While book challenges dominate headlines, thousands of titles are being removed quietly by library professionals. The debate is no longer just about external censorship, but also internal gatekeeping.
Removing "all books published before 2008" is dystopian science fiction. It's Fahrenheit 451 level insanity. It's Orwellian. It's as scary as "thank Uni"... I guess we're in a brave new world...
Maybe they would know that if they had actually read any of those books before throwing them out.
The John Galt memorialized in the 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand... It's fairly well known having sold more than 10 million copies. Given that the article is about books, not obscure real estate scams, I should have thought that was obvious.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure if you'll find a copy in your local library, but you can still find a copy on Amazon:
Thanks for this! Our local leaders and librarians have been turning our libraries into centers of social justice activism. It’s not clear to me that my library is actively banning books, but what they do is purchase many copies of the books they want us to read, recommend them, and place them in prominent places. They are not subtle about it. They have special areas dedicated to books that advocate for Black, Indigenous, Trans, and Queer “resistance” and “liberation”, arguing that they have a responsibility to “center historically marginalized communities”.
Libraries should be places to think freely, not places that tell us what to think. They should embrace our common humanity, not highlight our immutable characteristics, but they are doing the opposite. It’s part of a movement to “decolonize” libraries.
I also wrote about this recently, so if you’re interested, it’s on my Substack. We may be an extreme example of what the decolonized library looks like, but it seems to be a trend. Next time you see a bond measure to “improve” your libraries, look and listen carefully to what they are telling you.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment and for referring me to your excellent Substack on the reimagining/deconlonization of your local library! Unfortunately, your library is not an extreme example. I recommend everyone read Robert's "The “Reimagining” of Libraries" https://robert249030.substack.com/p/the-reimagining-of-libraries.
Our local library is somewhat similar. I find it disturbing that they have all this stuff, yet my own personal library has more (and better) books on both World War II and Vietnam (to name just two subject areas).
Thing is any decision is influential whether the decider is aware or not... Therein lies a part of a bigger problem - the active participation of a community in there own propaghandi! Moreover language and effectively community algorithms making process but that's a higher level..... Yet same pattern I'm pointing at - community design is community in so much as community is accommodated and participates. It meant to be a shared program - so what does shared mean? What mechanisms, etc. Jah know!?
While I am against censorship and agree that public libraries should be neutral, the rules are a bit more nuanced for school libraries. School libraries need to ensure the materials are age appropriate. Both certain ideas and sexually explicit materials have no place in school libraries. Now, we may argue about the "certain ideas" are, of course.
I agree that ensuring age appropriate materials in children's collections is NOT a form of censorship. Librarian's have a duty, especially in school libraries, to develop a collection tailored to children's developmental stages. Thank you for making this point.
I would encourage everyone to submit requests for libraries to purchase whatever books you would like them to carry. I live in an insane blue bubble area, and I have library privileges in 3 systems. Whenever I seek a book that they don't have, I request it. I have been pleased to find that some are pretty responsive, even when the author or book doesn't pass the 2020 Woke test.
This is an excellent suggestion! For the most part, libraries welcome suggestions for purchase as it helps build a collection that serves the community's needs. This is a great strategy to ensure your library offers multiple viewpoints and is included in FAIR in Libraries' Library Neutrality and Viewpoint Diversity Toolkit https://www.fairforall.org/fair-in-libraries-neutrality-viewpoint-diversity-toolkit/
Thank you for this important article. I would like to share a short video of a recent investigation into a major public library https://youtu.be/Ebrd24PsbGk to illustrate some of what you have written about.
Having worked in libraries I can attest there are some scary ideologues lurking in the stacks (so to speak). And it's not so much that they remove books...they have the ability to control what enters the collection in the first place. It's been this way for years if not decades.
Another trend to watch for is the "no one really reads, so let's turn the library into an electronic commons" movement. It's even easier for them to block content electronically, and the library's control over what journals and databases they subscribe to (or don't subscribe to) really exists with very little external notice or oversight.
