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WORK TITLE: That Librarian
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WEBSITE: https://sites.google.com/view/abmack33/speaking-out
CITY: Livingston Parish
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COUNTRY: United States
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PERSONAL
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CAREER
Librarian, educator, and anti-censorship advocate. Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, co-creator and executive director; Livingston Parish Library Alliance, co-creator.
AWARDS:School Library Journal, School Librarian of the Year, 2021; American Association of School Librarians’ Intellectual Freedom award, 2023; American Library Association’s Paul Howard Award for Courage.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to periodicals, including School Library Journal, and Knowledge Quest.
SIDELIGHTS
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Amanda Jones is a public middle-school librarian and educator in Louisiana who is known as an anti-censorship advocate. In her 2024 memoir, That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, she recounts her reaction in 2022 when schools and libraries started banning books representing minority groups, Black history, and LGBT issues. Because Jones believed that books can affirm a young person’s sense of self, she decided to take a stand in her town to support a collection of books with diverse perspectives.
At a local public hearing in Livingston, Louisiana, she defended the inclusion of books about minorities and LGBT, but was consequently labeled a groomer, a pedophile, and a pornography pusher and subjected to a hate campaign. After right-wing extremists using book banning campaigns-funded by dark money organizations, including the Bayou State of Mind, accused her of pushing graphic sexual content onto children, and publishing her personal information, she received death threats. Jones sued the groups for defamation, but the Republican judge dismissed the case saying that because she was a public figure, her critics were simply stating their opinions; Jones appealed. Jones declared she would continue to fight against book banning and censorship, and offers advice to other librarians faced with censorship.
In Library Journal, Donna Marie Smith praised Jones’ account of her struggle against intolerance and said the book “is essential reading and ultimately a clarion call for others to help defend intellectual freedom and democracy.” Despite being repetitive and showing her raw anger at her detractors, the book “offers sound advice about how individuals from a variety of viewpoints can better educate themselves regarding library content, purchasing processes, and reconsideration policies,” according to a Kirkus Reviews writer. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the book an inspiring portrait of resilience and “Jones’s prose is workmanlike, but her message is bracing, and she delivers it with admirable fire and focus.”
With more than 10,000 book bans between 2021 and 2023, school districts and local libraries and their workers around the country were the targets of conservative activists and parents. In an interview with Olivia Empson in the London Guardian, Jones said: “I hope librarians can read my book and feel like they’re not alone.” Jones received the American Association of School Librarians’ Intellectual Freedom Award and the American Library Association’s Paul Howard Award for Courage. In 2023, Oprah Winfrey praised Jones’ work at the National Book Awards.
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Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2024, review of That Librarian.
ONLINE
Library Journal, https://www.libraryjournal.com/ (June 28, 2024), Donna Marie Smith, review of That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America.
London Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/ (June 2, 2024), Olivia Empson, “The US Librarian Who Sued Book Ban Harassers: ‘I Decided to Fight Back.’”
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (July 2024), review of That Librarian.
