How you can take action against censorship

Attempts to restrict materials in libraries have been on the rise, both nationally and here in Greenville. The League has a problem with this for many reasons — for instance, we believe in community access to information and in having good, evidence-based decision-making processes in libraries and in general.

Do you have a problem with censorship, too? And do you want to do something about it? Here are four suggested actions you can take. All of them relate to what has been going on with Greenville County public libraries and its governing body, the Greenville County Library Board of Trustees.

Pick the action that best fits the amount of time that you have, or — why not? — do them all!

Have 5 minutes? Connect with FLAG

Greenville has a local group — FLAG (Freedom in Libraries Advocacy Group) — that has organized to advocate about this issue. In a few minutes, you can go to their website and sign up for their email list (or follow them on social media or, well, there’s a lot more information there. Check it out!).

Have 20 minutes? Contact your county council representative

Greenville County Council will be considering applicants for 6 of the 11 slots on the Greenville County Library Board of Trustees later this year. And of course, who sits on the library board and makes decisions about library policy matters, so county council’s decisions about who will sit on the board also matter.

You can contact your county council representative now (as well as later — and don’t worry, we’ll remind you!) to make sure they know that you care about this issue and are paying attention.

Step 1: Find your county council representative. Go here and input your address to find all your local elected officials, including on county council. Click on your county council representative’s name to connect to their county council webpage, which includes a link to email them.

Step 2: Email ‘em! Note that you are a constituent and let them know that you care about our county libraries’ ability to serve our community with a diverse set of available materials and without fear of censorship. Tell them that you are aware that they will be appointing members to the Greenville County Library Board of Trustees later this year and that you hope they will act sensibly and in the best interests of our community at large when selecting board members.

Messages are most powerful when they include personal touches. Do you have children or grandchildren who use our county libraries? Are you worried about the impact that a book-banning library approach will have on our local economic environment by scaring away businesses? Are you afraid of the impact of this kind of censorship on people and communities especially impacted by them, like communities of color and the LGBTQ community? Make the message your own!

Have 2 hours? Attend a library board meeting

One powerful way to show that you are interested in what a public body like the Greenville County Library Board of Trustees is doing is to show up when they meet. Here’s how to do exactly that!

Library Board meetings are held on the fourth Friday of each month at noon. Meetings are at the Hughes Main Library (25 Heritage Green in Greenville). When the agenda is available, it will be posted at the webpage for the library board (which also includes info about current board members and the policy for appearing before the board to speak).

Greenville League president Susan Bell has been a regular at these meetings, as have many other Greenville League members. If you want to make sure you’ll see a friendly face there, you can let Susan know you’re coming so she can be on the lookout for you. Join us!

Also, if you are considering applying to serve on the library board (and I hope you do!), county policy requires that you have attended at least one board meeting of the board you’re applying to. So there’s another reason to show up on August 28!

Want to dive deeper? Apply to serve on the Library Board of Trustees

Applications to serve on the library board (as well as a number of other county appointed boards and commissions) open on September 1 and will remain open through September.

In order to have a library board that makes sensible decisions about access to information, sensible people have to apply to serve.

Does that sound like you or like anyone you know? Information about applying is on this county website. Consider applying, and spread the word to people you think would make good board members.