, as SadBeige points out, libraries acquiesce to softer bans. These are restrictions that don’t remove the books as such, but make materials — overwhelmingly materials that speak to and serve underserved and underrepresented communities — less accessible. This can be done either by segregating certain titles or by putting a barrier between the books and the library patrons, either by putting them behind the circulation desk or in an age restricted area.
“You won’t notice at first because when you look around [a library] can you see specifically what books are on the shelves? Can you really see what ideas are being presented here? No! You can’t,” SadBeige continues. “It’s easy to not see when something that’s that small disappears.”
She goes on to note that, across the country, some libraries have capitulated to the demands of restrictive forces, “in part to save themselves from having to completely disappear from the community entirely.” It could also be an effort to protect librarians themselves as they, too, have been increasingly challenged in a number of bills and laws across the country.
“They’re counting on you not noticing. They’re counting on you not going to council meetings where they are talking about these things. They’re counting on everyone being so overwhelmed that the public library facing book bans falls off people’s radars.”
According to the American Library Association (ALA), in 2023 there were 938 attempts to challenge 4,240 unique titles in schools and libraries across the country. A new record, at least until we get all the data about 2024. Titles representing LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals, communities, and lived experiences made up 47% of those targeted.
