Moon will provide an update on what’s happening locally and nationally with challenges to books and reading in public libraries and will share possible actions the public can take. “I’m going to give an overview of book challenges and censorship in the country, as it is right now, with a focus on Michigan, and talk about some of the more serious challenges that are occurring. I also plan to talk about ways that public libraries prepare for these kinds of challenges — the policies we have in place, and the procedures we have in place, for when something like this happens. I also hope to give folks some ideas of things that they can do as private citizens to support public libraries and support people’s first amendment right to read whatever they want,” she said. Locally, at the Bloomfield Township Public Library, Moon said she is not aware of any specific book challenges in recent years. “Since I have been the library director, we have not had any challenges to any specific titles, so in this community we have been very fortunate to not have that happen, but I keep my eye on it, and we talk about it in our leadership meetings, and as the Board of Trustees, so I definitely have been paying attention and watching this happen,” she said. Conservative groups have said that some of the requests are not for outright bans but to move books with sexually explicit content out of children’s sections, and that library collections stock far more progressive and left-leaning content than conservative or right-leaning content, so liberal groups request bans less frequently because conservative content is less likely to be included in collections in the first place, being, according to conservatives, unfairly labeled as misinformation or hate speech. For more information about the event or the LWVOA, visit https://my.lwv.org/michigan/oakland-area, email LWVOAMi@gmail.com or call (248) 594-6602.

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