Great point about the ease of censoring electronic information. This is why libraries often purchase titles considered "controversial" in e-book format only. It's much easier for these titles to disappear.
Beyond unfortunate for a civil and open society to have any external or internal book censorship in a library, and I have been reading more and more regarding this type of " subjective " winnowing the good from the bad. What would have been the reasoning of that particular school board for removing all books published before 2008 ?
This piece raises an uncomfortable but important point: in any knowledge-serving institution, the risk to open inquiry isn’t only external pressure; it can also come from internal incentives, norms, and “well-intentioned” gatekeeping that quietly narrows what the public is allowed to encounter. 
From a physician–scientist lens, the part that resonates is the systems pattern: we see the same failure mode in medicine and academia when “protecting people” slides into pre-deciding what people are permitted to see, without transparent criteria, documentation, or an appeals process. The result is rarely true safety; it’s loss of trust.
A few principles that feel clinically analogous (and practical for libraries/schools):
1. Transparency beats purity. If materials are removed, the why should be logged publicly (criteria, who decided, what alternatives were considered), and there should be a clear review pathway. Quiet purges create exactly the suspicion you’re describing. 
2. Neutrality is a method, not a vibe. “Viewpoint diversity” doesn’t mean giving every claim equal credibility; it means collections and curricula should reflect the real range of serious arguments, and teach readers how to evaluate them. 
3. Age-appropriateness needs process, not ideology. It’s reasonable to curate by developmental stage; it’s not reasonable to launder political preferences as “safety.” The boundary is best protected by consistent standards + accountable governance, not ad hoc removals. 
Your Jo Godwin quote is the clearest north star here: a library that never risks offending anyone isn’t neutral, but it’s curated to comfort the dominant sensibility of the moment.
Thank you for those principles and your thoughts on gatekeeping and protecting people. In the past, a library's role was to improve citizens which meant keeping "inappropriate" books off the shelf. Now books are kept off the shelf because they're "harmful".
In "Foundations of Library and Information Science", Richard Rubin asks “Are public libraries the cauldrons of democracy or the tools of social control?” Seems they're back to being tools of social control.
Your suggestion for making "deselection" transparent to the public is important. "Quiet purges" are rampant and an insult to taxpayers and democracy.
Not only this, but a huge faction of the literary agents -- nearly all of them millennial females -- are discriminating against anything that smacks of the 'right' side manner of thinking.
And these are gatekeepers that are destroying the industry, about whom little can be done. They will hire the next generation of censorious, unimaginative females -- the book world is doomed.
You are so right about censorship in the book publishing industry! There is censorship at every stage starting with author self-censorship and ending with controlled/limited offerings at libraries and book stores.
The article was interesting, but it also smacks of the kind of elitism that allows publishing to so easily function the way it does. I've always felt MFA programs exist primarily to push whatever political narrative is currently in vogue, and this does little to dispel that idea. Imagine the outrage if the quoted professor from Iowa had said "I don't think we need more women authors right now." MFAs make a certain segment feel good about themselves, but on the whole I think they're of questionable value outside of a very narrow band of fiction (which very few would read if it wasn't graced with the proper politically-approved authorial label).
I've mentioned before how ironic I find it that while the Left loves to decry "Nazis" they follow so many tactics and processes pioneered by the National Socialists, right down to labeling themselves based on non-existent racial terms. They've already pinned on their colored triangles without anyone forcing them to.
This has, unfortunately, been going on for some time (not starting with millennials). The rise of small presses was supposed to "correct" this, but unfortunately many of them cater to the same left-wing National Socialist mindset.
We're becoming a low-trust nation and with that comes the hypocrisy and corruption endemic to a system of in-group/out-group double standards. It's an alarmingly small percentage of the population that has shown even a modicum of commitment to any objective principles.
I agree but the US has been a low-trust nation for a while. Cultural and institutional corruption has plagued American society for a significant amount of time now people are just starting to become more aware of it.
