Think Out Loud

Public Library Association conference comes to Portland

By Sage Van Wing (OPB)
March 24, 2022 5:31 p.m. Updated: March 31, 2022 4:39 p.m.

Broadcast: Thursday, March 24

Librarians from all over the country have been gathering in Portland this week for the Public Library Association’s annual conference. The role of libraries has been slowly changing for years, but during the pandemic, many public libraries leapt into providing new services. Melanie Huggins, President of the Public Library Association, tells us what librarians around the country are talking about these days.

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Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. One of the world’s most raucous annual conventions is being held in Portland right now. I am talking, of course, about the Public Library Association’s annual conference. Librarians from all over the country have been meeting at the Oregon Convention Center this week. Okay, it might not be the most raucous conference, but librarians do have a lot to talk about these days, like book bans in schools, the evolving role that libraries play in society and the lingering and lasting effects of the pandemic. Melanie Huggins is the executive director of the library system in Columbia, South Carolina and the president of the Public Library Association. She joins us now to tell us what librarians around the country are dealing with these days. Melanie Huggins, welcome.

Melanie Huggins: Hey, thanks so much for having me. It’s an honor to be on.

Miller: I want to start with book banning. The stories I’ve been reading about this nationally, like the school district in Tennessee that had the graphic novel Maus removed from 8th grade classes. Most of these stories seem to be based in schools. Is this happening in public libraries as well?

Huggins: We’re certainly seeing an uptick in challenges to materials and public libraries. But you’re correct. I think the overwhelming push and where we’re seeing the most attempts to ban materials, in our colleagues, are in school libraries. And so we are seeing this in public libraries as well and we are trying to back up our school colleagues as much as possible.

Miller: What does it mean? What can a public library or a librarian do to back up school libraries?

Huggins: Well, first and foremost, we’ve got to build those really close connections in our local communities. So I don’t know, a public library of all the 17,000 public libraries in this country, where there’s not close collaboration and coordination with public schools, now would be a really good time for the public library leaders and frontline librarians to reach out to their colleagues and say, what can I do? What can I help you with? Can I help you find material that will counter what some of these people are saying as to why these books need to be banned? Can I help you get your talking points together? I think the unfortunate thing to think about, to remember, is that school librarians don’t set the policy for their school districts. That’s done through superintendents and trustees. So unfortunately school librarians sometimes get a lot of the heat, but they’re not the ones that are actually making the decisions. So it’s really important that as public librarians we’re reaching out saying, we’re with you. I know in my own community, I’ve actually talked to school board members and tried to prepare them for times when parents are going to come to their school board meetings and insist that books be removed from the library.

Miller: Have those conversations that you’ve had with board members in anticipation of complaints, have they been about specific books that you see complaints bubbling up about or more broadly about the purpose in your mind of school libraries?

Melanie Huggins: I think what we’re seeing now and it’s this is what’s so disturbing to us is that the books that are being challenged, and they usually are specific titles, are those books that have in them, as their protagonists or as their topic or as subject matter, black indigenous people of color or people that are in the LGBTQ+ community. So that’s the thing that’s really upsetting about this recent wave of book bans, is that they are targeting people who are typically marginalized in the press, that need to see themselves on the shelves in libraries. So I think it’s fascinating. I think most, a lot of people who have strong feelings about what needs to be in the school library or a public library for that matter, some of them haven’t even read the books that they are insisting be removed.

Miller: Do you see more interest in a book like Maus in your library, after news breaks that it’s going to be removed from an eighth grade curriculum in one particular district, a couple states over?

Huggins: Right, well sales of Maus skyrocketed after that happened. If there’s one sure way to get people to read books, it’s to ban them. They will definitely and you’ll see public libraries have banned books displayed in their libraries. I mean they’re pushing these books, they want you to know what people are protesting and what their, what these themes are that some people find so offensive. So we definitely have to remind people, and this is the way I was taught in library school, is that libraries have something on their shelves to offend everyone. We’re equal opportunity offenders. So we want to have balanced collections. But we also really need to make sure that even if the majority of people in a community look a certain way, that they’re not the only people, or think a certain way, they’re not the only people represented on our shelves and in the programs we do and that’s really central to democracy, that we have that kind of community cohesion.

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Miller: The Washington Post had a fascinating article yesterday focused on school librarians and these issues. A librarian from Pennsylvania said that in the face of calls to ban certain books from parents, she and her colleagues are beginning to self-censor, to decide on their own not to have certain books on their shelves that delve into issues of gender, say. What do you think that could mean going forward? Because here we’re not talking about responding to complaints. We’re talking about proactively saying, maybe I’ll just avoid that complaint altogether.

Huggins: Yeah, I think that’s really unfortunate and I can certainly understand that mindset or mentality. I mean they don’t want a school library, media specialists, school librarians are seeing, are becoming targets themselves, angry parents chasing them down in the community. I mean I can certainly see where there is this desire to just avoid this uncomfortable part of what being a librarian is. But fortunately we are guided by values that say that everybody is represented and that we know especially when it comes to LGBTQ children in schools, and if they are more likely to commit suicide, they are more likely to feel feelings of isolation and they need to see themselves in materials. So public libraries, I would say we probably have a little bit more leeway because we do serve everyone, all ages in all backgrounds and and we’re not just serving students. I can certainly see, I can certainly empathize with that feeling but I think it doesn’t align with what our professional values are.

