Tennessee: Here’s Which Libraries Have Been Ordered to Review Book Collections

From The Tennessean:  ||| Archived Version

Some 181 libraries in the Tennessee Regional Library System, in 91 of the state’s 95 counties, received letters from the secretary of state in October calling for a full audit of the libraries’ juvenile books to better align them with Trump administration standards on gender topics.

The directive has caused workers to scramble in the holiday weeks to fulfill the task of reviewing thousands of books despite small staff and no overtime budget, according to records requests by The Tennessean.

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Twenty-seven of the 181 letters also included a single paragraph calling for a review of the children’s animated book “Fred Gets Dressed” by Peter Brown. It’s about a young boy playing dress-up in his parents’ closet.

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A group of 33 national literary advocacy groups and book publishers wrote a December letter to Hargett denouncing the order, stating it has “created widespread confusion, fear, and operational disruption across the state’s public libraries.”

“These types of reviews create immense administrative burdens for library systems and often lead to illegal censorship, which raises liability risks for local communities and the state,” reads the letter, co-signed by groups like the American Library Association, Penguin Random House, Macmillan Publishers and PEN America.

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