The South Carolina State Library has officially terminated its partnership with the American Library Association (ALA), citing the group’s alleged partisanship, according to a letter shared Sept. 26.
The ALA selected Emily Drabinski — who described herself as a “Marxist lesbian” in a since-deleted tweet — to head the group in 2022. Drabinski said she hoped to use her position at the library to examine the “consequences of decades of unchecked climate change, class war, white supremacy, and imperialism have led us here.
The Montana State Library (MSL) Commission voted in July to leave the ALA, writing that, “Our oath of office and resulting duty to the Constitution forbids association with an organization led by a Marxist.”
“Your organization, the national organization for libraries, has a professional obligation to provide resources that can be utilized by libraries and librarians to serve their patrons,” Aiken’s letter continued. “While this can be challenging, it is possible with inclusion and diversity. My hope is that this letter, the loss of membership, and the additional voices of my colleagues in the field will create reflection and action within ALA to be guided by the mission ‘to provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.'”
The ALA has been working to kill legislation that prohibits librarians from distributing sexually explicit materials to minors. The group has argued such laws would “impair” librarians’ ability to effectively distribute “diverse” materials to community readers. The ALA is using an “adverse library legislation tracker” to target these and other laws, including legislation that seeks to protect parents’ rights. Members of the ALA were encouraged to work with “grasstops advocates who can engage with lawmakers and influencers” to defeat such “adverse” bills.
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