That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones
The biggest challenge facing America’s most famous librarian, Marian, was fending off the amorous attentions of Robert Preston! Now librarians are fending off the crude remarks of well-organized social media trolls, pandering politicians, and panicky parents.
If you want a first-hand account from a besieged librarian, I recommend That Librarian.
Middle-school librarian Amanda Jones has lived her entire life in the tiny town of Watson, Louisiana, and she works in the same school that she attended as a child. She is a devout Christian, a wife, a mother, an attentive daughter (she lives next door to her parents), and a fierce advocate for her students. She is also a (former) Republican.
In July 2022, Amanda, president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians and the 2021 School Library Journal National Librarian of the Year, and thirty other speakers spoke out against censorship at their local library board meeting. The meeting of the seven-member board was held at Livingston Public Library, not her school.
Within a day or so, her social media accounts were bursting with hate messages, unrelenting, personal, and inaccurate. She includes screen shots of some of the messages—very vulgar stuff!
Traumatized, she spent that first weekend crying. Then she got angry. Then she hired an attorney. Then she became an advocate. Two years later, the trolls have not let up, but Amanda Jones rarely cries.
With the funds from a GoFundMe account and the support of several library associations, authors, and friends, Amanda sued the two original trolls for defamation. Her first hearing was dismissed, and her subsequent appeal was denied as well.
In an update from her website dated July 2024, Amanda writes, “On July 25, 2024, my attorney filed the paperwork to take my case to the Louisiana Supreme Court. I am still seeking the right to bring my defamers to court and have my case be heard by a jury of my peers. I am still only seeking $1 and an apology from these men.”
For another account of librarian troubles, read the essay by Martha Hickson, which is buried among the otherwise charming pieces in James Patterson’s book The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians. (pp. 300-307)