Sat Feb 29, 2020, 04:41 AM

Librarians Could Be Jailed and Fined Under a Proposed Censorship Law

A bill pending in Missouri’s legislature takes aim at libraries and librarians who are making “age-inappropriate sexual material” available to children.

The measure, championed by Ben Baker, a Republican lawmaker, calls for establishing review boards who would determine whether materials in libraries contain or promote “nudity, sexuality, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse.” In addition, the boards, which would be comprised of parents, would root out materials lacking “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

Librarians who defy the review boards by buying and lending such materials would be subject to misdemeanor charges, fines upward of US$500, and a potential jail sentence up to one year.

As a librarian, and now as an educator who teaches aspiring librarians, I see this bill as the latest chapter in a long history of books being banned from public and school libraries.

Read more: https://www.towleroad.com/2020/02/librarians-censorship-law/

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8 replies	Author	Time	Post
Librarians Could Be Jailed and Fined Under a Proposed Censorship Law (Original post)	TexasTowelie	Feb 2020	OP
Where is the burn pile?	safeinOhio	Feb 2020	#1
Have you been to Missouri?	The Genealogist	Feb 2020	#5
Put the Bible on the list.	Cartoonist	Feb 2020	#2
"Chaucer!" "Rabelais!" "Balzac!"	no_hypocrisy	Feb 2020	#3
Hah! Perfect....	dhill926	Feb 2020	#8
Why can't people be free to make their own choices? Because	sinkingfeeling	Feb 2020	#4
As a high school librarian I would always celebrate Banned Book Week...	Freedomofspeech	Feb 2020	#6
This would not be the first time	murielm99	Feb 2020	#7

Response to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Sat Feb 29, 2020, 04:50 AM

safeinOhio (22,426 posts)

1. Where is the burn pile?

You can’t be serious.

This is the DU member formerly known as safeinOhio.

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Response to safeinOhio (Reply #1)

Sat Feb 29, 2020, 08:08 AM

The Genealogist (4,723 posts)

5. Have you been to Missouri?

Sounds like par for the course to this Missourian. Always some kind of authoritarian bullcrap masquerading as "family values." The main fear is that people will learn that other people whose lives are different from their own have value, too.

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Response to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Sat Feb 29, 2020, 05:59 AM

Cartoonist (6,639 posts)

2. Put the Bible on the list.

Nudity, incest, sadomasochistic torture, it's all there.

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Response to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Sat Feb 29, 2020, 07:36 AM

no_hypocrisy (37,878 posts)

3. "Chaucer!" "Rabelais!" "Balzac!"

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Response to no_hypocrisy (Reply #3)

Sat Feb 29, 2020, 05:24 PM

dhill926 (11,827 posts)

8. Hah! Perfect....

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Response to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Sat Feb 29, 2020, 07:59 AM

sinkingfeeling (43,895 posts)

4. Why can't people be free to make their own choices? Because

Republicans can't mind their own business.

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Response to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Sat Feb 29, 2020, 08:13 AM

Freedomofspeech (3,755 posts)

6. As a high school librarian I would always celebrate Banned Book Week...

I would display all the banned books I had in the library. One year I had a school board member's daughter pose with the display for an article in the local newspaper. He was not thrilled.

This is the DU member formerly known as Freedomofspeech.

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Response to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Sat Feb 29, 2020, 10:18 AM

murielm99 (27,527 posts)

7. This would not be the first time

such a law has been proposed. Libraries need to have circulation policies and boards who will back them up.

Also, the ALA will help. They try to keep libraries appraised of such laws and how to fight them.

They give a free speech award. Frank Zappa is one of the prominent winners of that award.

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