Amanda Jones, a school librarian in Louisiana who fought back against book banning, will appear at a Writers LIVE! event at Enoch Pratt Free Library on Monday, Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. She will be discussing her memoir, “THAT LIBRARIAN: The Fight Against Book Banning in America” with Stacey Nunn, president of the Maryland Association of School Librarians.
In many parts of the country, groups have worked to ban books from schools and public libraries that touch on topics running even remotely counter to their values.
Moms For Liberty is the most well-known of these groups, and even they are gaining a following in Maryland, with chapters in nine counties, including Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Howard, and Montgomery counties. Their approach has been to promote and help enact bans on books with LGBTQ characters from school libraries. The Southern Poverty Law Center has categorized it as an Extremist Group.
Jones has plenty of experience with this sort of pressure. Her memoir is the story of her fight against book banning in the small Louisiana town in which she was born and raised, and where she was a middle school librarian. Her commitment to intellectual freedom fueled her in these battles and inspired others.
The book also tells the stories of other librarians who live in towns embroiled in this issue, impacting educators, authors, parents and children in cities of all sizes and small towns around the nation.
Jones was one of the first librarians in the country to file a lawsuit for defamation against her detractors. This garnered her support from fellow librarians, educators, authors, publishers, and notable figures from around the world. Oprah Winfrey mentioned her in her speech at the 2023 National Book Awards, saying, “Amanda Jones started getting death threats, all for standing up for our right to read . . . but she’s not stopped fighting against book bans or stopped advocating for access to diverse stories.”
She has been interviewed by the New York Times Book Review, NPR’s Here and Now, and MSNBC’S Morning Joe. Jones was the 2021 School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year, 2021 Library Journal Mover & Shaker, and 2020 Louisiana School Librarian of the Year.
Jones also co-founded the Livingston Parish Library Alliance to defeat censorship attempts in her community and is a founding member of the Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, which fights against censorship efforts across the state.
For more details and to register for Enoch Pratt’s Writers LIVE! event with Amanda Jones, “That Librarian,” click this link.
Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Central Branch is located at 400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD.
