BILL NUMBER: S8116

SPONSOR: RYAN S
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to the practice of
banning books by libraries

 
PURPOSE:

The purpose of this bill is to prohibit the banning of books by publicly
funded libraries.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: amends Section 254 of the education law by specifying that
every free association library, public library, hospital library, Indian
library and library system which receives any portion of money appropri-
ated by the state shall adopt the American Library Association's (ALA)
library bill of rights that indicates materials should not be proscribed
or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval or, alternative-
ly, develop a written statement prohibiting the practice of banning
              

books or other materials within the library or library system.

Section 2: amends section 711 of the education law by adding a new
subdivision 5 requiring that each school district, board of education,
trustees or such body or officers as perform the functions of such
boards adopt the ALA library bill of rights prohibiting the banning of
books consistent with section 254 of the education law.

Section 3. effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Book banning, a form of censorship, occurs when private individuals,
government officials, or organizations remove books from libraries,
school reading lists, or bookstore shelves because they object to their
content, ideas, or themes. In New York state, there is evidence of at
least 13 book bans in four school districts. The issue has been playing
out locally in school board meetings and social media pages.

According to a PEN America report, a New York-based literary and free
expression nonprofit advocacy group, from July to December 2022, there
were 1,477 cases of books being removed, up from 1,149 during the previ-
ous six months. Since the organization began tracking bans in July 2021,
it has counted more than 4,000 instances of book removals using news
reports, public records requests and publicly available data. The report
found that 41% of banned books last year featured LGBTQ themes or a
major character who is gay or transgender.

The report's findings are alarming. The Supreme Court in Board of Educa-
tion, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982) ruled 5-4
that public schools can bar books that are "pervasively vulgar" or not
right for the curriculum, but they cannot remove books "simply because
they dislike the ideas contained in those books."  Today's wave of bans
represents a coordinated campaign to prevent access to books being waged
by sophisticated, well-resourced advocacy organizations. The majority of
book bans weren't "spontaneous, organic expressions" of concern by
parents and citizens, but rather "reflect the work of a growing number
of advocacy organizations that have made demanding censorship of certain
books and ideas in schools part of their mission."

This bill would require all libraries and library systems to adopt the
American Library Association's library bill of rights indicating materi-
als should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or
doctrinal, disapproval and/or develop a written statement prohibiting
the practice of banning books or other materials within the library or
library system. This bill would end book bans across the state of New
York.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2023-2024: A7830 referred to Libraries and Technology

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have
become a law.