Our profession, and our humanity, are in jeopardy.
As we saw with the White House’s executive order calling for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to be eliminated, libraries—and everything we value as information professionals—are under attack.
Make no mistake: The American people need to brace for more waves of uncertainty and oppression. And in our role as stalwart information warriors, we shall hold the front lines of democracy to ensure that intellectual freedom and the First Amendment are held in the highest regard. With a network that’s 125,000 libraries strong, we must take action for our freedoms. We must espouse the rights of Americans as we uphold the Library Bill of Rights and the core values of our field. Upholding, protecting, and defending humanity are not negotiable.
We have already witnessed 100 days of perilous actions taken against the people of this country under the guise of administrative efficiency. This chaos has resulted in mass firings, the temporary closure of a presidential library, a chilling effect on free speech on campuses, and overall turmoil. Making threats, wielding ultimate power, weaponizing authority, inflicting suffering on others—these are not acts of leadership but crimes against humanity and the American way of life.
We must ask ourselves: What will we allow in this moment? Because whatever we allow now is what will continue. And when barriers to truthful reporting arise, we must seek the truth and hold accountable elected officials, the same officials we trusted to be our collective voice.
In our role as stalwart information warriors, we shall hold the front lines of democracy.
Are you prepared to defend access to accurate information for the public good? Are you ready to ensure sound policies to protect collections, data, records retention, and preservation of information, both in print and electronically?
In January, ALA launched Show Up for Our Libraries, a campaign to harness the power of advocates to persuade policymakers about libraries’ crucial role. Contact your representative, senators, and state officials to share stories about why libraries matter and ask for their support for library funding. Strong communities have strong libraries, and we must solicit support to help create healthy communities in every state.
Did you ever think America in the 21st century would be so fractured, vulnerable, and fragile?
If we have learned nothing from history, now is the time to remember: There was a time in this country—after Indians were “discovered”—when we were called “merciless Indian savages” in the Declaration of Independence and then forcibly removed from our homelands and placed onto reservations in remote areas without access to the natural resources we needed to survive.
The plan was to punish us for surviving. It was to punish us for escaping attempted genocide. After we were granted citizenship in 1924, our children were forced into boarding schools, where they underwent racist assimilation tactics and where the bodies of the children who never made it out still lie buried. The federal government later gave tribes blood quantum cards to limit our citizenship. They were devised to prove our savage ancestry, similar to the way horses and dogs are classified by their identity and worth.
Hearing that people are again being forced to show cards to prove their right to be here sounds all too familiar.
I believe we can do better. This is the very moment when all eyes must open wide in America, because we have been here before, and we must stop it now.
