Censorship in carceral settings

We will provide information about free resources and ways that you can get involved, help out, and help yourself and loved ones navigate censorship in the carceral system.

This panel conversation brings together people with different experiences of carceral libraries, creating carceral library policy, teaching, journalism, and incarceration to speak about the long history and pernicious and evolving impacts of censorship in prisons, jails, and detention centers in the US and its territories. Learn about the evolving landscape of censorship, and how current research and practice aims to document it and fight back.

Jeanie Austin (they/them)

Jeanie Austin earned their PhD in library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They are a jail and reentry services librarian at the San Francisco Public Library and has provided library services in juvenile detention centers and jails for over a decade. In addition to authoring numerous journal articles, their book, "Library Services and Incarceration: Recognizing Barriers, Strengthening Access" was published by the American Library Association in 2021. 

Erin Boyington (she/her)

Erin Boyington has worked as a correctional librarian since 2013. After receiving her MLIS from the University of Washington, she began her library career at the Sterling Correctional Facility Libraries in Sterling, Colorado. In 2016, she joined the Colorado State Library's Institutional Library Development (ILD) unit. ILD provides staff training, develops policy, manages collections, and much more, for adults and youth in over 40 institutional libraries statewide. She has contributed to Intellectual Freedom Stories from a Shifting Landscape (2020) and Exploring the Roles and Practices of Libraries in Prisons: International Perspectives (2021).

Andrew Calderon (he/they)

Andrew is a computational journalist at The Marshall Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering the United States criminal justice system. He is also an Adjunct Professor at The New School in New York city, where he teaches data, design and community engagement, and additionally works as a Project & Product Designer for the Journalism + Design Lab, an non-profit initiative to develop civic infrastructure through free journalism and design training at community colleges.

Eldon Ray James (he/him) 

While serving a 70-month sentence in federal prison I decided to become a librarian. I made that happen by graduating from the University of Texas at Austin School of Information in 2007 with a Master of Science in Information Studies (MSIS). Amazing serendipity made Dr. Loriene Roy my advisor. She took me to Washington D.C. as a part of her presidential party. She introduced me to the American Library Association and a group called the Prisoners Forum where I found a family with carceral librarians.

One of those librarians, Diane Walden, asked me to help write the Prisoners’ Right to Read: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights and then help move it though ALA. That experience led me to my involvement in the Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC), Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT), and the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) of ALA. I was the 2022 FTRF Roll of Honor winner. I worked on the 4th International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners Working Group, and the ALA Standards for Library Services to the Incarcerated or Detained as a Project Manager and author. 

Victoria Van Hyning (she/her)

I am an Assistant Professor of Library Innovation at the University of Maryland, College of Information Studies at College Park. I arrived at the iSchool in 2020, after working at the Library of Congress on the By the People crowdsourced transcription platform for two years. Before that I lived and worked in the UK and earned degrees in English literature. As an academic and as a practitioner, I strive to create systems and experiences that widen access to information for a diverse range of people, and make space for people to tell their own stories and express their information needs. I served as a Project Manager and author for ALA Standards for Library Services to the Incarcerated or Detained.  My goals were to provide research and writing support for the new Standards, and to learn and shape how those of us teaching Library and Information Science at the graduate and undergraduate levels can prepare our students to serve in carceral libraries, educational programs, and related positions in public and school libraries serving the needs of returning as well as incarcerated or detained individuals.

Banned Books, Keelatud Kirjandus, is a museum in Tallinn, Estonia that preserves banned, censored, and burned books from around the world. We tell the stories of our books and their authors, and provide resources for learning about the history of censorship, contemporary challenges, and the free exchange of ideas.

Our Story

A few words about us

We believe that the topic of literary censorship is highly relevant and important at this moment in time. Around the world many nations, institutions, and movements restrict access to written material for a wide variety of reasons. Our museum explores the thin lines and grey areas in each one of these cases by presenting the stories of restricted books and engaging the public in a dialogue about the free exchange of ideas.

Our goal is to study the phenomenon of free speech. We do not take a political stance, but rather we enable the public to learn about the topic for themselves by telling stories, educating about history, and providing free access to relevant research and journalistic material.

Mission
It's all about preserving books and liberating people.

The impact we create with our experience is as transcending as our books are concrete and physical. We aim to expand and develop consciousness as a whole by starting on the individual level. We do this through our museum, events, discussion groups, bookclub, podcast, and educational programme.

Vision
We dream of a world in which people can freely share, challenge, and refine their ideas.

The value and skill of self-expression strengthens the public and makes it more robust against outside influence. If there is one country that understands the importance of this freedom and has experienced what it takes, it is Estonia. Our initiative will continue this journey and help others along the way.

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has released new data documenting book challenges throughout the United States, finding that challenges of unique titles surged 65% in 2023 compared to 2022 numbers, reaching the highest level ever documented by ALA. Read the full announcement.

OIF documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship, more than the previous two years combined (2,571 in 2022; 1,651 in 2021), as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources in 2023. Four key trends emerged from the data gathered from 2023 censorship reports:

• Pressure groups in 2023 focused on public libraries in addition to targeting school libraries. The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges in 2023; school libraries saw an 11% increase over 2022 numbers.

• Groups and individuals demanding the censorship of multiple titles, often dozens or hundreds at a time, drove this surge.

• Titles representing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals made up 47% of those targeted in censorship attempts.

• There were attempts to censor more than 100 titles in each of these 17 states: Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.