Amanda Jones (librarian)
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amanda Jones accepting the AASL Intellectual Freedom award on October 19, 2023
Amanda Jones is an American librarian and anti-censorship advocate. Jones has been heavily involved in anti-book banning movements in the state of Louisiana and throughout the US. In 2023, she was awarded the American Association of School Librarians' Intellectual Freedom Award and the American Library Association's Paul Howard Award for Courage, which honors "an individual who has exhibited unusual courage for the benefit of library programs or services."[1] In 2022, Jones received national news coverage after filing a defamation and harassment lawsuit against a conservative political group, Citizens for a New Louisiana, its leader Michael Lunsford, as well as Ryan Thames, who operates the Facebook page "Bayou State of Mind".[2]
Biography
Amanda Jones served as an educator in Louisiana for over twenty years. Jones had long been a vocal opponent to book censorship, arguing that book challenges have disproportionally targeted books with LGBTQ or BIPOC themes, characters, or authors.[3][4]
In July 2022, Jones spoke publicly against book censorship at a Livingston Parish Public Library Board meeting. After the meeting, multiple conservative organizations posted about Jones on their websites and social media pages. The Facebook page Bayou State of Mind posted an image of Jones which stated that she was "advocating teaching anal sex to 11-year-olds." Citizens for a New Louisiana posted an image of Jones with a red circle with a white border, resembling a target, with text reading "Why is she fighting so hard to keep sexually erotic and pornographic materials in the kid's section?" Following this, Jones began receiving harassing communications, had personal information posted on the internet, and even received death threats.[5] In describing the case, The New York Times referred to Citizens for a New Louisiana as a 501(c)4 dark money group that can push political causes without disclosing its donors.[6]
In response to the harassment, Jones filed a lawsuit for defamation, where she requested punitive damages, as well as a temporary restraining order. In September 2022, a judge dismissed Jones' case on the grounds that she was a "limited public figure" and that the posts against her were opinions, therefore not defamatory.[7]
Amanda Jones, wearing an anti-censorship t-shirt from the American Library Association
Despite losing the lawsuit, Jones gained support and recognition as one of the first librarians to seek legal recourse against book banning advocates.[8][9] Following the publicity of the case, Jones has become a spokesperson for the anti-censorship movement, speaking across the United States on book censorship and intellectual freedom, as well as publishing a book on the topic.[10][11][12]
In 2022, Jones helped to create Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, an organization in which she is executive director, as well as the Livingston Parish Library Alliance. Jones has lobbied against censorship legislation in Louisiana, specifically Louisiana Senate Bill 7 in 2023, to limit access to minors of material with "sexual conduct", and House Bills 414 and 545 in 2024, which would apply state obscenity law to libraries. The former was signed into law in June 2023.[13][14]
Awards and recognition
In 2021, Jones was recognized by School Library Journal as School Librarian of the Year[15] and made Library Journal's Movers and Shakers list.[16]
In 2023, Jones received numerous intellectual freedom awards including the American Association of School Librarians' Intellectual Freedom Award,[17] and Louisiana Library Association's Alex Allain Intellectual Freedom Award.[18] During the 2023 National Book Awards Ceremony, Oprah Winfrey praised Jones for her work stating "Amanda Jones started getting death threats, all for standing up for our right to read ... but she's not stopped fighting against book bans, or stopped advocating for access to diverse stories."[19][20]
Published works
Image of woman holding a journal open to an article, conference attendees in the background
Jones showing her article on cyberbullying at the School Library Journal Summit, December 2023
That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America. Bloomsbury Publishing. August 27, 2024. ISBN 978-1-63973-353-8.[21]
"2021 School Librarian of the Year Amanda Jones Creates Lesson About Navigating Social Media" in School Library Journal, January 2, 2024.[22]
"You're Gonna Hear Me Roar: Speaking out against Censorship Efforts in My Community." Knowledge Quest 51, no. 2 (2022): 18-23.[23]
Librarian and Anti-Censorship Activist Amanda Jones Tells Her Story
Kelly Jensen Jan 8, 2024
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In summer 2022, Louisiana school librarian Amanda Jones stood up at the Livingston Parish Public Library board meeting and spoke out against proposed book bans. Her speech, which can be read in full here, talked about the role of the library for the community and wove in not only her knowledge as a librarian but as a long-time community member. The ensuing hours and days involved her image and speech being blasted across local right-wing groups, including claims that she advocated for giving children pornography and teaching 6-year-olds about anal sex.
Jones responded by filing a defamation lawsuit.
Though the initial lawsuit was dismissed, Jones and her lawyer appealed the decision in September 2023. If she wins this appeal, she will be able to bring her suit to trial. The decision could come at any time.
“I have spent tens of thousands of dollars and we are nowhere near finished. It’s no wonder more people do not fight back,” explained Jones.
Jones did not stop her anti-censorship work with the speech or with the lawsuit. Indeed, if anything, this moment was one that catalyzed her into taking her fight even broader. Without question, Jones is now among the most outspoken and well-known anti-censorship and anti-book ban advocates doing the work right now.
