Challenge Accepted (And Reported)!

Alex Brower

Reference Manager

 

Modern libraries are havens of intellectual freedom. They uphold the spirit of the first amendment by providing access to all sorts of information and allowing anyone to come in and learn. However, librarians can face pushback from members of their communities about some of the material in their collections. This pushback usually comes in the form of a challenge, where someone disagrees with the content or ideas of a piece of material and would like it to be removed from the shelf. These challenges happen every day, and I’m hoping to better understand challenges and censorship in Mississippi by growing the Mississippi Challenged Book Index.

Alex Brower and her MCBI poster at the
Mississippi Library Association's 2019 annual conference

What is the Mississippi Challenged Book Index? In short, it’s a way to learn about the challenges that Mississippi libraries receive about their materials. Librarians can anonymously report when someone makes a challenge in their library using our Google form. The form has basic questions about the type of material, the reason that it was challenged, and how the library responded. Don’t let the name fool you! We aren’t just looking for book challenges. We’ve received entries with all types of challenges, including a situation where a link to Planned Parenthood’s website on a teen resource list was challenged for containing information about sexuality. Any type of library material that can be challenged probably will be, and we want to hear about it!

It had never occurred to me that someone could keep track of challenged material before starting library school and learning about the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom’s national database. When I started at MLC, I was thrilled to learn that they had something similar! I’m looking forward to working with ALA and submitting the data we gather for addition to the national database. I’m also planning on releasing a yearly report during Banned Books Week that details the previous year’s challenges here in Mississippi. We don’t release library names, but it’s still fascinating to see what material is challenged and why, and to see how libraries respond.

Recently, I was given the opportunity to present a poster about the MCBI at MLA, and it was such a great opportunity! I got to talk to a lot of people about the MCBI, and I was so proud to see an increase in participation. I’m hoping to keep raising awareness so that we get more and more participation and the index continues to grow. I’m excited to be able to do my part to gather information about challenges in Mississippi so that people can study it, and we can have a better understanding of censorship in our state.