Parents objected, a new library assistant was fired and books that included ‘Charlotte’s Web’ and a kids’ cookbook were gone from a public school near Lake Vermilion.
Censorship
‘Whose stories are allowed to exist?’ Midland teacher raises alarm over book bans
“It’s horrifying, because banning books is one of the hallmarks of authoritarianism,” she says of the growing restrictions. “They say it's about protecting children,” “I think it is about controlling what narratives are allowed to exist in the public space.”
Texas senators discuss tightening school library book law – Houston Public Media
Committee chair Sen. Donna Campbell questioned why there is still "smut" in libraries if local parents have control over materials. She said the state might still have to "step in." "I think local control is good until it's ‘loco' control," she said. "The more government steps in, the less freedoms you have. But I believe sometimes government has to step in with guardrails and take a look."
Digitization 101: Censorship in Prison/Carceral Settings (and thoughts about copyright education)
Finally, I will note that this censorship can occur with both print and digital materials. While Blumberg doesn't say this, I expect that this censorship will soon be handled by AI, which could review digital materials faster and might even use digital bibliographic information to pass judgement on print items. Hopefully anti-censorship legislation will take the potential impact of AI into account.
New York’s Librarians Are Feeling the Pressure from Book Bans
The Right to Read Coalition, which includes the New York Civil Liberties Union and PEN America, just released a survey of 323 school library aides/media specialists, public librarians, and public school educators across nine regions of the state. Here’s what they had to say about how the threat of book bans impacts them and the work they do – a stress that Governor Hochul could alleviate by signing the Freedom to Read Act into law.
Missouri Supreme Court Hears Appeal of School Library ‘Expli…
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office contends that the law falls within constitutional limits, asking the judges to overturn the circuit court’s decision and allow the case to go to trial. But David Thoreson, an attorney representing the librarians, told the judges that the law sweeps much more broadly than obscenity restrictions and therefore is unconstitutional.
The New Gatekeepers – The AI School Librarians Newsletter
What Banned Books Week can teach us about access to information in the age of AI
School Librarians Hesitant to Discuss Books Amid Texas Battles to Restrict Titles
"When you put your finger on every single book in order to type it into a spreadsheet, you really do think, 'Am I willing to lose my job over this particular book?'" Strong said. "And I think that is a real concern for teachers around the state."
Ten Stories That Shaped 2025
It’s time for our twenty-third look back at the notable library stories from the past year.
10. Tariffs Impact Interlibrary Loan
Caught up in the sweeping and haphazard tariffs enacted by the Trump administration this year was the use of international lending networks by research libraries.
9. AI Bots Ravage Library Websites
As a swarm of web crawlers seek to ingest anything and everything they can find, driven by the boom of “a vast scraping operation to build large language models (LLMs) that train generative AI programs,” many library servers found themselves under attack this year.
8. Grokpedia Forks Up Wikipedia
In October, Elon Musk launched an AI-driven encyclopedia, billed as an alternative to Wikipedia’s “propaganda.” Critics were quick to point out that Grokpedia, however, clearly shows its own bias.
Dishonorable Mention: Presidential Library Grift
Donald Trump has funneled money from multiple legal settlements, as well as an unconditional “gift” from Qatar in the form of a Boeing 747, into his presidential library fund, raising eyebrows. (see also, the Marc Rich scandal)
7. AI Guardrails Censor Library Searches
Love them or hate them, natural language searching, automated summaries, and other “artificial intelligence” features have become mainstream, even in the library vendor marketplace. One of the more curious quirks that cropped up this year, thanks to the outsourcing of chatbots which restrict information deemed harmful for liability purposes, was the observation that library discovery tools could be shown to limit certain results accordingly.
6. Whither IMLS?
In March, President Trump issued an executive order to eliminate the Institute for Museum and Library Services, a government agency that, among other things, helps fund some interlibrary loan programs. Layoffs and service cuts ensued, although a lawsuit challenging this order is currently making its way through the court system.
5. AI Lawsuits Aplenty
Several class-action lawsuits (targeting, for example, Meta, Midjourney, and Anthropic) are underway, thanks to the rampant practice of LLMs and the like obviously being trained on copyrighted materials without their owners’ permission. The insurance industry is retreating from covering such parasitic business models.
4. Political Firings
In May, shortly after a conservative group Tweeted, “The current #LibrarianOfCongress Carla Hayden is woke, anti-Trump, and promotes trans-ing kids,” Donald Trump fired the Obama-appointed Librarian of Congress. As explained by the White House Press Secretary, “There were quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books in the [national depository] library for children.” Trump also fired the head of the National Archives and the head of the Copyright Office this year.
Honorable Mention: The Return of Reading Rainbow
Don’t take my word for it, but in September, a reboot of the popular television series was announced. Library advocate Mychal Threets will be the new host.
3. Anti-DEI Policies Lead to Government Censorship
Throughout the year, the Trump administration has sought to remove government publications that conflict with its agenda. Victims of this campaign include topics such as STD prevention, African-American history, scientific data, race and gender studies, colonial evidence, climate change, and, last but possibly least, accessible typefaces.
2. Yet More Moral Panic Over Library Books
1. The AI Slop Avalanche
It’s no secret that chatbots, in their attempt to mimic human conversation, simply make stuff up. As this type of AI becomes more prevalent, libraries are feeling the impact of an increase in fake citations, procedurally–generated books, and other “AI slop.” It remains to be seen if we can prevent the “enshittification” of Internet content.
What are your predictions for 2026? How will the AI bubble impact libraries?
TN libraries close a week after Trump ‘gender ideology’ order on books
Rutherford County libraries close for week to adhere to Trump ‘gender ideology’ order
Murfreesboro Daily News JournalLibrary patrons will endure a week-long closure of Smyrna and Murfreesboro branches, following a state response to an executive order from President Donald Trump on “gender ideology extremism.”
A sign posted out front of Smyrna Public Library alerts visitors to an “EMERGENCY CLOSURE NOTICE” that’s keeping the branch closed Nov. 10-15.
“In order to meet new reporting requirements from the TN State Secretary’s Office, this library will be closed,” the sign said, “for the purpose of reviewing inventory.”
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