From Idaho, we get the story of a library under siege. Two libraries found themselves in the crosshairs of a handful of local far right activists over books that it might acquire in the hypothetical future.
Idaho has had more than its share of this baloney (well, actually, the proper share anyone should have is zero) including House Bill 666 which made it possible to hold libraries liable for "the distribution of harmful materials to children."
In Coeur d'Alene, the new librarian found herself attacked over some selections.
On a Friday afternoon in June 2022, outside my office stood a mother emphatically and disruptively conveying her concern to me, waving around Melissa by Alex Gino (formerly titled George), winner of the 2016 Stonewall Book Award. She was in my face and hollering at me, “No, actually, I think this is the time and place for this conversation,” and all I could do was stand there and recite my usual script as calmly and politely as I could manage under the circumstances: “Libraries don’t censor materials. Libraries are for everyone. As the children’s librarian, it’s my job to ensure that every child and every family in this community feels seen, heard, and represented. She was having none of it. She snatched our director’s business cards out of my shaking fingers, grabbed her children, and stormed out of the children’s library. I called my director immediately. It was the first time I’d cried to him on the phone. It was also the first time I’d wondered if I was cut out for this.
For Delaney Daly, the breaking point when she attended a Pride in the Park event. 31 armed Patriot Front members were arrested that day, apparently headed for the Pride event. Daly wondered how long it would be before guns showed up at her library. Fearing for her safety, she resigned, just ten months after she started at the job.
Kimber Glidden didn't have to wonder. The board at the Boundary County Library, where Glidden was librarian, adopted a sort of pre-emptive policy, including "Selection of materials will not be affected by any such potential disapproval, and the Boundary County Library will not place materials on 'closed shelves' or label items to protect the public from their content."
Things escalated quickly. There was a move to recall four of the five board members ("to protect children from explicit materials and grooming"). Glidden received the bulk of the harassing attention (also a new employee of the library, she had dared to join the American Library Association). She has been warned of her coming damnation, peppered with time-wasting Freedom of Information Act requests. Folks have signed up to be library volunteers, only show up armed. And Glidden's neighbor let her know that a group of armed individuals showed up at her house, looking, she believed, for Glidden. The list of crap inflicted on Glidden and the library is long.
And while the activists have repeatedly waved a list of books around that they find objectionable, Glidden and others have repeatedly pointed out a simple fact--
Not one of those books is actually in the library.
Glidden resigned from the job, effective September 10, along with this post:
The library is facing a loss of its insurance, which may put its future in jeopardy. That certainly seems perfectly okay with some folks, for whom the whole concept of a public library that provides service for the whole public and not just the Right People--well, clearly some folks in Idaho aren't getting that at all.
It's one more small reminder that Christian Nationalists do not believe in democracy, but instead believe that a government's legitimacy comes from its alignment with proper Biblical principles and not from the consent of the governed. That set of beliefs is always (and has always) clashed with actual American values. Right now it appears that libraries will bear part of the brunt of that clash. Wait till these people hear about the internet.
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