A speaker at a recent virtual library conference instructed school and public librarians to take steps to prevent parents and community members from finding books with LGBT+ themes, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.
TheBlaze reported that the June seminar, hosted by Library 2.0 and called “Banned Books and Censorship: Current Intellectual Freedom Issues in the Library,” featured Valerie Byrd Fort, an instructor at the University of South Carolina.
Byrd Fort presented a session titled “Get Ready, Stay Ready: Community Action Toolkit” that instructed librarians on how to best ensure that parents and other concerned community members would not find LGBT+ books.
The presentation covered “some things you could do proactively to get ready when censors come knocking at your door.”
Byrd Fort’s “Pro-Active Steps to Take” advised librarians to create rotating displays of recommended books.
She stated that the displays should “let the community know that you’re there for all students and not just certain groups.”
Byrd Fort recommended having student volunteers create some of the displays. “If somebody maybe has something to say about one of those displays, you could say, ‘well, we had one of our teen volunteers create it, so it just goes to show that they want to see it and they need to see these resources,'” she said.
Byrd Fort then instructed school librarians to avoid labeling the books with “identity-based subject headings” such as “LGBTQIA+” or “Gays Fiction.”
“Aside from being bad practice, it makes it too easy for parents or community members to find those kinds of books,” she explained. “Don’t make it necessarily easy for those groups to find, but make it easy for those who want the books.”
