Libraries: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

our main story tonight concerns books you know beloved works like The Great Gatsby Charlotte's Webb and the barenstein Bears and you might think barenstein is misspelled there you might remember it as s i n but that's wrong it's a weird Mandela effect thing that a lot of people misremember but it's always been the baron stain beavers it was always spelled with an a specifically we're going to be talking about public libraries which of course lend books but increasingly have become so much more than that sure you can check out books and DVDs here at placental library but now you can also check out one of these you can also check out a fishing pole and keep it for 3 weeks you can check out a really neat telescope and have a star party with your family alongside books and movies are things like air fryers and bun cake pans if you want to plant a garden we have SE so you can check out I don't know of anywhere else that they can borrow a mounted sandill Trin and just study it up close yeah I'll bet there isn't anywhere else that you can borrow a mountain sandhill crane because according to taxidermy.net message boards they're very difficult to mount when a user named Eric asked for sandhill crane mounting information before I tackle these tall guys one person said so you know in advance you will use Every curse word when you are wiring the legs or someone called Greg suggested contacting a magazine that had cover the topic recently saying quote I am not a bird guy but I remember reading that article and thinking it was fairly easy which shut up Greg sit this one out Eric's clearly stressing you telling him to call a magazine he's reaching out to his community for support and you're not that Community right now you're not a bird guy well this is a bird guy's only combo okay Greg you the point is at some libraries you can now borrow pretty much anything from a fishing pole to a leaf blower to seeds to a copy of a barenstein Badgers book again your remember is wrong Baron stain badges was always spelled b a r there was never an e in there not just that though libraries offer internet access translation help notary services Printing and a bunch of other necessities they're also a refuge for unhoused people or those without air conditioning or heating all of which explains why libraries are incredibly popular garnering an estimated 4 million visits every day mostly by young adults women and lowincome households but as you probably know from the fact that I'm talking about libraries right now they're in trouble because they've become another front in the ongoing culture War we've talked before about how conservatives have targeted School libraries but those debates have now emphatically migrated over to public libraries as well with residents spouting talking points like these I do not want our children grandchildren seeing these books I feel they're damaging psychologically it isn't left versus right but it's right versus wrong these books are wrong and they're destroying our community books in our taxpayers funed libraries make the jobs of human and child traffickers easier okay that last one sounds a little hard to believe unless one of the books at that Library happens to be child trafficking for dummies but those aren't isolated instances the American Library Association documented efforts to sense over 4,200 unique book titles last year in schools and libraries the highest level they've ever recorded with the number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries in particular Rising by 92% from the pre previous year and that's not all bomb threats have been called into libraries across the country and Librarians themselves have been the recipients of some pretty nasty abuse I had heard people saying that I was a pedophile I was grooming kids people in my profession called pedophiles and like these horrible horrible things I can say unequivocally we are not pedophiles or groomers um and I can say that on behalf of our staff that that is not why we go into public service or librarianship yeah of course not that is why you go into the clergy everybody knows that we all know so given all of this tonight let's talk about public libraries why they're under attack where these challenges are coming from and what the consequences might be and let's start with how public libraries operate because generally they receive the vast majority of their funding from local government sources and they're typically overseen by a local library board which can either be elected or appointed by by members of the local government and Librarians actually get rid of books all the time through a process known as weeding weeding is done for all sorts of good reasons like a book being out of date severely damaged or simply so weird no one wants to check it out anymore books like body watching is Fun latata the naughty horse learns to say no to drugs and the Christian Child discipline classic God the rod and your child's bot fun fact a new copy of that is currently selling on Amazon for $2 $14 so if you don't want to pay that you better hope your local library has it or you know what you can actually just borrow my coffee here instead it's fine but what we're talking about tonight isn't weeding it's books being removed or relocated from one section to another purely for their content and most libraries already have a book challenge protocol allowing anyone who feels that a book violates its selection policies to submit a formal request for reconsideration after which staff will review the complaints and decide whether to leave it reshel it or remove it entirely and you should know there are some legal limits here you can't just demand a book be banned even if it is to protect the children and that's because through the years the Supreme Court has recognized that speech cannot be suppressed solely to protect the Young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable for them but there's an exception when it comes to obscenity which for minors is defined as material that appeals to their puran interest is offens Ive to prevailing standards about what is suitable for minors and lack serious literary artistic political or scientific value the problem is some have tried to apply that standard incredibly broadly take what happened in hunting to Beach California where the city council mandated that library books containing any content of sexual nature be moved away from anyone under 18 at the direction of the Huntington Beach city council Librarians at the Central Library are starting to sort through thousands of books in the children's section their task according to officials is to relocate books that contain quote sexual content Library staff began in the health section