American Library Association

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American Library Association is a left-wing advocacy organization. Self-described "Marxist lesbian"[1] Emily Drabinski is the president of the American Library Association.

ALA Organizations

American Library Association's political arm is ALA Public Policy & Advocacy. SustainRT is the American Library Association's global warming organization. The Black Caucus of the American Library Association is the black wing of the American Library Association. American Libraries is the magazine of the American Library Association.

ilovelibraries.org and Unite Against Book Bans, New Americans Library Project are "an initiative of the American Library Association".

Soros-Funded

The American Library Association has been funded by George Soros' Open Society Foundations.

American Libraries Magazine

X posters include Megan Bennett, Terra Dankowski, Diana Panuncial, & Sanhita SinhaRoy.

ALA Annual Conference 2024

The American Library Association's ALA Annual Conference in San Diego June 27 - July 2, 2024:[2],[3]

Speakers/Panelists

Speakers include:[4],[5],[6],[7]

Sponsors

Sponsors included:[8] APA Style, Gale, Modern Language Association, Indie Book Awards, LOTE 4Kids, Disney Publishing, Fox Chapel Image, Little, Brown and Company, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House, Penguin Young Readers and Scholastic and Zonderkidz.

ALA President's Program

Top Row: Christina Gavin, Gerald B. Moore, Bottom Row: Kathleen Nubel, Angela Watkins. Far Right: ALA President Emily Drabinski: Moderator

Panel discussion at the American Library Association's ALA Annual Conference:[9]

  • Christina Gavin is a librarian at Midwood High School in Brooklyn, NY. Previously she was a campus librarian for 6 high schools in the Northeast Bronx where she worked to revitalize a dormant library program and school librarian for a special education high school in the South Bronx. Christina is an elected union delegate at her school and a librarian member of the United Federation of Teachers contract negotiations committee.
  • Gerald B. Moore is Branch Manager for the Dorchester Road Branch Library in North Charleston, South Carolina. While actively serving his state library association (SCLA), Gerald is a member of the American Library Association (ALA) and the Black Caucus of ALA (BCALA). When he is not transforming lives by offering library resources, programming, and services, Gerald enjoys listening to music, reading, and Writing. He is currently writing his first novel and a short story collection.
  • Kathleen Nubel is an adult services librarian at the Des Moines Public Library in Des Moines, Iowa. She leads the team responsible for the creation and maintenance of the Library of Things and the maker space, Tech Central, both of which are located at the main branch, Central Library.
  • Angela Watkins is the Director of the Aztec Public Library in Aztec, New Mexico. In addition, she is a certified Cultural Heritage Technician and has served on the boards of the Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village Board, the San Juan County Historical Society, and the Aztec Chamber Board. Watching her grandmother teach herself to read after being denied an education past third grade has left a mark on Angela and inspires her to work in libraries.

Fights 'Book Bans'

Twitter Screen Capture for the ALA dated March 26, 2023

The American Library Association uses the politically charged, but false phrase "book bans" to fight an effort to keep sexually graphic and rampant leftist propaganda aimed at children from school libraries.

On January 30, 2022, The New York Times referenced an American Library Association "preliminary report that it received an 'unprecedented' 330 reports of book challenges" to remove inappropriate books from school libraries in an article by Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter.[10]

Excerpt:

Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades. The American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an “unprecedented” 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.
“It’s a pretty startling phenomenon here in the United States to see book bans back in style, to see efforts to press criminal charges against school librarians,” said Suzanne Nossel, the chief executive of the free-speech organization PEN America, even if efforts to press charges have so far failed.
Such challenges have long been a staple of school board meetings, but it isn’t just their frequency that has changed, according to educators, librarians and free-speech advocates — it is also the tactics behind them and the venues where they play out. Conservative groups in particular, fueled by social media, are now pushing the challenges into statehouses, law enforcement and political races.
“The politicalization of the topic is what's different than what I’ve seen in the past,” said Britten Follett, the chief executive of content at Follett School Solutions, one of the country’s largest providers of books to K-12 schools. “It’s being driven by legislation, it’s being driven by politicians aligning with one side or the other. And in the end, the librarian, teacher or educator is getting caught in the middle.”
Among the most frequent targets are books about race, gender and sexuality, like George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” and Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”
Several books are drawing fire repeatedly in different parts of the country — “All Boys Aren’t Blue” has been targeted for removal in at least 14 states — in part because objections that have surfaced in recent months often originate online. Many parents have seen Google docs or spreadsheets of contentious titles posted on Facebook by local chapters of organizations such as Moms for Liberty. From there, librarians say, parents ask their schools if those books are available to their children.
“If you look at the lists of books being targeted, it’s so broad,” Ms. Nossel said. Some groups, she noted, have essentially weaponized book lists meant to promote more diverse reading material, taking those lists and then pushing for all the included titles to be banned.
The advocacy group No Left Turn in Education maintains lists of books it says are “used to spread radical and racist ideologies to students,” including Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Those who are demanding certain books be removed insist this is an issue of parental rights and choice, that all parents should be free to direct the upbringing of their own children.
Others say prohibiting these titles altogether violates the rights of other parents and the rights of children who believe access to these books is important. Many school libraries already have mechanisms in place to stop individual students from checking out books of which their parents disapprove.
The Push to Ban Books Across America
Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers are increasingly contesting children’s access to books.
Nationwide Efforts: Amid growing polarization, books exploring racial and social issues are drawing fire in different parts of the United States.
Most Targeted Books: Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir “Gender Queer” was the most banned book in the country in 2021. Here are the other most challenged titles.
Off the Shelves: A school district in North Texas reviewed dozens of challenged books during the last school year, approving some and rejecting others. It is now requiring staff to remove all the titles again as it reviews them one more time.
Librarians Under Attack: As book bans explode across the country, librarians find themselves on the front lines of an acrimonious culture war, with their careers and reputations at risk.
The author Laurie Halse Anderson, whose young adult books have frequently been challenged, said that pulling titles that deal with difficult subjects can make it harder for students to discuss issues like racism and sexual assault.
“By attacking these books, by attacking the authors, by attacking the subject matter, what they are doing is removing the possibility for conversation,” she said. “You are laying the groundwork for increasing bullying, disrespect, violence and attacks.”
Tiffany Justice, a former school board member in Indian River County, Fla., and a founder of Moms for Liberty, said that parents should not be vilified for asking if a book is appropriate. Some of the books being challenged involve sexual activity, including oral sex and anal sex, she said, and children are not ready for that kind of material.
“There are different stages of development of sexuality in our lives, and when that’s disrupted, it can have horrible long-term effects,” she said.
“The bottom line is if parents are concerned about something, politicians need to pay attention,” Ms. Justice added. “2022 will be a year of the parent at the ballot box.”
Christopher M. Finan, the executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, said he has not seen this level of challenges since the 1980s, when a similarly energized conservative base embraced the issue. This time, however, that energy is colliding with an effort to publish and circulate more diverse books, as well as social media, which can amplify complaints about certain titles.
“It’s this confluence of tensions that have always existed over what’s the proper thing to teach kids,” Mr. Finan said.
“These same issues are really coming alive in a new social environment,” he added, “and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess.”
Book challenges aren’t just coming from the right: “Of Mice and Men” and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” for example, have been challenged over the years for how they address race, and both were among the library association’s 10 most-challenged books in 2020.
In the Mukilteo School District in Washington State, the school board voted to remove “To Kill a Mockingbird” — voted the best book of the past 125 years in a survey of readers conducted by The New York Times Book Review — from the ninth-grade curriculum at the request of staff members. Their objections included arguments that the novel marginalized characters of color, celebrated “white saviorhood” and used racial slurs dozens of times without addressing their derogatory nature.
While the book is no longer a requirement, it remains on the district’s list of approved novels, and teachers can still choose to assign it if they wish.

[...]

