From: Karen Gianni <kgianni@ala.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2023 8:46 AM
To: George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>
Subject: Automatic reply: Librarian Shadow Banning of Books and Periodicals
Thank you for your message. The Freedom to Read Foundtion and ALA are closed on Monday, February 20th in observance of President's Day.
Karen Gianni
Program Coordinator
Freedom to Read Foundation
From: George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2023 8:46 AM
To: Deborah Caldwell-Stone <dstone@ala.org>; shannon.oltmann@uky.edu <shannon.oltmann@uky.edu>; Knox, Emily Joyce Magdelyn <knox@illinois.edu>
Cc: news@dailyillini.com <news@dailyillini.com>; bgomez@ala.org <bgomez@ala.org>; kgianni@ala.org <kgianni@ala.org>; estroshane@ala.org <estroshane@ala.org>
Subject: Re: Librarian Shadow Banning of Books and Periodicals
To Emily Knox, Editor, the Journal of Intellectual Freedom:
Now, why not publish the attached cartoon in your Journal of Intellectual Freedom… in an effort to illustrate the ALA’s true embrace of, well, intellectual freedom? Do you think the student editors at the University of Illinois, where you teach, would dare publish it in The Daily Illini, the “independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois," which aberrantly does “not publish the work of independent writers”? Methinks not! And that of course says a lot, a very, very sad lot in the eyes—in the light—of democracy, as opposed to the darkness of Marxist ideology. The guise of civility serves to bury truth. The hypocrisy of decorum is indeed the enemy of freedom of expression. And so, from the dross, I create without concern for civility and decorum, but rather for veritas…
Au plaisir,
G. Tod Slone (PhD—Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit, Founding Editor (1998)
The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence
www.theamericandissident.org
wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com
todslone@hotmail.com
217 Commerce Rd.
Barnstable, MA 02630
From: George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2023 7:33 AM
To: Deborah Caldwell-Stone <dstone@ala.org>; shannon.oltmann@uky.edu <shannon.oltmann@uky.edu>; Knox, Emily Joyce Magdelyn <knox@illinois.edu>
Cc: bgomez@ala.org <bgomez@ala.org>; kgianni@ala.org <kgianni@ala.org>; estroshane@ala.org <estroshane@ala.org>
Subject: Re: Librarian Shadow Banning of Books and Periodicals
To The Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy, Editor Emily J. M. Knox, Managing Editor Eleanor Diaz, News Editor Eric Stroshane, and Publisher Deborah Caldwell-Stone (Director, Office for Intellectual Freedom, an office of the American Library Association):
Below is Part I, which I did not send. Question: How can libraries and librarians possibly improve if they hermetically shut their doors to criticism? How can that possibly help promote intellectual freedom?
Au plaisir,
G. Tod Slone
Librarian Shadow Banning of Books and Periodicals (Part I)*
I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary. I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity!
—Emily Drabinski
Since when is Marxism open to free speech and the free flow of information? In the USSR? Cuba? China? What does “collective power” really mean? Well, self-proclaimed Marxist Emily Drabinski, the new president of the American Library Association, does not say. Nevertheless, what it obviously means is an end to the power of individual thinking! And what does a “better world” imply? Again, Drabinski does not say. Well, is it not one of ideological conquest and groupthink? And what does solidarity mean, if not absolute conformity? That is now officially the state of the American Library Association.
In Ryan Bray’s Cape Cod Chronicle article, “Local Libraries Support Diversity Of Offerings,” Tavi Prugno, director of Snow Library (in Orleans on Cape Cod), states: "Certainly 26 years ago when I started [working in libraries], there were not a lot of books or materials on that subject [LGBTQ], and now there are. We’ve tried to keep pace with that topic and other topics.” Oh? How about criticism of librarians as de facto gatekeepers of information? Might that be one of the topics they’ve tried to keep pace with? Librarian banned books discussion seems now to center almost entirely around LGBTQ victimhood, yet it should certainly be more inclusive than that. Well, the discussion also provides a platform to portray librarians by librarians as somehow angelically perfect, which of course they are not.
