“The hope is the risk of losing critical state funds will dissuade cities and towns from the kind of bans we’ve seen,” says PW’s Andrew Albanese.
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois has signed a first-in-the-nation law to discourage book bans in Illinois libraries.
While most public libraries in the state are funded largely at the local level, state funding is significant. According to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office, the state awarded 1,631 grants to Illinois libraries totaling more than $62 million in the last fiscal year, with 97% going to public and school libraries.
“Many have said HB 2789 bans book bans, which it doesn’t,” explains Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer
“What it does is condition state grant funding for libraries on adopting the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights or adopting a similar written policy,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “And the hope is the risk of losing these critical funds will dissuade Illinois libraries from the kind of bans we’re seeing in large numbers nationally.”
The ALA guidelines, for example, protect books and other resources from being “proscribed, removed, or restricted” based on “partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”
Every Friday, CCC’s “Velocity of Content” features the editors and reporters of Publishers Weekly for an early look at what news publishers, editors, authors, agents, and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.