This is the difference between books for minors about falling in love, and books for minors abut fornication, oral and anal sex, and more. Libraries should never have countenanced such books for minors. In doing so they brought this disaster on themselves.
A small organization called Library Watchers of Greater Lowell (on Facebook) is in the business of regularly requesting books that are not present in Massachusetts libraries. We've recently found a winner that is not only unavailable anywhere in Massachusetts, but seems to be unlisted in WorldCat as well, Zachary Elliott's "The Sex Development Handbook". https://theparadoxinstitute.org/print/books/sex-development-handbook . Nicely blurbed, well illustrated, well bound --- we all know that libraries regularly purchase books of far lesser quality. If there is a book to request now from your local public library, this one is it.
Library Watchers of Greater Lowell is an excellent example of what citizens can do to ensure neutrality and viewpoint diversity at their local library. Thank you for starting and running this project. Very interesting Elliot's book is not listed in WorldCat! I will be requesting this book at my local public library.
It's a hard book to find because it's out of print. It's also a niche academic title so there likely weren't many printed. I got my copy from a used book website but that site (Better World Books) doesn't currently have any copies.
Removing "all books published before 2008" is dystopian science fiction. It's Fahrenheit 451 level insanity. It's Orwellian. It's as scary as "thank Uni"... I guess we're in a brave new world...
Maybe they would know that if they had actually read any of those books before throwing them out.
Oh well... who is John Galt, anyway?
Zev
The John Galt memorialized here? https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Libertarian_paradise#Galt.27s_Gulch
No...
The John Galt memorialized in the 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand... It's fairly well known having sold more than 10 million copies. Given that the article is about books, not obscure real estate scams, I should have thought that was obvious.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure if you'll find a copy in your local library, but you can still find a copy on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Shrugged-Centennial-AYN-RAND/dp/B0027M0HV6/
An abridged copy is available here for free: https://web.archive.org/web/20010611101807/www.spudworks.com/article/66/2/
That abridged version lacks a certain je ne sais quoi from the original.
If you're pressed for time, I suggest this one:
https://tinyurl.com/ej99xk5b
:-)
Thanks for this! Our local leaders and librarians have been turning our libraries into centers of social justice activism. It’s not clear to me that my library is actively banning books, but what they do is purchase many copies of the books they want us to read, recommend them, and place them in prominent places. They are not subtle about it. They have special areas dedicated to books that advocate for Black, Indigenous, Trans, and Queer “resistance” and “liberation”, arguing that they have a responsibility to “center historically marginalized communities”.
Libraries should be places to think freely, not places that tell us what to think. They should embrace our common humanity, not highlight our immutable characteristics, but they are doing the opposite. It’s part of a movement to “decolonize” libraries.
I also wrote about this recently, so if you’re interested, it’s on my Substack. We may be an extreme example of what the decolonized library looks like, but it seems to be a trend. Next time you see a bond measure to “improve” your libraries, look and listen carefully to what they are telling you.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment and for referring me to your excellent Substack on the reimagining/deconlonization of your local library! Unfortunately, your library is not an extreme example. I recommend everyone read Robert's "The “Reimagining” of Libraries" https://robert249030.substack.com/p/the-reimagining-of-libraries.
Thank you, Catherine! I'm happy to hear you read it and liked it.
Our local library is somewhat similar. I find it disturbing that they have all this stuff, yet my own personal library has more (and better) books on both World War II and Vietnam (to name just two subject areas).
Thing is any decision is influential whether the decider is aware or not... Therein lies a part of a bigger problem - the active participation of a community in there own propaghandi! Moreover language and effectively community algorithms making process but that's a higher level..... Yet same pattern I'm pointing at - community design is community in so much as community is accommodated and participates. It meant to be a shared program - so what does shared mean? What mechanisms, etc. Jah know!?
"The good news is that more librarians are speaking up about the insider threat to intellectual freedom."
Really hope so.
Trees falling in remote forests of trees falling in...
