AUSTIN (KXAN) — Minda Anderson knows librarians have a tough job. As debates over book bans sweep through public libraries across the nation, Anderson — a librarian in the greater Austin area herself — has watched many of her colleagues choose to leave the profession.
“Librarians have been leaving the field because of attacks on libraries and librarians,” she said. “Not because we don’t want to serve our communities, but because the attacks have become so personal.”
As Central Texas school districts begin the academic year, Anderson is worried that the pressure will get more intense. Starting in September, librarians’ jobs will be reshaped by Senate Bill 13, the state legislature’s latest effort to protect parents’ ability to control what their children read.
The bill opens the door for the creation of library committees, a group of parents and school affiliates in charge of reviewing new purchases and book challenges in school libraries. The legislation, set to go into effect Sept. 1, also requires librarians to provide parents with a record of all the books their child checks out throughout the year.
Mary Elizabeth Castle, the director of Austin-based conservative advocacy group Texas Values, said the measure will help ensure students are only accessing “age-appropriate materials” in their school libraries.
“We want to make sure that we keep these obscene materials out of the hands of kids, because the school does have a duty to protect kids in that way,” Castle said. “We want to make sure that they can easily do that, and that parents overall can have control and have a voice in what their children read.”
But Anderson said that the legislation will increase the workload of librarians, making it more difficult to support students and secure new purchases in a timely manner.
“We have had trust in the past to be able to do that with our professional training and expertise, and it’s written into board policy that we are following the collection, development and instructional resources guidelines to purchase what’s right for our students,” Anderson said.
“Now, that trust is being taken away, and so it’s going to create lots of extra hoops to jump through that were not necessary,” she added.
Reviewing the legislation
The bill, authored by Republican Sen. Angela Paxton of New Braunfels, represents the latest effort to protect parental rights in the state. Castle worked with Paxton’s office to advocate for the legislation, and said the library councils help ensure parents have a say in the literature consumed by their children.
“This will be a good process to make sure that even the school board members aren’t left on their own having to read these books on their own,” she said. “I believe that this will be very beneficial — having that extra set of eyes, having parents involved and voicing that opinion and getting together and voting on what will be appropriate or inappropriate for children.”
Bonnie Wallace, an active parental rights advocate in the state, also thinks the legislation is a step in the right direction. Wallace, who has attended 158 school board meetings across the state in an effort to get books she deems obscene off school shelves, looks forward to the increased standing SB 13 gives community members to challenge books in libraries.
“I am grateful that Angela Paxton put in there that taxpayers have the right to challenge since technically, I mean, our money is funding the library,” she said. “We should have authority to challenge.”
But Carunya Achar with the American Civil Liberties Union said the committees could threaten students’ ability to access broad swaths of literature. Nonprofit PEN America found that Texas banned nearly 540 books during the 2023-24 school year — nearly half of which included characters of color or LGBTQ+ characters.
“Especially in smaller school districts in the state — especially rural school districts — if these committees get established and these books get banned, that’s typically the only way that a young person has access to this material,” Archar said.
The legislation’s supporters argue that it will give parents more say over their child’s education. The American Libraries Association found that last year, only 16% of complaints were initiated by parents — while 72% came from administrators, elected officials and pressure groups.
Changes in the new school year
Carolyn Foote, a retired librarian who spent nearly 30 years working in Austin-area schools, said the district is not equipped with the proper technology to document and share records of students’ library books with their parents. She worries that this could give librarians less time to work with their students.
“For those districts — like AISD is one of them — where the software just isn’t capable, then that poses a problem,” she said. “It costs money. It costs time to figure out how that’s going to be automated, or if it can be automated.”
“This is sort of the back end, behind the scenes, but it does take time away from working with students,” she added.
AISD did not provide comment on the technology in their libraries. We will update this story when they do.
Foote, co-founder of the grassroots group FReadom Fighters, is also concerned that lengthy committee reviews could create a “log jam” of materials waiting to be approved.
“The committees only are required to meet twice a year,” she said. “Imagine you have thousands of books to review, to order, and the committee’s only meeting twice a year.”
Shirley Robinson, the director of the Texas Library Association, echoed Foote’s concerns. She said Texas librarians will have to submit their purchase lists “much earlier” to accommodate committee reviews.
“We’ll definitely see the loss and flexibility on the part of the campus librarian to be able to purchase books quickly if something comes up, like a project or a book club or in the classroom,” Robinson said.
Anderson, the librarian in Austin, said she is worried that students could fall behind if they do not have the material they need readily available in their libraries.
“Why, in a state that is already so low in our literacy rates, are we restricting access to books?” Anderson asked. “Students are not going to have access to books required for classes, and they are going to lose access to books that are of personal interest, and that will lead to a decreased love of reading.”