IN DEPTH
Viv Hill MA MCLIP. Co-Chair, CILIP Public & Mobile Libraries Group.
Lessons from America
Experience and practical advice from the US for public librarians facing demands for censorship with Jamie LaRue.
CENSORSHIP: What librarians are experienc- ing in the US and UK was PMLG’s contribution to CILIP Members’ Fest. We chose the topic as a committee because of a variety of incidents in public libraries and agreed that it is one of the most pressing issues libraries and librar- ians are currently facing in the UK. We are also aware of a need to prepare and get ready for it in case it becomes an even larger issue. By inviting in and listening to the experience of the US librarians the webinar has given us a valuable, thought provoking and relevant insight from profes- sionals who are already dealing with censorship on a larger scale.
It’s given us an opportunity to learn from them, think about what intellectual freedom is, how we can respond to and prepare for challenges to it as indi- viduals and as a profession, instead of navigating the topic on our own.
One of the speakers was Jamie LaRue, a US-based public librarian turned consultant and author. He was director of the Douglas County (Colorado) 1990- 2014 and from January 2016 to November 2018 he was Executive Director of both the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and the Freedom to Read Foundation.
Jamie has published two books on intellectual freedom, The New Inquisition: Understanding and Managing Intellectual Freedom Challenges (Libraries Unlimited, 2007), and On Censorship: A Public Librarian Examines Cancel Culture in the US (Fulcrum Publishing, 2023).
After having time to reflect on the webinar and his
book On Censorship: A Public Librarian Examines Cancel Culture in the US I had a few more questions that I wanted to ask Jamie.
46 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL Jamie LaRue. Q&A with Jamie LaRue
Viv Hill – How useful is it for you in the US to have a national database of reported attempts to censor, has it helped in identifying trends?
Jamie LaRue – It is very useful. But it isn’t scien- tific, more illustrative. As I wrote, censorship suc- ceeds when nobody talks about it, and the reporting is spotty. There have tended to be clusters of targets: Harry Potter for a while, racial concerns around the Black Lives Matter movement, then on to LGBTQ+ and people of colour generally. Generally challenges follow national dialogues and issues. But the lan- guage of them tends to be consistent.
Viv – In the webinar you mentioned that in Wash- ington in 2024, 1,000 challenges came from 11 people, how important is it for us in the UK to try and find out where the source of the challenges are coming from? Is it hard to keep focussed on the
June-July 2026
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