Louisiana continues these efforts in an ongoing move by politicians in the state to damage public libraries with House Bill 777. HB 777 was introduced March 25 by Representative Kellee Dickerson, who helped fund the Louisiana Freedom Caucus. The bill would criminalize library workers and libraries for joining the American Library Association.
The American Library Association (ALA) is the largest and oldest professional organization for library workers in the nation. It was founded in 1876, and this Twitter thread is a fantastic resource on the history and purpose of the organization… The HB 777 text reads:
> A. No public official or employee shall appropriate, allocate, reimburse, or otherwise or in any way expend public funds to or with the American Library Association or its successor. > B. No public employee shall request or receive reimbursement or remuneration in any form for continuing education or for attending a conference if the continuing education or conference was sponsored or conducted, in whole or in part, by the American Library Association or its successor. > C. Whoever violates this Section shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars or be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not more than two years, or both.
Next will come convicting teachers for belonging to Teacher Unions, and more.
I was told I need to worry about librarians putting up a Pride Month display, just in conservatives take over someday and put up their own stuff. You know, someday it might happen that conservatives might try to do something to libraries, so we’d better not celebrate Black History Month!
Yes, it’s bullshit. Yes, it’s terrible. Yes, it’s stupid; and yes, they shouldn’t be doing it.
However –
as I read that language, it wouldn’t penalize anybody for joining the ALA, or for attending any of its meetings. or for reading any of its info – as long as they didn’t use public money in order to do so.
If the law prohibited any public employee from spending public $$ to join any professional org, then I could see that. But it only prohibits library employees from getting reimbursed from one org, because Louisiana doesnt like that orgs stance against book banning.
What I’m pointing out is just that the language doesn’t actually appear to say what the headline and the quote in the OP claims that it does. It’s quite bad enough without.
(And the criminalization probably would apply to anyone acting on behalf of a library rather than entirely as an individual, as the library might not have any funds which aren’t arguably public funds. Maybe a private donation dedicated entirely to that purpose, including payment for the use of the building during the time of filling out the paperwork; said work to be done by a volunteer?)
True. It looks like it makes it illegal to use state funds to fund anything dealing with ALA.
And wouldn’t a law preventing a person from joining ALA be a violation of freedom of association?
Per the Louisiana state legislature bill tracker, it was “referred to the Committee on Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs” on March 26. So, in committee, and there’s a very good chance it dies there, like most of the (many) insane bills introduced into state legislatures. If it makes it to a floor vote in its current form, that might be time to start worrying.
