By Heather D. Hutto, Guest Blogger

While book banning is a growing trend nationwide, the majority of successful book bans happening right now seem to be occurring in rural areas (both fringe and remote rural) as well as some suburban areas. The initiatives and toolkits presently available for all librarians are great, but they are created by urban LIS professionals and best-suited for urban and suburban audiences. The current rhetoric used in these one-size-fits-all toolkits may not be effective in rural areas.  

Yet, where there is a weakness or threat, there is almost always an opportunity. Perhaps within confronting recent banning attempts, there is also a chance to nurture understandings, and narrow gaps between the challenges faced by both rural and urban librarians, as well as gaps between the communities they serve.

Low technology and information literacy occurs more frequently in rural areas than urban ones; notwithstanding, rural areas are less likely to have broadband and cellular access at home. Rural counties often also tend to have higher illiteracy rates and lower educational attainment compared to urban and suburban areas. The civics-aligned rhetoric used in widely-available book-banning toolkits is likely to be lost on rural audiences who have education, information, and literacy gaps.

Many of the current book-banning collectives have extremist religious affiliations. It is one thing to tell one’s own kids not to read a book because it conflicts with a family’s chosen belief system; it is something altogether different to ban resources within community-owned, tax-payer-funded collections because one’s religious faith does not align with them. Rural areas are more likely to be home to persons leaning towards religious extremism; therefore, driving this point home tends to be a far greater challenge in rural areas than urban ones.

Factors such as low digital readiness, low information literacy, and extremist-leaning religious beliefs all intersect in rural areas. Not unlike giving running shoes to a paraplegic, the rhetoric used and ideas available within current anti-censorship initiatives available right now to all LIS professionals may be largely disregarded by rural communities banning books. Essentially, the messages will be ignored in the places where they need to be driven home the most.

While strategizing a comprehensive anti-censorship campaign for Banned Books Week that would be effective in the community my library serves, I reached out to the Association of Rural and Small Libraries’ (ARSL) list-serv and among my own communities of practice in Oklahoma to find solutions. The majority of Oklahoma libraries, and a whopping 90 percent of Oklahoma schools are rural; these statistics are similar in other rural states. Our local school district has already been in the news for book-banning attempts, so I wanted my library to have a toolkit that would empower us. So far contributors to the list include ARSL leadership, ARSL members (via list-serv), Southeastern Oklahoma Library System, and the Bristow Public Library. The list has been reviewed by law professionals, organizational leaders, and journalists who have a more precise understanding of rural audiences. Here are some of the ideas we compiled from rural America:

1. Use ARSL’s Access to Information Statement. 
2. Display Librarian’s Code of Professional Ethics, and/or Freedom to Read Statement, Library Bill of Rights.
3. Use books that are well-circulated in the community.
4. Same as number three, but place books in cages. 
5. Keep the message simple and make the message about them (more religious-leaning community members) personally as much as it is about others (alternatively-aligned community members, and those who read LGBTQ+ books most often banned). Examples may include using the Bible in displays stating:“Read what you want, and let others read what they want”, and, “You get to choose what you want to read so let everyone choose too”.
6. Create a display with a banner stating “Other people want to keep you from reading these books”. Underneath banner use mainstream, generally non-controversial banned books (i.e. Beatrix Potter, the Bible) and cover the books’ titles up with a Post-It note. Encourage patrons to lift up Post-It; many may be shocked to see what the titles are.
7. Incredibly patriotic display stating “fREADom” and featuring the First Amendment in the center. 
8. Partner with local and state affiliates to become a voter registration site. Since it is National Voter Registration Month AND Civic Awareness Month, tie in Civil Liberties, Voting Rights, First Amendment Awareness (Anti-Censorship and Banned Books Week) into one rather patriotic display. 
9. For rural-tribal libraries (rural libraries serving American Indian populations), repeat number 8, but be sure to use resources and texts pertaining to First Nations’ influence on the Constitution and Bill of Rights (see also: “Retained by The People”: A History of American Indians and the Bill of Rights by John R. Wunder).
10. Create a display alluding to the Gadsden Flag: feature a “Don’t Tread on Books” slogan across a yellow banner (Southeastern Oklahoma Library System, 2022). 
11. Partner with a local newspaper: on social media ask readers in a one-day forum if they could think of any reason why a book should be banned.
12. Create a library-sponsored Banned Book Club.
13. Draft a proclamation for Banned Week for County Board of Supervisors (or other local leadership entities such as COunty Commissioners, CIty Councilmen, or Alderman). 
14. Draft an article for a local paper either as a library, as a library director. 
15. Educate library staff on how to communicate just what Banned Book Week is about, since library staff often focus on the controversial books of the year and do not discuss or display the historical and contextual scope of banning, challenges, and other censorship issues.
16. Informative display showcasing step-by-step process of book selection adjacent to a step-by-step display of book reconsideration form and process.
17. Use resources available on The Free Speech Center: a website by Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) that offers basic explanations of the First Amendment, including: “7 Things You Need to Know about the First Amendment.”

During an internship in San Francisco, Heather D. Hutto noticed several key gaps between the technology and information literacy levels of Bay Area residents compared to those back home in Oklahoma. After a decade of service in tribal-rural schools and libraries in northeastern Oklahoma, she now serves as executive director of a tribal-rural library in northeastern Oklahoma serving 12,000 people. In this role she tries to bridge digital inclusivity gaps and foster awareness about this, and intersecting issues.