Miller: If you’re just tuning in,we’re talking right now with Melanie Huggins. She’s the president of the Public Library Association which has been meeting this week at the Oregon Convention Center. Let’s turn to other big issues from the last couple of years, including the pandemic. I’m wondering if you could give us some examples of things that public libraries from around the country did in response to the pandemic, how they operated differently over the last two years.

Huggins: Well as you know, the pandemic has changed everything about all of our lives, right? I mean, we all had to come up with really creative, innovative ways to stay present in our communities. So, simple things, a lot of libraries went to curbside pickup or drive through pickup for materials and they’re still continuing that because people loved it. They love to be able to just park and text and say, I’m here, come bring my books out to me. So we’re still doing some of that. But what we saw during the pandemic is just an illumination of the disparities that we already knew were in our communities. So definitely, really getting creative about how we deal with the learning loss that has happened with students. So a lot of libraries did things like they checked out Mifis and laptops in their communities. They started virtual one on one tutoring sessions with kids that were falling behind. A lot of libraries, and we’re having this conversation here at the Public Library Association in Portland, have social workers on staff now. I know our social workers at my library back in Columbia, South Carolina, were helping people apply for emergency rental assistance. So we are on the frontlines of seeing and knowing what the needs are in our communities and the pandemic really just kind of, like I said, it just shone a light on the things that we already knew were there and we had to respond really quickly.

Miller: Do you think that the pandemic has fundamentally changed things about the way libraries are going to function going forward?

Huggins: I hope so. I think one of the things that we are super committed to and we’ve thought a lot about, like I just said, during the pandemic, is equity and inclusion and we know there are systemic problems in our communities that, whether it’s inhibiting someone’s educational attainment or their ability to move up economically, we’ve always known the problems but librarians, one of your guests just called himself a credible messenger, and I love that. I love that we are trusted partners and we are one of the first places that people look to for good information about how to solve the problems in their lives. And I do hope that, I feel like the nation has noticed that. There’s been a lot of really positive conversations about the role of public libraries and I don’t want to squander any of that good will, any of that hard work that we’ve put in over the last two years. So I hope it has changed the way that we are seen in communities, everything from handing out Covid tests to having vaccine clinics in our libraries, to doing telehealth appointments in our library. So many things, good things came out of the pandemic in terms of the library’s position and responsibility to respond.

Miller: I can imagine that a lot of people who were drawn to work in libraries in the past did so because of a love for books and reading and wanting to share that. And obviously that’s still a huge part of what happens in libraries. But it’s not the only part and it’s not the parts that you’re talking about, that you have been talking about as, in terms of the response to the pandemic and potential changes going forward. Has it been a challenge to get library staff on board with everything else that libraries are doing these days?

Huggins: It’s a great question, and I feel like I’ve been in this business long enough now, over 20 something years, that I’ve seen the pendulum swing back and forth. When I first got into this as a librarian, we were the place to bring books and people together and now we’re the place to help solve community problems. I do think that has been a big shift and I when I say solve community problems, I mean everything from ‘I need six books to take the beach next week’, to ‘how do we end homelessness in our communities and how do we convene people around that topic?’. So yes, it has changed, the people we hire have changed. We still have a deep love for the written word, and we still do hire a lot of people that love books, but the first thing we ask people when we’re interviewing people and I know my colleagues across the country, you got to love people and you have to really be able to meet people where they are, and that’s why it’s so important that we diversify our profession. It’s still predominantly white, and we are working really, really hard to bring more black and brown people into this work, to do this work alongside us. And it’s really changed the face of the profession in so many positive ways.

Miller: At most industry get-togethers, there are the official meetings and then informal ones where you just get together and catch up with old friends and, and have a cup of coffee or a beer or whatever. What are library folks talking about right now, when you’re not in the big meetings?

Huggins: Oh wow, those, those are the best, right? We have missed each other so much and so many fist bumps and hugs and beers raised and, and Portland’s such a great place to do that. What we’re talking about is kind of the same thing the rest of the world is talking about. The last two years have been rough, it’s taken a toll on our communities, whether we’ve seen businesses closed or people leave or people, like I said earlier, lose the ability to pay their rent. We’re seeing the same thing in our profession. We’ve had to make a lot of quick decisions. So I just learned this phrase a couple weeks ago and I’ve used it a lot, it’s ‘decision fatigue’. I think a lot of us are just, tired of having to make so many quick decisions about our personal lives and professional lives. And so I mean, I think the burnout is real. We have seen people leaving the profession over the past two years, but it’s not unlike the rest of the world, with ‘the big quit’ and ‘the great resignation’. Covid made us question everything. And so that’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re here. That’s why 4000 of us are here right now so we can go back to our hometowns, our local communities re-energized and refreshed and ready to keep doing this work.

Miller: Melanie Huggins, thanks very much.

Huggins: Thanks for having me.

Miller: That’s Melanie Huggins, President of the Public Library Association. We’ll be back tomorrow.

Think Out Loud is supported by Steve and Jan Oliva, the Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust, Ray and Marilyn Johnson and the Susan Hammer Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation.

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