South Shore Public Libraries fight for your right to read with book sanctuary
Ashley Nunn-Smith, CEO of South Shore Public Libraries, stands in front of the Book Sanctuary display at the Margaret Hennigar Public Library in Bridgewater. (Rick Conrad)
You may not agree with the content of certain books, but the staff at South Shore Public Libraries will fight for your right to read them.
That’s why they’ve created the South Shore’s first Book Sanctuary at their main branch in Bridgewater to mark Freedom to Read Week, which kicked off Sunday.
Ashley Nunn-Smith, CEO and chief librarian of South Shore Public Libraries, says it’s a permanent collection designed to highlight and protect books at risk.
“It is 50 titles that have been either banned or challenged in libraries and schools across North America,” she told QCCR.
“This is is a permanent home for these titles. They’re presently on display for about three weeks, and then after that folks can borrow them and bring them home and read and think about the reason why someone might want you not to read that book. So we’re declaring ourselves a book sanctuary, a safe haven for books that somebody doesn’t want you to read.”
Christina Pottie, communication and engagement lead for South Shore Public Libraries, organized it in about three weeks. She and Nunn-Smith attended a recent library conference in Ontario, which highlighted the book sanctuary created by the Toronto Public Library in 2023. SSPL is using the same list used by Toronto.
The idea began at the Chicago Public Library in 2022. Almost 4,800 book sanctuaries now exist across the U.S., according to booksanctuary.org.
Nunn-Smith says attempts to ban books are on the rise in North America.
“We wanted to be proactive by establishing this collection now and saying that we will protect these items. We’ll protect intellectual freedom through all of our services and collections, but this is a visual and symbolic representation of that value.”
The book sanctuary includes typically banned books like 1984 or The Handmaid’s Tale, but also children’s books like Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus.
“Junie B. Jones and The Stupid Smelly Bus is a title for readers around age seven. This one was was challenged in Toronto. And so the reasoning was that Junie would be a bad role model for young folks and encourage them to be rude to adults and encourage bad spelling. ”
The collection also includes the Bible, queer fiction and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial best-seller, The Real Anthony Fauci.
“It’s one point of view on public health and pharmaceuticals. Whether or not you believe this point of view, it’s still worthwhile to be able to read it, debate it, discuss it. Read different points of view form your own. That’s vital in a democratic society. I might personally disagree with some of the points of view in this collection but that doesn’t mean we have a right to remove them from the shelf.”
The collection of 50 adult, teen and children’s books is on display at the Margaret Hennigar Public Library in Bridgewater for three weeks.
Beginning March 10, people will be able to sign out specific items in the collection, either in person or on the library’s website using the keywords SSPL Book Sanctuary.
Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com
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