TAKE INDEPENDENT ACTION NOW

POLITICIZE BANNED BOOKS WEEK

Banned Books Week is October 1-7. It’s a great time to get involved and make a difference for YOUR local library. Here are some great ways to get started:

  • Visit your local library and ask if they have a “Friends of the Library” group. Find out what the group does and decide if you want to join as a volunteer. (Psst! The first 50 people to do step up and join a Friends group and to complete this form will receive a small gift from us - Library Defenders Stickers, For The People buttons, and/or postcards.)

  • Hand out copies of 10 Ways to Get Involved in Your Local Public Library flier in your community (and do those ten things!).

  • Learn about how to fight book bans and take steps to organize against these bans. Get educated about book bans.

  • Subscribe to Book Riot’s Literary Activism Newsletter to stay up to date

  • Do some research: Has your local town council, city council, county board, etc, passed an anti-book ban resolution? What is your state doing to stand up against book bans? For example, the state of Illinois is considering legislation that would make state grants to libraries (some $61 million dollars) contingent on local governments having a written policy prohibiting book bans. Warm up your search engine and find out what’s happening in your state and region.

  • If your local government hasn’t passed an anti-book ban resolution, make their job easy. Download copies of sample resolutions from our Library Defender Resource Center, update with the name of your local governing body, and email them to your elected officials and urge them to place on the agenda for the next meeting (then follow up until they actually do it).

TEN WAYS YOU CAN HELP YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC LIBRARY

Libraries need your support - and there are many ways to help!

Follow these ten steps (click to view larger and to download your own PDF copy) to help your local public library, and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same. Go even further, and download and print your own copies of this flyer and post it on local bulletin boards, in coffeeshops and bookstores, and online in neighborhood groups.

RESEARCH SUPPORT

For The People is undertaking a major data collection project: we’re putting together the first-ever nationwide database of public library board seats so that folks can step up and run for office (or seek appointment). And we need your help! There are two ways you can help:

  • Use the Library Board Data Submission Form, and work through the list of questions asked about your local public library system. Feel free to use the form as many times as you'd like if you have multiple libraries near you: maybe there's a county system and a city system or some other combination.

  • If you’d like to contribute data about a larger batch of libraries, you can sign up using this Volunteer Recruitment Form. You’ll be able to indicate what state you’re interested in working on, and what size batch you are able to work on (sizes are 25, 50, 75, 100, or an entire state). After you fill out the form we will "check out" a dataset to you based on what you've indicated.

Here’s a How-To Guide that you can reference for either of these volunteering methods, the guide also links out to video tutorials. For more information, or if you have questions, you can reach out directly to the project administrator.

GET INVOLVED WITH FOR THE PEOPLE

We’re getting organized to help folks run for - and win - seats on their local library boards. But this project is bigger than just elections. Maybe you’re ready to run (or getting ready), or maybe you want to support someone who is running. Or maybe you’re not sure elected office is for you, but you want to get more involved in helping protect and expand public libraries in your community. Yes to all that: fill out our form and tell us how you want to participate.

ANTI-CENSORSHIP GROUPS

Are you part of a local group doing anti-censorship work (or would you like to be)? Our friends at Book Riot are building a database and supplying resources to these groups. If you know of or are involved with an existing group or effort, you can help by filling out + sharing this form.

A round-up of anti-censorship groups that have already been shared with Bookriot can be found here. If you’re looking to get involved with an anti-censorship group in your area, you can search the list and connect with them directly.