COLUMBIA — The South Carolina State Library cut ties last month with the American Library Association over concerns the country’s oldest and largest professional group for librarians has become a “distractor.”
In an Aug. 21 letter that only became public last week, Leesa Aiken, agency director of the State Library, told the association it would not renew its $3,000-a-year institutional membership and said the association’s “tone-deaf” advocacy has strayed from its nonpartisan principles and is poorly tailored to support libraries in some areas of the country.
Conservative South Carolina lawmakers and activists, who have made the association the latest focus of their concerns about perceived liberal indoctrination, heralded the State Library’s decision as a victory.
The State Library administers government support and provides training for South Carolina’s public libraries and serves as the state government’s equivalent of the Library of Congress.
The decision comes as conservative groups and politicians nationwide have blasted the ALA and makes South Carolina’s the fourth state library to cut ties with the group after Montana, Missouri and Texas.
It’s once again thrust librarians into the center of a culture wars debate over identity, parents’ rights and censorship now raging among the normally quiet stacks.
Aiken told The Post and Courier the decision is a result of her longstanding frustrations with the organization on several issues, and that she had not publicized the decision in hopes to avoid feeding the flames of political debate.
“This letter was not done because of any political pressure from any organization, the Freedom Caucus, the mothers for liberty — no one,” she said. “Can other groups use it for leverage? They can. That’s not my intention.”
In a statement Sept. 29, the ALA said it had a “brief but fruitful” discussion with Aiken on Sept. 28 and that it is unfortunate she has elected not to renew the State Library’s membership.
South Carolina State Library Agency Director Leesa Aiken addresses her decision not to renew the institution’s membership in the American Library Association at a meeting of the State Library’s board of trustees in Columbia on Sept. 28, 2023. Alexander Thompson/Staff
In recent years, the ALA has vigorously opposed efforts, often launched by conservative groups, to ban books, often about LGBT people or racism, from children’s sections of public libraries. Conservatives counter they’re not trying to ban books but rather ensure materials in children’s sections are age-appropriate and don’t contain graphically violent or sexual content.
Though there is debate about whether the ALA’s anti-censorship campaign exhibits a partisan bent, the organization’s president, Emily Drabinski, a New York City academic librarian, referred to herself in a social media post as a Marxist.
Libraries will be harmed if library advocates lose credibility with conservative lawmakers, Aiken said, adding in her letter that she often spends a third of her budget presentation addressing concerns about the ALA.
“Libraries are not political,” Aiken said. “LGBTQ+, ultra-conservative, the library is for everyone.”
In the letter, Aiken said that the “ALA’s hyper-focus on groups of people at the exclusion of others has been problematic” and that the group’s actions “appear to be activism for certain groups of people and not advocacy for libraries and all the people they serve.”
In their statement, the ALA said that its efforts to promote diversity “may inaccurately be perceived as exclusionary.”
“Diversity is one of the Association’s core values,” the statement said. “ALA believes that libraries should have robust, balanced collections that include divergent viewpoints and represent the whole community.”
Aiken was also critical of the ALA changing its Washington, D.C., lobbying to only include librarians from states with representatives on key committees, which, she said, occasionally excluded South Carolina.
In its statement, the ALA said it takes Aiken’s concerns seriously and plans to return to a larger in-person lobbying day.
State Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, said in a statement he was “very pleased” the State Library had severed ties with the “leftist” ALA and that taxpayer funds would no longer go to the group.
“Good for ’em,” added state Rep. R.J. May, a Lexington Republican and vice chair of the South Carolina House Freedom Caucus, applauding the State Library’s decision. “Every day we see more and more exactly what the ALA is pushing for, and that is to turn our libraries into indoctrination centers.”
Aiken said she is worried that those on the left will see the jubilant reaction from conservatives and conclude that the State Library is taking sides.
She emphasized the State Library remains dedicated to equal access for all, and said it was the first in the country to bring in a consultant to improve equity and diversity at public libraries. It will continue to use the ALA’s many free resources on day-to-day library operations and won’t let politics or pressure dictate which books they collect, even controversial ones, she said.
The South Carolina ACLU, which has been fighting book bans, said it did not know all the specifics of the situation but did not express alarm.
“We were glad to read in the first paragraph of the letter that the South Carolina State Library remains committed to the freedom to read,” Paul Bowers, the group’s spokesman said in a statement. “The State Library’s commitment to intellectual freedom is more important now than ever, as national interest groups like the State Freedom Caucus Network and Moms For Liberty ramp up their attacks.”
The South Carolina Library Association’s board decided to remain neutral on the State Library’s decision at a meeting last week, acting President Jimmie Epling told The Post and Courier. Though, he said he respects Aiken’s decision.
The state’s ALA affiliate will maintain ties with the national group, Epling said.
Though the Freedom Caucus and U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-Laurens, called on them to do so in an August letter, Epling said a break isn’t necessary because ALA doesn’t dictate policy to them, though the South Carolina group’s 300 members represent a range of political views and opinions about the ALA.
“I’m one of those members who is right of center, and for me to sever our relationship with ALA means that we will have less of an impact on changing the national organization,” he said.