While I am against censorship and agree that public libraries should be neutral, the rules are a bit more nuanced for school libraries. School libraries need to ensure the materials are age appropriate. Both certain ideas and sexually explicit materials have no place in school libraries. Now, we may argue about the "certain ideas" are, of course.
I agree that ensuring age appropriate materials in children's collections is NOT a form of censorship. Librarian's have a duty, especially in school libraries, to develop a collection tailored to children's developmental stages. Thank you for making this point.
I would encourage everyone to submit requests for libraries to purchase whatever books you would like them to carry. I live in an insane blue bubble area, and I have library privileges in 3 systems. Whenever I seek a book that they don't have, I request it. I have been pleased to find that some are pretty responsive, even when the author or book doesn't pass the 2020 Woke test.
This is an excellent suggestion! For the most part, libraries welcome suggestions for purchase as it helps build a collection that serves the community's needs. This is a great strategy to ensure your library offers multiple viewpoints and is included in FAIR in Libraries' Library Neutrality and Viewpoint Diversity Toolkit https://www.fairforall.org/fair-in-libraries-neutrality-viewpoint-diversity-toolkit/
Thank you for this important article. I would like to share a short video of a recent investigation into a major public library https://youtu.be/Ebrd24PsbGk to illustrate some of what you have written about.
Thank you for this important investigation into library staff activism!! I'm sharing it widely and look forward to future episodes.
Having worked in libraries I can attest there are some scary ideologues lurking in the stacks (so to speak). And it's not so much that they remove books...they have the ability to control what enters the collection in the first place. It's been this way for years if not decades.
Another trend to watch for is the "no one really reads, so let's turn the library into an electronic commons" movement. It's even easier for them to block content electronically, and the library's control over what journals and databases they subscribe to (or don't subscribe to) really exists with very little external notice or oversight.
Great point about the ease of censoring electronic information. This is why libraries often purchase titles considered "controversial" in e-book format only. It's much easier for these titles to disappear.
Subtraction, yes but addition too.
https://ourduty.group/canada/books-that-indoctrinate-young-children/
Thank you for this extensive (and disturbing) list!
Beyond unfortunate for a civil and open society to have any external or internal book censorship in a library, and I have been reading more and more regarding this type of " subjective " winnowing the good from the bad. What would have been the reasoning of that particular school board for removing all books published before 2008 ?
Librarians were instructed to "promote anti-racism, inclusivity and critical consciousness” in collections and remove “any harmful, oppressive or colonial content". Most books removed were published before 2008. https://aristotlefoundation.org/columns/banning-books-and-burning-books/
One of the worst examples: https://ourduty.group/2024/11/13/dei-is-the-syringe-gender-ideology-is-the-serum/
This reminds me of another disturbing trend; sensitivity readers & revised children's classics. Salman Rushdie called it "absurd censorship" by "bowdlerizing sensitivity police". https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2023/02/20/salman-rushdie-attacks-roald-dahl-rewrites-as-absurd-censorship_6016569_30.html
This piece raises an uncomfortable but important point: in any knowledge-serving institution, the risk to open inquiry isn’t only external pressure; it can also come from internal incentives, norms, and “well-intentioned” gatekeeping that quietly narrows what the public is allowed to encounter. 
From a physician–scientist lens, the part that resonates is the systems pattern: we see the same failure mode in medicine and academia when “protecting people” slides into pre-deciding what people are permitted to see, without transparent criteria, documentation, or an appeals process. The result is rarely true safety; it’s loss of trust.
A few principles that feel clinically analogous (and practical for libraries/schools):
1. Transparency beats purity. If materials are removed, the why should be logged publicly (criteria, who decided, what alternatives were considered), and there should be a clear review pathway. Quiet purges create exactly the suspicion you’re describing. 
2. Neutrality is a method, not a vibe. “Viewpoint diversity” doesn’t mean giving every claim equal credibility; it means collections and curricula should reflect the real range of serious arguments, and teach readers how to evaluate them. 