and pulled books pertaining to the human body and puberty we also saw books about boats that were being moved a peek at the pages show a child in a bathtub playing with toy boats and a sketch of early explorers yeah it's ridiculous and it wasn't just shirtless rowers and kids in tubs that got flagged that resolution ultimately relocated books like own your period puberty is gross but also really awesome and Everyone Poops to the adult section of the library and it is ridiculous to do that especially when you're keeping shell Silverstein books in the kids area books which contain actual author photos like this one if a kid borrows Ronny babbit reads it to the end and sees that photo don't be surprised if their first question is Mommy what's big dick energy and that is not an isolated case in one town in Texas officials removed three books from the I need a new butt series which is a children's book about a boy who needs a new butt because his has a crack and I haven't read it yet so don't spoil the End by telling me if he gets one or not they also pulled four books about farts starring a goose a snowman a heart and a leprechaun and first you got to be pretty stupid to believe that they are harmful to children and second it does seem that you can make a killing writing books about farting because there are so many of them including these are all real ones about farting flamingos farting unicorns farting turkeys farting princesses farting dragons and of course Gary the farting gingerbread man and while those instances were one-offs increasingly the list of books challenged at libraries can be suspiciously similar and that is because challenges are often coming through highly organized groups often conservative and extremely religious who are compiling and sharing lists of books to oppose up until 2021 the vast major majority of challenges only sought to remove or restrict a single book but now 93% of them involve attempts to censor multiple titles with more than half involving a hundred or more books and that starts to make sense when you see how these groups operate take cleanup Samuels which is sadly not a group organized around the collective goal of washing as many guys named Samuel as possible instead refers to Samuel's public library in Front Royal Virginia the groups held events at which people filled out over 500 100 forms challenging nearly 150 books with one event promising beer and babysitting which might be the most divorced dad activity I can think of okay kids uh get in the car I need to go protect your innocence by drinking beer and looking at babysitters those book challenges heavily targeted books with lgbtq plus characters or themes with people frequently admitting when asked if they'd read the books in full that they hadn't with answers ranging from no to who that is normal could get through it to I looked at the summary it told me all I needed to know and that is possible because these groups often find problematic books by scanning websites and Facebook pages that list them like Maring the library rated books and perhaps the most prevalent book looks and for a site set up as a moral Crusader it is a bit weird that in their logo the B and the L are I mean like definitely right I know sometimes I project hoiness when it isn't there except for that shell Silverstein photo cuz I'm dying on that hill but I'm having a genuinely hard time seeing anything in that logo that isn't a strong bee taking an Willing L and absolutely breaking its back book looks rates books on a zero to five scale from least to most objectionable sometimes including a handy chart noting the amount of times that certain words are used for instance this is the chart for the book Wicked and I'll just say if there was a party game where you had to guess a book or movie based solely on one of those charts you could sell no exaggeration 10 million of those games okay so let let me see it's it's a novel from 2001 24 o so it's it's not life of pie not the other Bolin girl hang on nine dicks wait is it choke by Chuck panick yes 24 yes I love this game even our book A Day in the Life of Marlon Bund which has been challenged a bunch in libraries he criticized for featuring alternate sexualities and controversial political and social commentary citing the illustration on this page depicts two male rabbits holding paws as a human would hold another person's hand the rabbits are discussing how much they love each other and want to marry one another you know filth but but that is clearly nonsense if there is anything controversial in our book it's that the animals dress up for Weddings But at other times they're mostly naked except for this Badger whose arms turn into sleeves and even then the problem isn't the implied nakedness it's just the lack of consistency there now to be fair some titles on these lists do contain explicit content in some cases they books about puberty and others they may be meant for teenagers and contain references to sex which is exactly why they're not shelved with children's books to begin with libraries generally have an adult section A young adult section and a kid section it is not like teen books with explicit content a sheld right next to the barenstein bees book yeah it's always been spelled e e n your your memory is just very bad but the content often gets framed in extremely misleading ways for instance the book let's talk about it has been repeatedly challenged it's buil as the teen Guide to Sex relationships and being a human and here is how one m in Iowa argued for it to be restricted at her local library when I initially read this book I was filled with anger quote sending or getting an unwanted Saucy something from a partner or individual can be the highlight of your day period it is thrilling sexy and fun the online world is also a chalk block full of pornography professionals and amateurs alike sharing their sexy Adventures online there is nothing wrong with enjoying some corn it is a fun sugary treat I have to pause because no matter how many times I say these words it scares me okay first porn is a sugar Retreat sounds like the tagline For an upcoming x-rated spin on Gummy Bears an adult film that either exists already or will shortly after this episode ends but look those words are in the book and if you go on book looks you'll see they're quoted on their review page but if you actually read the book itself you'll see that they are surrounded by a lot of careful advice for instance that one line about sexting has a ton of context around it with advice like get prior consent don't share or spread the photos you receive and wait till you're a legal adult to do it as for that sugary treat line it is part of a long thoughtful discussion that includes among many other things that porn can create