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Among her achievements over the last year include creating the Livingston Parish Library Alliance; cofounding the Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship; lobbying in the state of Louisiana against censorship bills and killing two anti-library bills; speaking at over 20 conferences and webinars to help librarians in their own advocacy and intellectual freedom work; being honored with the 2023 AASL Intellectual Freedom Award, ALA’s Paul Howard Award for Courage, the Louisiana Library Association Intellectual Freedom Award, and the ALA IFRT Paul Immroth Memorial Award; and if that weren’t enough, Jones has written a book about her experiences. That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Bans in America will be published on August 27, 2024.
book cover for Amanda Jones's THAT LIBRARIAN.
“I am very proud of [That Librarian] and it was cathartic to write,” says Jones. “It covers my ordeal of being defamed and targeted for speaking out in my own small community, draws the curtain back on some of the behind-the-scenes politics and dark money funding these extremists, and offers advice on how to conquer censorship attempts in your own communities. It is a cross between a memoir and manifesto.”
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Jones keeps her eye on the pulse of censorship news across her home state as well as the country. Two stories of particular interest to her right now are playing out in Louisiana and in Kentucky. The St. Tammany Library Alliance recently saw book banners withdraw their 200 complaints, and Jones calls them a “force to be reckoned with.”
In Murfreesboro, Kentucky, the town’s recent—and since repealed—decency ordinance played a key role in the removal of several LGBTQ+ books from the Rutherford County Public Library. Jones had the opportunity to meet with the Rutherford County Library Alliance in November and hopes they’ll pursue litigation against the Rutherford County Library Board of Control for First and Fourteenth Amendment violations.
“I am also paying special attention to the lawsuit by the Missouri ACLU, MLA, and MASL in Missouri against their new book banning law that threatens librarians with jail time and $2,000 fines,” she added. “I’m hoping the law, which is vague and is causing soft censorship in school libraries, is declared unconstitutional.”
Jones is encouraged by the attention being paid both by professionals and average citizens to ongoing censorship. It’s been a long fight, but it is one anyone can join at their own level. It begins by staying abreast of developing stories, noticing trends, and showing up to support institutions like public libraries and schools.
Then, she says, look right in your own community to see where and how those things might be playing out.
“Be aware of local agenda items and speak out when you see lies being circulated around your own communities,” she said. “If you are afraid to speak out, at least attend the meetings. Those of us actively engaged need the support of others. Attending and applauding at the right moments can be just as important as publicly speaking. It shows strength in numbers.”
She also reminds library workers and educators to use their voices too. Now is not the time to be scared into silence nor complicity—and indeed, there are advocates out there, both near and far, who are dedicated to making sure you are safe and you’re seen as experts in your own job.
Moreover, this work is about ensuring that all the people in our communities are seen and valued.
“For the sake of our children and the future of our country, we cannot let them. Our silence would be our compliance and we cannot be complicit in the continued othering and marginalization of some of our most vulnerable community members.”
Even though the status of her appeal remains in the air, Jones knows that it is but one piece of the larger story of advocating for the intellectual freedom rights of all.
“Regardless of what happens in court, I have already won by standing up for myself and standing up for the rights of all readers to see themselves in the books on our library’s shelves. My hope is that it will inspire others to also take a stand for what is right.”
That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America is available for preorder and will be published on August 27.
that librarian book cover
About That Librarian
Part memoir, part manifesto, the inspiring story of a Louisiana librarian advocating for inclusivity on the front lines of our vicious culture wars.
One of the things small-town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person’s sense of self. So in 2022, when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,” she knew what was at stake. Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGBTQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing.
Amanda Jones has been called a groomer, a pedo, and a porn pusher; she has faced death threats and attacks from strangers and friends alike. Her decision to support a collection of books with diverse perspectives made her a target for extremists using book banning campaigns funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard-right politicians in a crusade to make America more white, straight, and Christian. But Amanda Jones wouldn’t give up without a fight: she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance.
