News - MLA | |||
Monday, September 23, 2024 12:00 AM | |||
Note From Debbie
September 26, 2024 Stronger together! That was the uniting message coming out of Washington DC this past week at the National Summit on Intellectual Freedom for 150 librarians, library association executives, representatives from the ACLU, NCAC, PFLAG, publishers, authors, the Obama Foundation, booksellers, Red Wine & Blue, advocates, and so many others. MLA was honored to have been invited, not only to represent our members and association but also to represent the International Council for Library Association Executives (ICLAE) that we are a part of. For over three years, since the beginning of the culture wars that have put our First Amendment Rights through unprecedented challenges, those invited to attend have been on the frontlines guarding and protecting these rights. What we came to realize in our short time together is that we all represent and speak to diverse and unique communities. But, at the end of the day, we all agreed that we must step up TOGETHER, find a common message, fight like hell, and leave egos at the door. We need to acknowledge the hard, exhausting, and daunting work, and that we have to do it anyway. As we all know, MLA’s focus is on libraries and library workers. Libraries were created for the dissemination of knowledge and are training grounds for democracy. No matter who you are, everyone has access, libraries are for the entire community. Those who are anti-library, who are anti-book, put in peril all the other offerings we do in service to our communities when wanting to ban a book. But we must remember, we are all in this together and the challenges we face are not just library-centric – the challenges to our First Amendment rights are universal to all. We must look beyond our own communities and know that every citizen of our country is affected. It is crystal clear that we share similar and overlapping values with so many other associations and groups. Toward the end of the summit, one of the speakers, David Levithan, an author and founder of Authors Against Book Bans, spoke my truths about what needs to happen next, and I share them with you.
In my humble opinion…FREE PEOPLE READ FREELY…must be our shared message across our libraries, across our publishing world, across the associations that were present, and through the voices of creative writers and authors. It is a strong and positive message. Joyful in fact. We must be loud and clear…our voices must be amplified…access to all expressions of knowledge and intellectual activity must be guaranteed for every citizen of our state and nation. And yes, we are STRONGER TOGETHER! Deborah E. Mikula
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