A group of residents in Llano County, Texas, is suing county officials for removing books from public libraries because officials "disagree with the ideas within them.".
The residents say the county is violating their first amendment rights by removing award-winning books from shelves due to their content and terminating "access to over 17,000 digital books” from the local library system.
It continued, “They are not places where the people in power can dictate what their citizens are permitted to read about and learn.
When government actors target public library books because they disagree with and intend to suppress the ideas contained within them, it jeopardizes the freedoms of everyone.”.
In December 2021, the Llano County Library shut down for several days to review the children’s books in the library.
Llano County is just one of many nationwide fired up about the restriction of subjects in public libraries and schools.
The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has tracked a record-breaking number of book challenges, or attempts to ban or remove books, in 2021. »