Comedian and author Dulcé Sloan had a confession for the librarians of Fulton County, Georgia.
“I have a copy of the Magic School Bus that I might have checked out in 1991 from the library in Sandy Springs,” Sloan said. “It’s somewhere in my mom’s house. If you want to go to Stone Mountain, maybe you can find it. I think I have the fine in my purse if you really want it.”
Sloan, best known for her television work as a senior correspondent on The Daily Show, was the closing speaker at the Public Library Association (PLA) 2024 Conference in Columbus, Ohio, on April 8. She recently became an author with her book of essays, Hello, Friends!: Stories of Dating, Destiny, and Day Jobs (February, Andscape Books).
In her talk, Sloan tackled topics ranging from the importance of self-care to how to combat mansplaining.
“[Men] already think you’re dumb, so then double down,” she joked. “Take the last thing they say, and just ask them about it: ‘Well, who came up with the Dewey Decimal system?’”
Sloan said she never envisioned herself becoming an author. “I graduated college because I changed the font on my thesis paper,” she quipped. Reflecting on past experiences—like dating—was challenging, she said, especially amid her journey to be less self-critical. There were periods when she had to step away from writing.
“It was hard not to be mad at my past self for decisions that she made based on the information that she had,” Sloan reflected. “I had to go, ‘If I can celebrate decisions that she made in reference to my professional life, then I can’t crucify or be mad at her for the decisions she made in her personal life.’”
As a former customer service employee, Sloan also offered tips for library staffers who encounter difficult patrons. There’s power in staying silent when people get angry, she said. Her advice for dealing with someone who is upset a book isn’t available? Let them air their grievances and then simply ask, “What would you like to do?”
“Usually, people in those situations feel powerless, that’s why they’re yelling,” Sloan said. “So, you can just go, ‘You can yell, I’m listening to you, but here are your options: Either you wait two weeks, or you buy it. Either you wait, or you spend $27.99.’”
Upholding intellectual freedom
Many of the final day’s sessions at PLA 2024 centered the theme of protecting the right to read. In “Pivoting to Meet New Censorship Tactics,” panelists explained that the individuals and groups who have been challenging and censoring books are unprecedently organized and using new strategies to limit access to materials.
These methods have included filing police reports against library staffers and board members for not removing books, social media harassment, hosting parties to fill out hundreds of reconsideration forms, and introducing legislation to cut library workers off from professional groups, such as the American Library Association (ALA) and state library associations.
“Tactics are getting a little more sophisticated, but that might be giving these folks too much credit,” said Lisa Varga, executive director of the Virginia Library Association. “So I’ll say they’re evolving, but Pokémon fans will understand when I say [that] these people will never be Charizard.”
Book challenges and bans broke new records in 2023, disproportionately targeting the voices and experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities. Challenges and bans are increasingly affecting public libraries, said Eric Stroshane, assistant director of member services for ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). According to Stroshane, OIF received reports from 475 public libraries last year.
OIF Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone reminded library workers of the laws on their side. Many states exempt teachers and librarians from laws regarding speech that is deemed obscene or harmful to minors, with the understanding that they are sharing information for educational purposes. Only a court of law can determine if materials are obscene or harmful to minors, she said, and the court must consider the value of an entire piece of media—not just snippets.
Caldwell-Stone also highlighted recent civil victories. In August 2022, an obscenity lawsuit in Virginia over Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas was dismissed. Similarly, in October 2023, a judge dismissed a lawsuit against Rockford (Mich.) Public Schools over books that a group of parents claimed were “pornographic.”
Stroshane suggested that staffers at libraries experiencing censorship attempts should make their personal social media accounts private to avoid harassment. Varga recommended taking a proactive approach with community stakeholders by speaking with elected officials, board members, and other parties about library selection and reconsideration policies and relevant laws. She also advised making use of free resources from groups like OIF and Unite Against Book Bans, including template social media posts and book résumés that explain the literary value of frequently challenged titles.
Stroshane noted that OIF takes reports from all libraries and doesn’t limit its support to just ALA members: “We just want to help and help you serve your community as well as possible.”
Panelists at this session noted that the information presented did not constitute legal advice.
Prioritizing privacy
At “Protecting Patron Privacy in Public Libraries,” a panel of researchers and library directors shared recent discoveries and advice related to privacy issues.
“Privacy protection is not just a civil right, but it should be a human right,” said Masooda Bashir, associate professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s School of Information Science. In August 2020, Bashir received an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant to study the privacy policies and practices of US public libraries and their most pressing privacy concerns and challenges.
Bashir said the library workers she surveyed are overwhelmingly concerned about third-party software and applications unknowingly tracking information, balancing privacy with providing convenient services, and a personal lack of training or expertise on privacy issues.
Library technology consultant Marshall Breeding, who runs Library Technology Guides, discussed his work examining the extent to which public libraries’ websites are protected from advertisers and other networks that rely on tracking web users’ moves.
Breeding built a virtual security scanner that examines the security characteristics of library websites. Encryption is a must for these websites, he said, but his scanner indicates that 4% of the sites he’s so far examined don’t use encryption.
“How many of us have searched on Google [or] Home Depot, for a particular thing, [like a] socket wrench, and then you’re in a place totally different and see that come up in an ad?” Breeding asked. “We don’t want it so someone searches your library catalog for a socket wrench and it [shows] up in the advertising stream that follows them.”
Bill Marden, director of data privacy and compliance at New York Public Library, and Celeste Moutos, executive director of Urbana (Ill.) Free Library (UFL), offered attendees a variety of practical privacy tips.
Moutos, whose library serves a community of 40,000 people, recommended communicating to patrons about opting in or out of the library tracking their checkout history, not printing full last names on hold-shelf slips, and limiting who and why staffers can access security cameras. Moutos also explained that UFL switched from a sign-in sheet to a system with Xs and checkmarks for its Teen Open Lab after an incident where police came looking for a young patron.
Marden provided a list of concepts for library staffers to consider, including:
- Collection limitation. Why is your library collecting certain patron data? Do you truly need it?
- Retention limitation. How long are you keeping certain patron data? Can it be deleted after a period of time?
- Transparency. Do patrons know what information is being collected?
- Consent. Are patrons providing permission for this information to be collected?
- Access. Can patrons request the information your library has of theirs? Or request the library delete it?
- Accountability. Does your library have a designated staffer or team that tracks and educates employees on privacy policies?
He also directed library workers to ALA’s privacy resources.
“It’s always good to remember the public puts their faith in us to protect their privacy,” Marden said. “We are this unique place where people can go to do research, do intellectual inquiry, without the fear that somebody is looking over this shoulder, second-guessing what they’re doing, or feeding that information to somebody else.”