unrealistic expectations the people you see on camera are real human beings who deserve your respect and if the amount of porn you watch feels like it's impacting your life then it's probably time to pull back and give it some thought which is good advice and in a country where 17 states provide abstinence only sex education it might be the most honest discussion about porn some teens get especially if they have the kind of mom who has a panic attack at the very idea of it and why she will say that she just wanted the library to require parental permission to access the book which is still a big barrier to a teenager who might need to read it there have been other attempts to try and get it out of libraries alt together and you do get the sense that people who want to censor these books can have no real idea of what's inside them or indeed if they're even at the libraries they're protesting at all as happened in Idaho 5 years years ago this was anointed the best small library in America today the trustees are facing a recall the director just resigned do you feel that you've given in that you've been defeated here that part of me does yes but they start showing up at your house guns on their hips and Bible tracks in their hands activists demanding that the library ban more than 400 books like gender queer and even if we do nothing to you eventually if you don't repent of wanting to harm our children with pornography that's up to God things need to change otherwise you bring curses upon yourselves period from the most high are any of those books in the library not a single one yeah it's true activists demanded that books they hadn't read be removed from a library that didn't have them which as far as protest go is about as meaningful as marching to the Hollywood Sign to demand Frankie munies return his Oscar for Schindler's List he not there he wasn't in that and the Very fact that you're protesting this tells me you're probably not familiar with the material and even after that group was told the library didn't have any of the 400 books they wanted banned they demanded its board pass a policy promising not to order controversial books or if they did to place them in an adults only room they also asked the library to judge books under God's standards and not of the world standards you know God the freak known for building the nude Garden he could watch all day the guy who Commission in the construction of an all animal boat and who sat back and watched while his own son got nailed oh I'm sorry am I misunderstanding the Bible by taking things out of context forgive me I haven't read it I looked at the summary it told me all I needed to know and it is worth taking a moment on the book they mentioned there gender quit because it is the most frequently challenged book in America for the last three years running it's a graphic novel that's the Memoir of a an author's struggles with gender identity but but is often reduced out of context to some of its most explicit passages one of which you might remember was read aloud in the Senate last year by John Kennedy I got a new strap strap on harness today I can't wait to put it on you it will fit my favorite dildo perfectly you're going to look so hot I can't wait to have your in my mouth I'm going to give you the of your life then I want you inside of me that clip is just a perfect mix of being horrendously disorienting and kind of delightful it's like watching a dog walk on its hind legs and then watching the same dog say I can't wait to have your in my mouth now it is not unreasonable to say that shouldn't be sheld directly alongside the picture books in the children's section of the library and you know who agrees with that the author of the book I don't think the book is for children but I do think that it is appropriate for teen readers and also that libraries have books for all ages and you shove them with signage and people browse and find the books that they need in a library and not every book in a library is for every reader but they still need to be available exactly it's not a children's book which is why it's not sheld with them and that author raises an important distinction there some books aren't appropriate for 5-year-olds but might be if you're 16 because those are two very different phases of life that we don't treat the same way it's why a 16-year-old driving a car is perfectly legal and a 5-year-old driving a car is a news story and yet for some keeping books like gender queer out of the kids section where again it isn't still isn't enough children are very literal they're very impressionable they're going to look at those pictures and they very much look like children in the pictures sex isn't for kids it has serious consequences we should not be encouraging them to engage in sexual acts in leir the book is shelv in the adult section but Park says it's still attractive to children I mean it's beautiful it really is it's nature so I think this would attract any child because it looks like a car you know it's cartoonish but it's in the adult section if a child finds it it's because they're somewhere that they're not supposed to be so if anything the kid should get into trouble not the book and honestly that is where the rod comes in look he's eating cookies on the cover he needs to be stopped the argument is basically this can't be on Library shelves because a kid could somehow find it but that is something to which this understandably exasperated librarian in Louisiana has a pretty good response I have parents who want these books out of the library because they don't want adults to have access because what if my child goes in the adult section if your child is in the library by itself or their s sorry uh they probably have a phone in which case my library is the least of your problems right this entire debate basically ends the second you remember the existence of the internet if your child has a phone they already have access to the most sexualized images you could imagine by which of course I mean this uppercase B taking L on a oneway trip to downtown like the last two letters trying to start a new alphabet and look thankfully not all these challenges are successful that Mom's efforts to get let's talk about it restricted at her local library failed but in many places even if that happens the fight isn't over because these groups will then campaign to replace members of Library boards sometimes doing so with wildly misleading claims like in this ad endorsing two conservative board candidates hi Mom I'm home hi honey I'm in the kitchen how are you today how was school we went to the library today and there's a special room for kids and this funny lady she uh read us a book and she showed us all the pictures in the book mommy yes honey what's anal [Applause] sex