Mapping the book banning crisis occurring all across the nation, That Librarian draws the battle lines in the war against equity and inclusion, calling book lovers everywhere to rise in defense of our readers.
amanda jones headshot
About Amanda Jones
Amanda Jones is a 23-year educator and school librarian from Louisiana. She is the 2021 School Library Journal Librarian of the Year, a 2021 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and the 2020 Louisiana School Librarian of the Year. She serves as the Louisiana Library Association’s Councilor to the ALA, is the current Past President of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, and is Assistant Director for Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship. Follow her fight for intellectual freedom at librarianjones.com.
Social Media: Twitter/X @abmack33
Website: https://librarianjones.com/
A School Librarian Pushes Back on Censorship and Gets Death Threats and Online Harassment
By Eesha Pendharkar — September 22, 2022 7 min read
Amanda Jones, a librarian in Livingston Parish, La., pictured on Sept. 13, 2022. Jones is suing members of a Facebook group who harassed her virtually after she spoke against censorship in a public library meeting. Jones received angry emails and even a death threat from people across the country after she filed the lawsuit.
Amanda Jones, a librarian in Livingston Parish, La., is suing members of a Facebook group who harassed her virtually after she spoke against censorship in a public library meeting.
Claire Bangser for Education Week
Amanda Jones found a death threat in her email on a Sunday morning, almost a month after she had spoken at a public library against censorship.
In July, Jones, who heads the board of the Louisiana Association for School Librarians, spoke up against censorship and book bans, specifically books about LGBTQ people and people of color, at her local public library in Livingston Parish, La. She endured dozens of Facebook posts and comments suggesting she was a pedophile, a groomer, and accusing her of pushing pornography on children.
But none of those messages from the local groups scared her as much as the death threat from a man in Texas, about four hours away from where she lived in Louisiana.
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“It was pretty explicit in the ways that he was going to kill me,” Jones said. “I was actually petrified.”
The next day, Jones drove to the school where she works as a school librarian and as she was going to get out of her car, saw a man she didn’t recognize walking around in the parking lot. She sat in her car for 10 minutes, afraid to leave. Eventually, she called her principal and asked him to check if he recognized the man. She only left her car when she found out it was a maintenance worker.
Now, Jones is pushing back, bringing suit against some of the Facebook groups where the harassment against her occurred. This week, a judge dismissed her case, but Jones vowed to appeal.
The librarian’s nightmare started on July 19, when Jones went to the meeting at the public library where she has been a member since 1983 to make her case against censorship of books dealing with LGBTQ themes and topics and books about people of color and racism, which have been common targets of book ban calls across the country.
A PEN America study about school book bans in the 2021-22 academic year said 41 percent of all bans are about books dealing with LGBTQ topics. Forty percent of the books banned have main or secondary characters of color, and 21 percent directly address race and racism.
“Censoring and relocating books and displays is harmful to our community, but will be extremely harmful to our most vulnerable—our children,” she said at the meeting.
In her speech, Jones did not mention any specific titles but talked generally about censorship and book banning. She was among 20 or so people that spoke against book bans.
On July 21, a Facebook group called Citizens For a New Louisiana operated by defendant Michael Lunsford posted a picture of Jones with the caption “Why is she fighting so hard to keep sexually erotic and pornographic materials in the kid’s section?”
Lunsford said he was also at the meeting and made a public comment.
On the same day, another group called Bayou State of Mind, run by defendant Ryan Thames, posted a meme with Jones’ picture which said, “After advocating teaching anal sex to 11-year-olds, I had to change my name on Facebook.” Through the post, Thames revealed the full name Jones used on Facebook (which was not her legal name) and her school district.
After weeks of Facebook posts by the local groups against her, Jones said she is now harassed by people on Twitter and Facebook that don’t even live in Louisiana. Her complaints to the sheriff’s office against the Facebook groups amounted to nothing, but she said the police are working on extraditing the Texas man who sent her the death threat. The Livingston Parish Sheriff’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
‘It’s not just happening to me’
In a rare pushback against online defamation that some teachers and librarians have been subjected to since book ban efforts escalated, Jones filed a lawsuit against the Facebook groups Citizens For a New Louisiana and Bayou State of Mind, as well as Lunsford and Thames. She alleged that the groups have been defaming her for weeks online, saying they damaged her personal and professional reputation. Because of the groups, she said, she’s received threats of violence and even the death threat. She sought damages, a restraining order against the defendants, and an injunction prohibiting them from posting about her online.