From: George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2023 10:41 AM
To: Knox, Emily Joyce Magdelyn <knox@illinois.edu>
Cc: bgomez@ala.org <bgomez@ala.org>; kgianni@ala.org <kgianni@ala.org>; estroshane@ala.org <estroshane@ala.org>
Subject: Re: Librarian Shadow Banning of Books and Periodicals
To Editor Emily J.M. Knox, Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy:
Sorry, I thought I’d already sent this response a week ago, but apparently I hadn’t. So, thank you for your response. That in itself is somewhat unusual vis-a-vis librarians (and professors)… when criticized even indirectly. Actually, I do not feel at all “frustrated.” The norm really does not frustrate me. What it does is provoke me to create—write and cartoon.
The essay I sent does indeed highlight only one particular example of shadow banning. But has your journal ever even contemplated the concept of the shadow banning of periodicals by librarians? Charles Willett’s statement in the beginning of the essay certainly underscores that reality. Moreover, how might one access other examples of shadow banning via the ALA or libraries in general when they will not even acknowledge its existence… and publish an account of it like mine?
Moreover, how does the banning of patrons who openly criticize library directors via writing not fall within your “larger issues of censorship, intellectual freedom, and privacy”? That is truly mind-boggling! One might also ask how a Marxist at the head of the ALA will possibly open the doors to intellectual freedom. Ideologies are, after all, intrinsic enemies of intellectual freedom.
Contrary to your statement, shadow banning is clearly defined in my essay. It is the librarian rejection of a periodical or book via excuses like not enough shelf space or insufficient funding or our patrons aren’t interested. It is a form of censorship in that it clearly serves to restrict information available in public libraries.
Somehow, you seemed to have missed the key point in my essay that the periodical in question, The American Dissident, is the only one that openly questions and challenges local cultural organizations in the region known as Cape Cod. To date, all 35 of the libraries in that region have rejected the periodical. That ought to spark interest from the ALA. But apparently it doesn’t!
My essay does not state that all libraries have been unwilling to subscribe to the periodical in question. Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins and a handful of other libraries do subscribe, but not one in the entire Clams Library System of Cape Cod (Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing). STRICTLY PROHIBITED: CRITICISM OF LIBRARIANS and local cultural organizations!
The periodical in question does in fact have an ISSN number: ISSN 1555-9777. So that invalidates the point you made. But even if it didn’t have a number, how would that jive with the ALA’s statement that “libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view”?
It is curious, to say the least, that shadow banning of periodicals does not fall within the realm of your “larger issues of censorship, intellectual freedom, and privacy.” It is indeed surprising that the concept I evoked in the essay would not be of interest to a journal focused on intellectual freedom and censorship. And again how might one discover other shadow-banned periodicals when the large majority of librarians, from my experience, are simply unresponsive (revert to my essay regarding the two open letters sent to the librarians in which not one of whom deigned to respond).
It is amazing that perhaps most librarians reject the reality that they are indeed gatekeepers of information (i.e., de facto censors of information). And in that darkness, how can one not evoke the egregious hypocrisy of the ALA’s library bill of rights provision, in particular, the quote cited above?
Finally, the periodical in question, in the light of democracy (free expression and vigorous debate), not only brooks hardcore criticism with its regard and the editor’s, but encourages and publishes the harshest received in each and every issue. Can you name another literary or librarian periodical that does that? How about the ALA’s American Libraries Magazine and, of course, your journal? My suggestion to you and yours: open your hermetically-closed doors! Embrace criticism! Publish criticism!
Au plaisir,
G. Tod Slone (PhD—Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit, Founding Editor (1998)
The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence
www.theamericandissident.org
wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com
todslone@hotmail.com
217 Commerce Rd.
Barnstable, MA 02630
From: Knox, Emily Joyce Magdelyn <knox@illinois.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2023 12:22 PM
To: George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>; dstone@ala.org <dstone@ala.org>; shannon.oltmann@uky.edu <shannon.oltmann@uky.edu>
Cc: bgomez@ala.org <bgomez@ala.org>; kgianni@ala.org <kgianni@ala.org>; estroshane@ala.org <estroshane@ala.org>
Subject: RE: Librarian Shadow Banning of Books and Periodicals
Dear, Mr. Slone,
Thank you for contacting us. I know that dealing with institutions can be frustrating.