Jack Petocz, a 17-year-old student at Flagler Palm Coast High School who organized the protest against the book ban, said that removing books about L.G.B.T.Q. characters and books about racism was discriminatory, and harmful to students who may already feel that they are in the minority and that their experiences are rarely represented in literature.
“As a gay student myself, those books are so critical for youth, for feeling there are resources for them,” he said, noting that books that portray heterosexual romances are rarely challenged. “I felt it was very discriminatory.”
So far, efforts to bring criminal charges against librarians and educators have largely faltered, as law enforcement officials in Florida, Wyoming and elsewhere have found no basis for criminal investigations. And courts have generally taken the position that libraries should not remove books from circulation.
Nonetheless, librarians say that just the threat of having to defend against charges is enough to get many educators to censor themselves by not stocking the books to begin with. Even just the public spectacle of an accusation can be enough.
“It will certainly have a chilling effect,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s office for intellectual freedom. “You live in a community where you’ve been for 28 years, and all of a sudden you might be charged with the crime of pandering obscenity. And you’d hoped to stay in that community forever.”

People's Climate March 'Partner'

American Library Association – Sustainability Round Table (SustainRT) was listed as a "Partner" to the People's Climate March:[11] "The People's Climate March is being organized by an ever-growing coalition that comprises more than 1,500 organizations demanding world leaders take action to combat climate change."

Florante Ibanez Connection

Florante Ibanez has been a member of the American Library Association.[12]

"During his career, Ibanez has served as president of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (2010-2011); diversity chair of the Southern California chapter of Special Libraries Association (SLA); executive committee member of LA as Subject; served on the board of directors for SIPA (1994-2000); Filipino American Arts & Culture (FilAm Arts) board member (2000-2010); board member of the Filipino American Library in Los Angeles; advisory board member of the Serve the People Institute; and member of American Library Association (ALA), Association of Law Libraries, the California Library Association (CLA), and Society of American Archivists (SAA)."

Palestinian Solidarity Committee

From an issue of the Palestine Solidarity Committee's magazine Palestine Focus:

p. 7: "American Library Association Debates Condemnation of Israeli Censorship":

"David Williams, a Chicago librarian, Palestine Solidarity Committee member, and coordinator of the Committee on Israeli Censorship, has sent a report to "Palestine Focus" on his group's work to get the American Library AssociationALA to go on record against Israeli censorship in the West Bank and Gaza. The ALA's influential Social Responsibility Roundtable passed a resolution condemning Israeli censorship practices at the ALA's June meeting, and Williams committee is continuing a campaign to get the entire ALA on record. For more information to to become involved in the campaign, contact David L. Williams, reference librarian, Chicago Public Library, Social Sciences and History Division, 400 N. Franklin, Chicago, IL, 60610, (312) 269-2953."

NB: The ALA has been long infiltrated by communists and other radicals, often led by old Venceremos Brigade members, and contributing writer to the Communist Party newspaper, the Daily World, Ann Sparanese, who led the fight to prevent the ALA from condemning Castro's imprisonment of Cuban writers and free-speech activists.

References

  1. ↑ Emily Drabinski Tweet dated 13 Apr 2022 (Accessed April 23 2023)
  2. ↑ 2024 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition (Accessed June 27, 2024)
  3. ↑ 2024 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition (Accessed June 27, 2024)
  4. ↑ Featured Speakers (Accessed June 27, 2024)
  5. ↑ Rally for the Right to Read: Voters Unite Against Book Bans (Accessed June 27, 2024)
  6. ↑ Conference Schedule (Accessed June 27, 2024)
  7. ↑ Full Schedule (Accessed June 27, 2024)
  8. ↑ Sponsors [Scroll Down (Accessed June 27, 2024)]
  9. ↑ The Heart of Our Story: A Celebration of Library Workers—a panel session (Accessed June 27, 2024)
  10. ↑ Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S. (Accessed August 24 2022)
  11. ↑ Partners (accessed April 26 2018)
  12. ↑ Inventory of the Filipino Americans/Florante Peter Ibanez Collection SPC.2020.024 (accessed March 25, 2023)
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