Brave Books, Kirk Cameron Plan Public Library Events August 5; Public Libraries Need to Prepare

Former baby actor turned right-wing political darling and writer Kirk Cameron and writer Brave Books are planning public library occasions August 5 throughout the nation. They’re calling on supporters to start planning for these public occasions so as to “pray, sing, and read BRAVE Books and other books of virtue.” Imagine, they word, filling public libraries throughout the nation with pals, household, pastors, and “your teachers” to flip the nation “back to God.”

The occasion goals to stoke the ethical panic round public establishments like libraries now not honoring “viewpoints that are foundational, time-honored, and true” in favor of “the more radical.”

Cameron has change into a reputation amongst public librarians since late 2022. After being “denied” entry to a number of public libraries, Cameron took to the media to declare discrimination, then victory, as soon as he secured house in a number of U.S. public libraries to maintain his personal story time.

The story is, in fact, extra difficult.

Brave Books’s slate of titles intention to categorical a right-wing ideology, and every is written by a star inside conservative circles. Among the titles are Little Lives Matter, Elephants Are Not Birds, and Unmuzzle Me, Please. Cameron has printed two books with the corporate, and every has include a “book tour” of story occasions in public libraries.

Public libraries typically provide examine areas and program rooms for people to reserve; for the sake of simplicity, they’re typically referred to as assembly rooms. In some libraries, the reservations are restricted to these with library playing cards and in others, they’re open on a first-come, first-served foundation. It is widespread that library-created packages take priority over exterior use. A teen program created and sponsored by the library would have precedence to use a gathering room over somebody exterior the group.

Over the years, assembly room insurance policies have change into scorching matters on the planet of libraries. Can anybody reserve one? Can limits be positioned on the sorts of people that have the fitting to use them? What types of makes use of are protected and which aren’t? These questions all have benefit and worth, particularly when it comes to contemplating how taxpayer cash is getting used. A for-profit enterprise establishing an occasion within the public library assembly room could also be in direct battle with the values of the general public library. Libraries articulate that using assembly room areas doesn’t suggest library approval or sponsorship; teams can’t of their advertising or promoting word that it’s a program being held by the library nor coordinated by it.

This is the place the Cameron story sits.

For the discharge of his first title with Brave Books, the writer and writer’s advertising firm Amplifi Agency tried to lease rooms at a number of public libraries. They declare over 50 public libraries denied their provide to host story occasions. But this wasn’t true. Scarsdale Library in New York defined what occurred: Cameron, Brave Books, and Amplifi thought they had been above the coverage and ignored the formal course of for utilizing a room.

Cameron then claimed victory when he efficiently rented rooms at different public libraries. Among them had been the Sumner Public Library in Tennessee, the place the director was fired for “unkind pushback,” and the Indianapolis Public Library, the place he was initially denied. Cameron claimed the denial occurred due to his race and the messages in his guide; the reality is, in fact, way more difficult and associated to insurance policies that he and his group selected to ignore.

Seattle Public Library’s messaging is, in fact, in direct distinction to what Cameron and Brave Books declare. The library made their room out there and put the onus of security onto the customers, appropriately. As any establishment upholding the First Amendment does, they made clear that the house can — and certainly, ought to — be a spot for an change of various concepts.

What will get difficult and is price emphasizing right here is when the Freedom of Speech butts heads in opposition to Freedom of Religion and extra, the place each intersect with the Separation of Church and State. This is why libraries emphasize that teams are accountable for their occasions and why it’s they can not counsel the library is internet hosting, sponsoring, or in any means linked to it.

So the August 5 occasions being mass-coordinated by anybody who needs to arrange a narrative time at their native public library are a ripe alternative for all of those components to conflict and for right-wing “activists” to proclaim they’re being discriminated in opposition to by a taxpayer establishment. Brave Books has developed a useful resource package for anybody wishing to put collectively certainly one of these story occasions, and so they have arrange a map for individuals to drop pins for confirmed occasions. Doing this inevitably connects the general public libraries with Brave Books, and given how few individuals know the precise intricacies behind library coverage — and certainly, with individuals of this explicit persuasion not wanting to care about them — the flames are about to develop hotter.

If you’re a public library employee, now’s the time to put together for what may very well be both an onslaught or an enormous nothing burger. In hoping for the previous, making ready for the latter will make sure that your library is certainly in a robust place to defend the alternatives it makes within the curiosity of its goal, its workers, and its customers. This consists of reviewing your insurance policies round assembly rooms and assembly along with your authorized illustration on what necessities you’ll be able to and can’t make of these requesting rooms (particularly round safety — somebody like Cameron, through his profile, is a public security concern but in addition, figuring out that elevated regulation enforcement on the public library is antithetical to the tenants of librarianship and is an obstacle for using the ability by marginalized people, what do you do?).

Take the time to discuss with workers about responding to inquires about internet hosting occasions resembling these and ensure everyone seems to be on the identical web page. Prepare public statements to deal with questions and considerations which can come up, too: the statements above by each Scarsdale and Seattle Public Libraries are wonderful public relations however extra, they’re excellent examples of libraries being establishments devoted to details and transparency.

It may additionally be price your time to make sure that all ranges of library employee is aware of what’s at stake proper now in establishments like them. These are coordinated efforts to show a degree; within the sake of Cameron and Brave Books, it’s to discover a “gotcha” with censorship. If you don’t give them what they need, they’ll cry censorship, even when they themselves are the perpetrators who purposefully subvert the principles and insurance policies.

As we’ve seen all through the nation, reality doesn’t matter to these bent on their messaging and their right-wing values of authoritarianism. But your establishment can proceed to be a bastion of sunshine by upholding your requirements and insurance policies, advocating for First Amendment Rights of all — not simply these with essentially the most cash and political sway — and you may proceed to educate your patrons about why some books get bought and included within the assortment whereas others, like these printed by Brave Books, don’t.

Failing to do this stuff solely bolsters the argument that libraries are a drain on public sources and encourages additional guide bans, programming below false pretenses, and unmitigated assaults on one of many solely establishments within the nation which serves as a “third place,” with none consumerist or capitalist expectations, to anybody who would love to use it.

Cameron and Brave Books would not have good intentions with this. They have ideological plans and the assist of well-connected right-wing media.

Libraries deserve higher, however resting on the laurels of public perceptions gained’t be sufficient to save them.