Jim Dey: Despite hype, new law not exactly ban on banning books

Jun. 14—There was considerable crowing and self-congratulations Monday when Gov. J.B. Pritzker held a bill-signing ceremony for a new law that attacks efforts to remove controversial books from public and school libraries.

"Illinois first state in nation to outlaw book bans," one headline stated.

"Regimes ban books, not democracies," Pritzker told his audience.

Even allowing for the usual political puffery, those claims are exaggerations.

The new law certainly discourages attacks on library materials. But the state only has tenuous links to the public/school libraries this legislation aims to influence.

The state takes a carrot-and-stick approach to the "book ban" issue.

Libraries that have adopted or adopt policies that protect controversial books remain eligible for state grants. During the "last fiscal year," the state awarded 1,631 grants totaling $62 million, according to the Illinois Secretary of State's office.

That averages $38,000 per grant. Roughly 97 percent of them went to public and school libraries.

That's not chump change. But the state grants are minimal share of budgets for libraries that are overwhelmingly funded by property taxes.

Property taxes provide $3.8 million of the Urbana Free Library's current 2022-23 $4.5 million budget.

Just $56,300 comes from the state. The balance comes from a number of different sources including investment income, library fees, donations and cafe revenues.

The Champaign Public Library has an $8.9 million budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 96 percent from property taxes.

Library director Brittany Millington said that includes roughly $130,000 in state grants.

Both the Champaign and Urbana libraries subscribe to the American Library Association's Bill of Rights that resists efforts to "restrict access" to controversial books.

That's why the new legislation is pretty much of a local non-event.

"This isn't something that we envision is going to have an effect on our policies or funding," Millington said.

Because the legislative change is limited, the new language in the Illinois Library System Act also is relatively brief.

Consisting of a few paragraphs, it states Illinois' policy is to "encourage and protect" libraries' discretion to "acquire materials without external limitation" and "be protected from attempts to ban, remove or otherwise restrict access to books and other materials."

It also states that "in order to be eligible for state grants," libraries must must adopt the ILA code or develop one of its own.

Although there have been local book controversies, they are rare.

During Champaign library director George Scheetz' tenure, there was a controversy over Madonna's 1992 pictorial book, "Sex."

Urbana avoided that controversy, then library director Fred Schlipf contending he did not acquire it out of concern "Sex" would be vandalized by patrons wanting some of the pictures.

in 2008, the Champaign School Board concluded — by a 5-2 vote — that "The Kite Runner" was not appropriate for 14- or 15-year-olds. Other highly praised works that have raised objections from local parents include E.L. Doctorow's "Ragtime" and Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

These days, books drawing objections embrace sexual themes, particularly LGBTQ+ content.

Joining Pritzker and Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias to praise the legislation was Equality Illinois' Mike Ziri. He praised the new protection for "age-appropriate LGBTQ+ affirming content" that he said is "critical to the well-being of LGBTQ+ young people."

The ILA reports that there were 43 "attempts to restrict access" involving 69 books in Illinois during 2022. The book that drew the most objections was "Gender Queer: A Memoir," described as "the author's exploration of gender identity and sexuality, ultimately identifying as being outside of the gender binary."

Of the seven most nationally challenged books, six involved LGBTQ+ themes.