n the first half of the 2022-2023 academic year, parents and politicians executed more than 1,400 book bans in classrooms and libraries around the U.S. Some librarians lost livelihoods fighting against the censorship, and legal experts and historians are sounding the alarm on what it might mean for future First Amendment protections and education outcomes.
It’s a battle that had been brewing—the ALA has been tracking book bans for the last three decades—but when Hall took charge in 2020, her primary focus was on a different emergency: the coronavirus pandemic was shutting down libraries across the world. This near-constant siege from day one of Hall’s tenure is one of the reasons why Hall refers to her fellow librarians as “warriors.
“It felt like one of the most special places you can go,” Hall says, “and be treated like your interests matter—like you matter.”