by Dr. Anne Mulhern

Two week ago, the libraries of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (https://mblc.state.ma.us/index.php) participated in the American Library Association’s (https://www.ala.org) “Banned Books Week” (https://www.ala.org/bbooks/banned) celebration (more recently known as “Freedom to Read” week). The ALA, the MBLC, and your local public libraries heaped praise on themselves for the “courageous” stand that they were taking against censorship and “book bans”.

One week ago, the Tewksbury Public Library cancelled (https://insidelowell.com/local-library-cancels-event-cites-staff-bullying/) a talk that it was scheduled to host about differences between males and females, especially as they affect sports performance, due to bullying of the staff by those opposed to the talk proceeding.

One day later, though, the event was rescheduled for the very next day (https://insidelowell.com/un-cancelled-a-victory-for-free-speech/) in an abrupt volte-face that made the national news.

I want to thank those courageous residents of Tewksbury who spoke out and somehow effected this change as well as those at the library who arranged the talk and then persevered with hosting it in the face of the bullying that they had been subjected to. Kudos!

But what of the ALA and the MBLC, who so continuously and insistently declare themselves to be our anti-censorship champions?

In spite of the fact that this event made national news, neither of these self-proclaimed opponents of censorship has taken notice of the incident on their website or in any of their social media as far as I can tell. It looks as if, if we are truly opposed to censorship and “book bans,” it is up to us, the citizens of Lowell and the surrounding areas, to take action independently of these organizations.

This is my proposal: every week Library Watchers of Greater Lowell (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556735437296) will post a book or other item that ought to be available in some library in the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium (MVLC), the consortium of libraries to which Pollard Memorial Library and the nearby libraries belong, but isn’t.

You can request that your library purchase that book.

Most libraries have a book request form on their website; if you can’t find that, just send an email to the library director.

Please feel free to let Library Watchers of Greater Lowell know if you request the item along with any other information that you think is relevant.

The first nominated book is “My Body is Me,” a children’s picture book by Rachel Rooney (https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid031QG83ggfNnwDJe14SuzTdWoav2ygUWYph72KEMD6pyoxq9njo1PxGGrUo64Txe9hl&id=61556735437296)

At present I have a list of about 40 books missing from the MVLC that really should have been purchased by some member library. These include books for children and books for adults, both fiction and non-fiction. At the rate of one book a week, that is about a year’s worth of locally banned books.

Contact Library Watchers of Greater Lowell if you have a book that you want to nominate for the “Banned Book Request of the Week.”

Let’s make “Freedom to Read” week happen every week by getting these banned books into our libraries. And someday, maybe, that list of locally banned books will be empty. Isn’t that what we all want?

Thanks in advance for your efforts.