Amanda Jones, 44, got a tattoo that says "moxie" after Newbury Award winning author Erin Entrada Kelly used the term to describe Jones and her legal battle against conservative activists.
Amanda Jones, 44, got a tattoo that says "moxie" after Newbury Award winning author Erin Entrada Kelly used the term to describe Jones and her legal battle against conservative activists.
Claire Bangser for Education Week
“It’s not just happening to me, it’s happened to tons of educators across the United States,” she said. “I do really encourage people when this happens to make sure they build their support system and weigh the pros and cons of speaking out. Sometimes in your communities and where you live, you have to do what’s safest for you.”
After the preliminary injunction hearing was rescheduled twice, the judge dismissed the lawsuit per the defendants’ request on Wednesday, saying that Jones was a “limited public official” because of her position with the librarians’ group and that the comments made against Jones were not defamatory and were just opinions. Jones said the verdict was disappointing, but she is planning to appeal.
The defendants said their argument was about the content of the books in the library and Jones had opened herself up to criticism because she decided to speak at the meeting.
“Miss Jones decided she wanted to interject herself into this library board controversy, and she’s trying to persuade everybody that her opinion is right,” Thames’ attorney, Joseph Long, said. “Well, when you do that, of course, you’re going to get criticism and you’re going to get support. And if you can’t handle the criticism without having to file a lawsuit, you probably shouldn’t get in the middle of the fray.”
Jones also alleged in the lawsuit that she was called a groomer online, which means an adult who fosters a relationship with a minor, often with the intention of sexual abuse. The term has been coopted by the right to insult people advocating for LGBTQ issues. Long said Jones was called a groomer because “she was advocating facts for young children.”
“And whether she was or whether she was not [a groomer]—I mean, I don’t think she was—but one would argue if you advocate teaching sex to young children, that is a technique that groomers use to sexually abuse children,” added Long, who said he did not make that allegation himself.
Defendants argue sexual content is the issue
Long and Lunsford also said that the case was not about books containing references to LGBTQ characters or dealing with topics of sexuality.
“It was just sexual content, whether it’s heterosexual or homosexual, it is not appropriate for 11- or 12-year-olds,” Long said. “That was a red herring early on, but that never came up in the hearing at all.”
For his part, Lunsford said he never called Jones a pedophile or a groomer, or accused her of pushing sexually explicit content.
“We simply asked questions of why is this material in the library? Why are these people fighting so hard to keep it in?” he said.
He said he had also received threats to his life for speaking against Jones.
“People on the fringe of both sides get a little carried away,” he said. “It’s not appropriate, people shouldn’t do it. Engage on the issue, whether this is appropriate for children or isn’t it.”
Citizens for a New Louisiana hasn’t issued any book challenges relating to books about “that lifestyle,” Lunsford said, referring to the LGBTQ people. He said his organization’s issue is focused on books such as the graphic novel, Let’s Talk about It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human.
The explicit images in the graphic novel are inappropriate for children and that’s what his organization objects to, he said.
But the stress of weeks of online harassment has caught up with Jones. The defendants have contacted her family members through social media, she said, and people have complained about her to both the Louisiana School Library Association, of which she is president, and to her school district.
She hasn’t been able to focus at work and is suffering physical effects. Jones said starting in January, she’s going to take a sabbatical from work for the spring semester. But Jones said even knowing what happened, she still would choose to speak up against censorship the way she did at that public meeting in July.
“Why not me? Because somebody’s got to do it,” she said, “Because these people, they don’t stop. And I’m just really sick of it.”
Jones’ friend Kim Howell, who was the former president of the state school librarians’ association, said if this had happened to her, she would’ve left her job. She said she admired Jones for standing up to the defendants and fighting against censorship.
Howell and her colleagues at the association have been a major support system for Jones throughout this experience, Jones said, from financially contributing to the GoFundMe that allowed her to hire the attorney to offering emotional support.
“It was just devastating to watch my friend be attacked personally and these lies told about her,” Howell said. “Amanda’s got moxie. She’s making a difference and I’m 100 percent behind her.”
