1180 Amanda Jones "That Librarian The Fight Against Book Banning in America"

Stand Up! with Pete Dominick

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I am a 23 year educator: a former 7th and 8th grade English Language Arts teacher and current school librarian. I have a Masters +30, and I am a certified K-12 librarian, certified 1-8 elementary teacher, certified school administrator, and certified reading specialist. I am the current President of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians and our library was the winner of the 2019 LLA James O Modisette Award for top middle school library programming in Louisiana. I am a 2021 Library Journal Mover & Shaker, the 2021 SLJ Librarian of the Year, the 2020 Louisiana School Librarian of the Year. In 2023, I was awarded the AASL Intellectual Freedom Award, ALA IFRT John Immroth Award, ACRL-LA Library Profressional Award, LLA Alex Allain Intellectual Freedom Award, and the ALA IFRT Paul Howard Award for Courage. I enjoy presenting at state, regional, national, and international conferences. I am a former AASL Chapter Assembly Secretary and was the AASL23 National Conference Co-Chair. In 2021, I joined the Advisory Council of the University of Iowa's (formerly of South Carolina College of Information and Communication) Online Ready program for school librarians. I have been featured six times on the School Librarians United podcast, am the Louisiana Chapter Councilor to ALA, am a former AASL Knowledge Quest blogger, and have a book coming out in August of 2024. I have the best job in the world, and I have enjoyed making our school​ library the heart of the school.

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 LGTBQ+ 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.

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