The Next Chapter In The Battle Of The Books: Librarians

Not long ago, scholars, bibliophiles, publishers and reporters fretted over the future of libraries as they began closing in the face of dwindling public funds and an increasingly digitized world. Those observers could never have imagined a future in which books would be banned and librarians could be sent to jail.

The West Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill last month that would make librarians criminally liable should a minor happen to be exposed to books and content considered by some — police, presumably — to be obscene.

So now, instead of targeting books, we’re targeting librarians.

Passed by a vote of 85-12, House Bill 4654 revises an existing law by removing two exemptions that protected schools, public libraries and museums from criminal prosecution. The bill next heads to the state Senate.

It’s all about child safety, according to Brandon Steele, the delegate who introduced the revisions.

“I’m here to protect our young people and make sure they are not put in a vulnerable position where they are presented with pure pornography in an effort to groom them and prepare them for a potential sexual abuse or sexual assault,” Steele said.

Right. Because your local librarian isn’t just “a dealer in books and two-cent fines and pamphlets and closed stacks and the musty insides of a language factory that spews out meaningless words on an assembly line.” He’s a pedophile!

Steele provided no examples of pedophile librarians engaging in any “grooming” in state libraries.

Actually, my first thought when I started reading the bill was, “Wait, what? West Virginia has libraries?

Yes, but maybe not for long. (Oh, I kid West Virginia.)

But how nice to see West Virginia lawmakers laser-focused on such a pressing issue in a