School librarian in Livingston book debate wins national 'Intellectual Freedom Award'
BY LARA NICHOLSON | Staff writer Mar 21, 2023
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Livingston Parish Public School teacher-librarian Amanda Jones feels at home with a book in the library.
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A Livingston Parish school librarian who has publicly fought against efforts to restrict books in libraries has received a national recognition.
The American Association of School Librarians announced Monday that it had given Amanda Jones its Intellectual Freedom Award.
“Amanda is an example that we must all stand together and stand strong,” AASL President Kathy Lester said in a statement. “When a public library is challenged, all libraries are challenged. When a school or district in a state is challenged it is only a matter of time before other schools and districts are challenged. To unite and protect the rights of all learners is inspirational.”
Jones has been an outspoken advocate at Livingston Parish library board meetings against restricting content in the children's section of libraries — a controversial subject in Louisiana as fiery debates over what's inappropriate for children have cropped up in Livingston, Lafayette and St. Tammany parishes.
As president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, Jones also created a "Censorship Toolkit" with resources for librarians to inform themselves regarding censorship debates and founded Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, a statewide coalition of groups against censoring books.
"It's humbling to be recognized on a national level like that. It's such an honor," Jones said in an interview. "A year ago, I never thought I'd be facing what I'm facing, but at least something good came out of it."
Jones filed a defamation lawsuit last year against Michael Lunsford, executive director of the Lafayette-based group Citizens for a New Louisiana, which lobbies for more restrictions on books available for children, and Ryan Thames, a Denham Springs resident and owner of a Facebook page called "Bayou State of Mind," for their posts about her after she spoke at the first Livingston Library Board of Control meeting in July 2022.
Lunsford accused Jones of fighting “to keep sexually erotic material and pornographic materials in the kids section”; Thames said Jones was “advocating teaching anal sex to 11-year-olds.” The lawsuit also said Jones received numerous threats of violence and one death threat following their posts.
Judge Erika Sledge of the 21st Judicial District Court dismissed the lawsuit the following September, saying the two's statements were matters of opinion, not fact. Jones filed an appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeal on March 13.
Interview
The US librarian who sued book ban harassers: ‘I decided to fight back’
Olivia Empson
After Amanda Jones got death threats for speaking out against censorship, she sued her attackers and wrote a memoir
Sun 2 Jun 2024 08.00 EDT
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Alibrarian in Louisiana – one of the first in the US to file a lawsuit for defamation against her detractors – is speaking out about the fight she’s been part of as censorship and books bans escalate around the country.
Amanda Jones vividly remembers the time she received her first death threat. Hate, online bullying or photos sent to her house circling her face with red Biro like a target had been unsettling, but not uncommon. This was different.
Jones lost 50 pounds, took medical leave from work and watched in disbelief as chunks of her hair started to fall out. Knowing something had to change in the spring of 2023, she filed a lawsuit and wrote her book.
empty shelves at a library
Book bans in US schools and libraries surged to record highs in 2023
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That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America is Jones’s debut memoir, which will be released later this summer. It tells the story of her fight against censorship in the small town she was raised in and of the rise in attacks on librarians and intellectual freedom across the US.
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“I cried a lot, then decided to fight back,” Jones said. “I hope librarians can read my book and feel like they’re not alone.”
Jones’s story made international headlines when she became one of the first librarians in the US to file a lawsuit for defamation against those who launched personal attacks on her after she spoke out at a public library board meeting. In July of 2022, when book banning started affecting Livingston parish, where she lived and worked, Jones made a speech against literary censorship at her local public library board. A targeted attacks began shortly thereafter.
“One man posted a picture of me online asking parents how they’d feel if I was giving their kids pornography,” Jones said. “Another made a meme saying I advocate teaching 11-year-olds about anal sex.”
The two men behind these posts and attacks, Michael Lunsford and Ryan Thames, were the focus of the ensuing legal battle.
“All I did was give a delicate speech on censorship,” she said. “They started posting pages from books I didn’t reference, hadn’t heard of. Awful things spread like wildfire about me around my community.”
