To fight banned books elsewhere, LA County Library will expand access in state

Has a growing list of books on race, LGBTQ+ issues and sexuality — including literary classics — been removed from school and public library shelves and thus blocked your access to certain books?

The Los Angeles County Library system wants to give people living outside of the county a way to get around book bans. The library is planning an expanded, digital library card that grants e-book access to users throughout California, a first for the library. The launch is planned to coincide with Banned Books Week in early October.

“Book banning and book restricting is on the rise across the country, and it is certainly happening in Southern California. If other areas of California are restricting access to materials, the L.A. County Library would be there to provide that access,” said Wendy Crutcher, L.A. County Library’s collection development director.

Although there have been some challenges, Crutcher said that in the nine years she has been managing collections at 86 libraries she’s never banned a title.

The expansion of the digital library card from just L.A. County residents to residents of all cities and counties in the state was authorized by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors on June 27. The library is working on the logistics and will report back to the board at the end of July.

“It would be digital. You would be given an account number, a log-in and you choose a PIN or password,” Crutcher explained. The process is similar to the digital access card applications already in place, but they would be expanded to applicants outside of the county yet within the state.

Meanwhile, library officials are talking to the Brooklyn Public Library and officials in Seattle’s library system, which have expanded digital access well beyond their cities.

In Brooklyn, the library has signed up 6,500 new digital card users from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, since the launch in April 2022, said Fritzi Bodenheimer, spokesperson. Their program is open to users aged 13 to 21, because most of the book bans affect young people and are often from school libraries, she explained.

“The bans are becoming more organized, more political and sadly, more successful,” Bodenheimer said on Friday, June 30. “We didn’t think we could sit by and watch while some are taking books off the shelves.”

Crutcher said the county library is focusing on extending the access to youth aged 13 to 18. The action calls for expanding digital library cards to both youth and adults throughout the state but the scope remains to be seen. “Teens are being restricted in access to what they can read by school librarians and school curriculum,” Crutcher said. “There are more barriers in place for teens accessing this information than for adults.”

In Southern California, the Burbank Unified School District in 2020 banned inclusion in its curriculum of Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn,” John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” presumably because they contain use of the “N-word,” according to a letter sent in objection by PEN America, an acronym for poets, essayists and novelists that for 100 years has supported and defended free expression through literature.

The supervisors’ motion said they’ve seen efforts to challenge books that describe racial conditions and slavery in the 19th century using language that is not politically correct today, as well as books related to LGBTQ+ issues.

At San Ramon Valley Unified School District in the Bay Area, and Kingsburg Elementary Charter School District in the Central Valley, a book can be immediately removed in response to a single parent challenge, according to the supervisors’ motion which was co-authored by Third District Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn.

Calling it a trend, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond issued a letter to school districts across the state cautioning against book bans.

In 2022, nearly all of the top 10 books targeted for removal from libraries and school curriculum in the state contained LGBTQ+ themes, according to the American Library Association. Of a record 2,571 titles targeted for removal from libraries or other kinds of censorship, most were about or authored by LGBTQ+ people, Blacks, indigenous people and people of color in general.

Recently, conservative groups marched in protest of a library book-reading that explained LGBTQ+ families at Saticoy Elementary School in North Hollywood. A transgender teacher’s LGBTQ flag was burned, which was labeled a hate crime by LAPD. A demonstration occurred outside Glendale Unified School District over similar issues. There, police in riot gear broke up scuffles between groups clashing over the issue of teaching children about gay sexuality.

Parents opposed to the LGBTQ story book reading in North Hollywood said they were not against LGBTQ people, but they didn’t want their children to learn about them from the school. LAUSD did not ban the book and continued the program despite protests, encouraging more LGBTQ programs at other campuses.

“Banning books doesn’t protect children. It walls them off from ideas, diversity, and opportunities to learn and grow,” said Hahn in a statement. “In L.A. County, we uphold both freedom of speech and the freedom to read, and through the L.A. County Library system, we can help counteract the impact of book bans across the state and preserve access to these important stories.”

In Brooklyn, the applications for e-cards also contained anecdotes from those who were blocked from borrowing a book.

“Some said they were exploring their sexual identity and they couldn’t bring home a book with a cover with LGBTQ on it because their parents would be upset,” Bodenheimer said.

One applicant wrote that a librarian helped her find a book on sexuality from the shelf, but whispered in the young person’s ear not to tell anyone they got it from a librarian.

“Another person asked for a book with a similar theme, and the librarian said, ‘You don’t need to get those ideas in your head,’ ” she said.

While many states and other parts of California are restricting books about the LGBTQ+ community, as well as books about the Black experience in America, L.A. County wants to expand their access, said Horvath. “I am deeply troubled by a rise in bans on books that uplift the experience of LGBTQ+ people, people of color, and historically marginalized communities,” she said in a statement.

“Making books accessible to more people is a good idea,” said Ingrid Haas, who was visiting a county library in San Gabriel with her baby on Friday. “Fear-based thinking is destructive.”

Bodenheimer worries that restrictions and bans on books sends a troubling message.

“Yes it’s about books but it is bigger. It is about democracy. It is about taking away choice,” she said.