3. Age-appropriateness needs process, not ideology. It’s reasonable to curate by developmental stage; it’s not reasonable to launder political preferences as “safety.” The boundary is best protected by consistent standards + accountable governance, not ad hoc removals. 
Your Jo Godwin quote is the clearest north star here: a library that never risks offending anyone isn’t neutral, but it’s curated to comfort the dominant sensibility of the moment.
Thank you for those principles and your thoughts on gatekeeping and protecting people. In the past, a library's role was to improve citizens which meant keeping "inappropriate" books off the shelf. Now books are kept off the shelf because they're "harmful".
In "Foundations of Library and Information Science", Richard Rubin asks “Are public libraries the cauldrons of democracy or the tools of social control?” Seems they're back to being tools of social control.
Your suggestion for making "deselection" transparent to the public is important. "Quiet purges" are rampant and an insult to taxpayers and democracy.
Not only this, but a huge faction of the literary agents -- nearly all of them millennial females -- are discriminating against anything that smacks of the 'right' side manner of thinking.
And these are gatekeepers that are destroying the industry, about whom little can be done. They will hire the next generation of censorious, unimaginative females -- the book world is doomed.
You are so right about censorship in the book publishing industry! There is censorship at every stage starting with author self-censorship and ending with controlled/limited offerings at libraries and book stores.
This is an interesting look at the gatekeeping in the publishing industry: https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-vanishing-white-male-writer/
This is a podcast about the impact biased book reviews have on the selection of library titles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVSeQF6MH9Q
The article was interesting, but it also smacks of the kind of elitism that allows publishing to so easily function the way it does. I've always felt MFA programs exist primarily to push whatever political narrative is currently in vogue, and this does little to dispel that idea. Imagine the outrage if the quoted professor from Iowa had said "I don't think we need more women authors right now." MFAs make a certain segment feel good about themselves, but on the whole I think they're of questionable value outside of a very narrow band of fiction (which very few would read if it wasn't graced with the proper politically-approved authorial label).
I've mentioned before how ironic I find it that while the Left loves to decry "Nazis" they follow so many tactics and processes pioneered by the National Socialists, right down to labeling themselves based on non-existent racial terms. They've already pinned on their colored triangles without anyone forcing them to.
This has, unfortunately, been going on for some time (not starting with millennials). The rise of small presses was supposed to "correct" this, but unfortunately many of them cater to the same left-wing National Socialist mindset.
We're becoming a low-trust nation and with that comes the hypocrisy and corruption endemic to a system of in-group/out-group double standards. It's an alarmingly small percentage of the population that has shown even a modicum of commitment to any objective principles.
I agree but the US has been a low-trust nation for a while. Cultural and institutional corruption has plagued American society for a significant amount of time now people are just starting to become more aware of it.
This is the difference between books for minors about falling in love, and books for minors abut fornication, oral and anal sex, and more. Libraries should never have countenanced such books for minors. In doing so they brought this disaster on themselves.
A small organization called Library Watchers of Greater Lowell (on Facebook) is in the business of regularly requesting books that are not present in Massachusetts libraries. We've recently found a winner that is not only unavailable anywhere in Massachusetts, but seems to be unlisted in WorldCat as well, Zachary Elliott's "The Sex Development Handbook". https://theparadoxinstitute.org/print/books/sex-development-handbook . Nicely blurbed, well illustrated, well bound --- we all know that libraries regularly purchase books of far lesser quality. If there is a book to request now from your local public library, this one is it.
Library Watchers of Greater Lowell is an excellent example of what citizens can do to ensure neutrality and viewpoint diversity at their local library. Thank you for starting and running this project. Very interesting Elliot's book is not listed in WorldCat! I will be requesting this book at my local public library.
Is “Flight from reason” just a rare book? I can’t seem to find it where it’s not $100.
It's a hard book to find because it's out of print. It's also a niche academic title so there likely weren't many printed. I got my copy from a used book website but that site (Better World Books) doesn't currently have any copies.