Across the country, book banning has been rising at an alarming rate. PEN America documented more than 10,000 bans between 2021 and 2023. Increasingly, school districts or local libraries and their workers are becoming the target of conservative activists and parents.
The individuals leveling these bans demand that books with sexual references, themesor discussions of racial conflict be removed from school or public shelves. Frequently, they single out authors of color or those who identify as LGBTQ+.
True power, though, is the ability to live rent-free in someone else’s head when you don’t think about them at all
Amanda Jones
When Jones first went public with her story, hundreds of other state librarians reached out to describe similar experiences or battles. She decided to join professional boards, conference panels and associations like the American Library Association to speak out about the hate they faced. In 2023, Oprah Winfrey even praised Jones’s work at the National Book Awards.
“The people that harassed me, they still post about me all the time, sometimes five times a day,” Jones said, before adding: “True power, though, is the ability to live rent-free in someone else’s head when you don’t think about them at all.” She credits this as her favorite line in the book.
Conservative activists continually refer to the people who defend books as “groomers”, using rhetoric like “pedophiles” and “child molesters” in their public outcries. Saving the children has become an unfounded, underlying justification for this wave of attacks, which are not just aimed at school librarians but drag storytellers, liberal politicians and authors across the country.
The Proud Boys, a regularly violent US extremist group, have been known to attack or protest outside LGBTQ+ themed events at multiple libraries, with instances happening in San Lorenzo, California and New York City.
Often, librarians are caught in the middle of these campaigns or hostilities and left to defend their institutions in highly volatile situations. Suzette Baker lost her job as a librarian in Llano county, Texas, in 2022 after she refused to put a copy of Critical Race Theory behind the counter. It’s not just harassment or social media shaming at stake for people in this profession; their jobs and livelihoods are increasingly being put on the line.
While Jones was able to turn her situation around and make a success of her experience with the upcoming book, the journey wasn’t easy. Hate still lingers in the community she grew up in and lives in, and she’s lost friends and acquaintances over the rumors that were spread about her.
“One of the chapters is a play on Michelle Obama’s quote: when they go low, you go high,” Jones concluded.
“When I wrote my story, I tried to go high. I hope that no one harasses the men who harassed me. I just wanted to be honest, truthful, diplomatic.”
That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America will be published on 27 August.
Amanda Jones
“Being a librarian and educator is what I was born to do. I will never stop fighting for the rights of all students to see themselves reflected in the books on our shelves. My silence to the pro-censorship movement would be my compliance and I will not be complicit in the marginalization of any group in our society.”
Biography
Amanda Jones is currently the school librarian at the same school she attended as a child, where she has worked for the past twenty-three years. Amanda made national headlines in 2022 when she was targeted by extremists in her town for speaking out at a public library board meeting. She decided to fight back and took her harassers to court, while continuing to speak out at both the local and national level against the pro-censorship movement. Amanda chronicles what it is like being the target of white Christian nationalists and the importance of standing up for intellectual freedom, in her upcoming book That Librarian: Fighting Book Banners in Today’s America which will be published in fall of 2024.
Amanda was the 2021 School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year, a 2021 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and the 2020 Louisiana Librarian of the Year. She enjoys presenting at the national and international level on the importance of certified school librarians, book joy, and why every child deserves to see themselves reflected in the books on library shelves. Amanda has received numerous intellectual freedom awards from the American Library Association, American Association of School Librarians, and Louisiana Library Association for her dedication to eradicating censorship and promoting libraries in Louisiana.
She is the Executive Director of the Livingston Parish Library Alliance, a group comprised of citizens in her town dedicated to the importance of preserving the freedom of the library to provide services to all patrons no matter their ethnicity, religion, gender identity, education status, political affiliation, socioeconomic status or any other diversity of life and thought. She is also a co-founding member of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, a grassroots organization fighting censorship in the bayou state. Amanda currently resides in Louisiana with her teenage daughter, husband she’s known since first grade, and their cat Juno Mars. When not presenting and fighting the good fight, Amanda enjoys reading, obsessively watching Tiktok, and a good Louisiana crawfish boil.