Unfortunately, your personal essay is out of scope for the Journal. Although we do publish commentaries, they must speak to larger issues of censorship, intellectual freedom, and privacy.
You mention a particular case of shadow banning but this term is not defined and you do not give any examples of shadow banning of this or similar titles in public libraries across the country. You also do not discuss if other types of libraries (e.g., academic or special libraries—perhaps those at think tanks dedicated to dissident voices) have refused to subscribe to your magazine or magazines like it.
Also, I am unable to find an ISSN for your magazine. I understand that your local libraries have indicated that they are “not able to subscribe to everything” or “do not have space.” This is shorthand for various aspects of the library’s collection development policies. For many libraries, in order to subscribe to an individual serial title, the title would need to have an ISSN and would need to be purchased through a library vendor such as Baker & Taylor.
The Journal is similar to libraries in that we have policies related to which articles are in and out of scope. As I noted, commentaries that focus on a single case need to take a wide view of how one particular case can be generalized to additional contexts, that is, it must provide analysis of a broader phenomenon.
I hope this is helpful. More specifically, you may want to consider publishing this essay on Substack https://substack.com/inbox. The platform provides an integrated system for finding a wider audience.
Emily
Emily J.M. Knox
Editor
Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy
https://journals.ala.org/index.php/jifp
From: George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2023 10:09 AM
To: dstone@ala.org; shannon.oltmann@uky.edu; Knox, Emily Joyce Magdelyn <knox@illinois.edu>
Cc: bgomez@ala.org; kgianni@ala.org; estroshane@ala.org
Subject: Librarian Shadow Banning of Books and Periodicals
To The Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy, Editor Emily J. M. Knox, Managing Editor Eleanor Diaz, News Editor Eric Stroshane, and Publisher Deborah Caldwell-Stone (Director, Office for Intellectual Freedom, an office of the American Library Association):
You note that “The Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy welcomes submissions related to intellectual freedom and privacy, both in libraries and in the wider world. Submissions can include [amongst other subjects] ‘personal accounts of censorship and intellectual freedom challenges.’” First, one would have to specify what censorship might constitute. For me, the general concept ought to include shadow banning. In essence, censorship in a general sense constitutes the blocking of information. Perhaps it would be in your interest to not only consider books that have been removed, but also books and periodicals that have been shadow banned. And so, below is an essay, “Librarian Shadow Banning of Books and Periodicals,” which I recently wrote and would like you to publish. It essentially concerns the shadow banning of the 501c3 nonprofit journal I’ve been publishing since 1998. Indeed, not one library on Cape Cod in the Clams Library System of Cape Cod will subscribe. One library even refused a free subscription.
Finally, you might wish to read the dialogue de sourds I had a while ago with James LaRue, former director of your Office for Intellectual Freedom: “Notes on the Office for Intellectual Freedom… Sham.” Please distribute this email and essay to your editorial board members.
Au plaisir,
G. Tod Slone (PhD—Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit, Founding Editor (1998)
The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence
www.theamericandissident.org
wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com
todslone@hotmail.com
217 Commerce Rd.
Barnstable, MA 02630
Librarian Shadow Banning of Books and Periodicals
In almost all the 45 libraries studied here, and probably hundreds and hundreds more across the country, we have failed our professional duty to seek out diverse political views. [...] These books are not expensive. Their absence from our libraries makes a mockery of ALA’s vaunted ‘freedom to read.’ But we do not even notice that we are censoring our collections. Complacently, we watch our new automated systems stuff the shelves with Henry Kissinger’s memoirs.
—Charles Willett, Founding Editor, Counterpoise, and retired librarian [remarks presented at the Fifth National Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries]
When I write about libraries, how not to quote former librarian Charles Willett! Indeed, his words certainly encompass my experience dealing with most librarians. In any case, a book on the shelf of the West Yarmouth Library grabbed my attention: Read These Banned Books: A Journal and 52-Week Reading Challenge from the American Library Association. Briefly, I leafed through it, then showed it to the woman at the checkout counter and asked if the library might consider subscribing to the periodical I publish biannually and founded in 1998: The American Dissident, a 501c3 nonprofit journal of literature, democracy, and dissidence. She then introduced me to Chris Kaufmann, Technical Services, Yarmouth Town Libraries.