okay so there is lots wrong with that including that no kid hears the words anal sex and then he's like I'm going to ask my mom about that later no way you go to your friend with the oldest older sister and sit with her the whole bus ride home also it is not important but where the was she going with that dish I'm not trying to Monday Morning Quarterback her process everything else about her dishwashing is totally normal you get dressed in your regular chores outfits no gloves and a spotless sundress check and check then you wash dishes without any soap that all makes sense to me but why would she hold a soaking wet UNS soaked dish instead of putting it back in the sink you going to put it away it's too wet for that lady is it heading for a drawing rack if so why would it be so far away from the sink move your glass with one flower out of there and put a drawing Rack in its place you Dopey freak but the thing is the two candidates that ad was supporting won and who is on the library board matters in Campbell County Wyoming the library systems executive director refused to remove 17 books sented around the experiences of lgbtq plus people and I will note not one of the requests to remove the books had come from a parent whose child looked at or checked out a book that their parents thought was inappropriate not one and and while the library board initially backed her the County Commission then quickly appointed four new members to the board who then moved to fire her although before the vote they did get this impassioned speech from a local resident can you start outline books because of your personal religious and moral beliefs in this country you're you're going against the Constitution you're going against what we were founded for and you're personally an affront to myself and most of the people I know this is a show and I'm embarrassed for this board thank you wow I have to say usually when you see a white guy with a bushy mustache holding a microphone at a town meeting you get worried but he proved my expectations wrong there kudos to you guy i' otherwise assume storm the capital but but for all the support the argument to defend the library director got in that room just a little later the board did this I make a motion to um vote for Terry Lesley's position to be terminated as the Campell County Public Library director all in favor wow you have it yeah they fired her and for what it's worth you shouldn't be allowed to fire someone while wearing this dumb of a hat that that was bought on a beach day in carbo you screamed how much Poore and how much dairo and the guy claimed he was giving you a deal while charging you double and you were like graas I'm going to wear this to the meeting where I fire a librarian despite public opposition the carbo hat I got for muaro penda that means that means on sale gracius inor myen the point it is these groups have all sorts of levers they can pull and if all else fails they can even try and cut the libraryies funding all together in Jamestown Michigan community members voted to defund a library after an intense campaign by residents who accused it of grooming children and promoting an lgbtq ideology despite the fact that of roughly 67,000 items in the library's collection only around 90 of them had lgbtq themes yet that vote eliminated 84% of their annual budget so naturally the library was immediately under threat of closing and a and a board meeting afterward one librarian pointed out that this was a natural consequence of voter's actions I am shocked that the people are surprised that the library will close you can't vote to eliminate funding for the library and say you don't want it to close you can't say you're doing it just to send a message and not expect there to be consequences to your actions it's not a symbolic move it's a death sentence and I hope the community is prepared to live with that exactly why wouldn't the library close if most of its funding is cut any establishment whether it's a business or a government service needs money to operate if you don't believe me just visit your local Circuit City and ask them to explain it to you now thankfully last November there was a vote to restore that library's funding through next year and it passed comfortably and that is the thing here protecting libraries is a fight but it's also winnable it just means standing up to all these attacks whenever they occur and they are occurring a lot this year alone more than a 100 bills have been introduced in state legislatures intended to ban or restrict material in school and public librar some of which are Bonkers just last week the Alabama House advanced a bill allowing Librarians to be arrested for the content they allow on shelves and Arkansas and Oklahoma have already passed laws to make it possible to prosecute Librarians for Distributing obscene content this is all Madness and it speaks to the need for libraries to be vigorously defended and I know it is not shocking that an episode of this show would Advocate to support your local libraries it's pretty much implicit in our whole vibe my suit glasses and desk all practically scream support your local libraries to which the rest of my body would say out of respect but depending on where you live you might need to pay attention if people start showing up at your local library board meeting and reading ear catching parts of young adult books because while it is understandable for parents to want to have a say in what their kids can check out from the library it is not their right to have a say in what can be checked out at all and it frankly doesn't feel like a coincidence that so much of this conversation concerns lgbtq themes as it seems this is just the latest way to try and push that Community out of public spaces to send a message that their lives and stories aren't welcome and by extension to tell anyone growing up questioning that the answers are off limits to them all of which is just basically a long way of saying libraries badly need our support right now so that they continue to serve the diverse needs of their communities while also of course lending out air fryers seeds and copies of the baron steam cheaters we all loved those books as kids and before we go tonight in case there are any bookl type organizations doing a report on this show I'll save you the trouble and do the chart myself 10 three shits three dicks and three off buls oh look I just made it 11: that's our show thanks so much for watching now if excuse me I have something that I badly need to return to the library before midnight good night

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 2,017,532

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Id: 42xZB80sZaI

Length: 27min 54sec (1674 seconds)

Published: Thu May 09 2024