Jones, Amanda THAT LIBRARIAN Bloomsbury (NonFiction None) $29.99 8, 27 ISBN: 9781639733538
A memoir by a middle school librarian from Louisiana who fought censorship.
After speaking up against censorship at her local public library board meeting in Livingston, Louisiana, in 2022, Jones, the former president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, began receiving threatening emails and attacks via social media. In response, she filed a defamation lawsuit against the two men she contends were at the center of those attacks. "I chose to take a stand, and that decision changed the trajectory of my life. I chose to fight back," she writes. "It was a hard decision that I did not take lightly. It has taken an emotional, physical, and mental toll on me and my family." Nonetheless, she notes, "I have zero regrets." In this straightforward narrative, Jones shares her point of view, details her experiences, including the status of her lawsuit, and offers advice to other librarians who may find themselves in similar situations. At the end of the book, she includes the transcript of the speech she gave at the board meeting. At times, Jones's narrative is repetitive, and her raw anger often detracts from her intended message and "newfound purpose to inspire and support others like me." She acknowledges that she has "wrestled with how much is too much when describing these people and the hatred I've felt, and sometimes still feel, about them." Despite a few flaws, she offers sound advice about how individuals from a variety of viewpoints can better educate themselves regarding library content, purchasing processes, and reconsideration policies. Ultimately, she writes, "everyone in the United States should stand up for intellectual freedom and stand against censorship, regardless of party line. You start banning one thing, and you're on a slippery slope to banning everything."
A useful book for readers interested in better understanding a persistent problem.
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"Jones, Amanda: THAT LIBRARIAN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A795673831/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8a8955e4. Accessed 25 June 2024.
That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America
Amanda Jones. Bloomsbury, $29.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-63973-353-8
“Hell hath no fury like a librarian scorned,” asserts middle-school librarian Jones in her stinging debut. In 2022, Jones attended a library board meeting in Lafeyette, La., to defend making books with LGBTQ themes available to children and teens. A few days later, two men who also attended the meeting started harassing Jones on Facebook, calling her a pedophile and a porn pusher (“As if a kid could be looking for The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and whoops, there’s The Joy of Sex,” Jones writes), which unleashed a flood of bullying messages and death threats. Jones sued both men for defamation, but a judge dismissed her case on the grounds that she was a “limited public figure.” In tandem with these events, Jones catalogs other censorship fights across the country, giving kudos to librarians including Roxana Caivano in Roxbury, N.J., who have also spoken out against book bans. Jones’s prose is workmanlike, but her message is bracing, and she delivers it with admirable fire and focus. This is an inspiring portrait of resilience and a galvanizing call to “speak up for intellectual freedom.” Photos. Agent: Sara N. Fisk, Tobias Agency. (Aug.)
‘That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America’ by Amanda Jones | LJ Review of the Day
by Donna Marie Smith
Jun 28, 2024 | Filed in Reviews+
Jones’s deeply personal account of her battle to regain her reputation and combat intolerance in libraries is essential reading and ultimately a clarion call for others to help defend intellectual freedom and democracy.
★Jones, Amanda. That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America. Bloomsbury. Aug. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9781639733538. $29.99. MEMOIR
Far-right parental-rights groups and lawmakers in the United States have increasingly targeted educators as purveyors of information that is allegedly harmful to children, particularly materials about Black history and LGBTQIA+ people. Librarians have been caught in the middle of the battle. In her memoir, award-winning school librarian Jones (who grew up in a conservative, religious family in a small Louisiana town and has dedicated her life to serving her community, first as a middle school teacher and then as a school librarian) delves into how she was subjected to a hate campaign after speaking out against censorship attempts at her local public library. As a result, she was maligned on social media and called a “groomer” and “pedophile,” and she even received death threats. She shares how her mental and physical health deteriorated as a result of these attacks, as well as the stress of pursuing (and losing) a defamation case against the individuals whom she accused of bullying her online. VERDICT Jones’s deeply personal account of her battle to regain her reputation and combat intolerance in libraries is essential reading and ultimately a clarion call for others to help defend intellectual freedom and democracy.