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by the HLA Community Engagement Committee Promoting the freedom to read lies at the heart of every library’s mission. This principle ensures that people of all ages and backgrounds can explore ideas, encounter new perspectives, and find stories that reflect and expand upon their own experiences.
Each year, Banned Books Week (BBW) elevates and celebrates our freedom to read and invites us to reflect on the harms of censorship. BBW brings together librarians, educators, writers, publishers, and readers to affirm that access to stories/ideas is essential to a healthy and democratic society. HLA is proud to contribute to BBW 2025 through two initiatives that uplift local voices and emphasize our commitment to intellectual freedom. Video Series Featuring Local Leaders HLA invited a range of local voices to share short personal reflections on why they believe intellectual freedom should be cherished and defended. Among those who shared statements are:
These snapshots will be shared publicly through HLA’s social media channels during Banned Books Week 2025, and underscore the power of diverse perspectives in resisting censorship. We invite you to view these stories via this HLA Youtube channel playlist. Community Reflections on Padlet HLA has also launched “Why I Read Freely” via Padlet, a digital wall of voices that gathers local insights from community members. Contributors can respond to prompts like:
About Banned Books Week Banned Books Week was started in 1982 by Judith F. Krug of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, in coalition with publishers, booksellers, and writers’ organizations. The annual event, observed nationally this year from October 5-11, draws attention to ongoing/increasing challenges to books in classrooms and libraries – many of which are related to race, gender, sexuality, history, etc. These attempts to censor undermine the core tenets of a civilized and educated society, and are ultimately attempts to silence voices, restrict perspectives, and narrow our understanding of the multi-faceted world we live in. Standing Together for Intellectual Freedom By encouraging curiosity, dialogue, and access to diverse viewpoints, Hawai‘i’s librarians and information professionals ensure that our libraries remain places where everyone can learn and explore without fear of restriction. HLA extends a heartfelt mahalo to all who continue to champion these values, in small or large ways, and to those who contributed to our BBW initiatives this year. Together, we celebrate not only the books themselves, but the essential freedom to seek and share the ideas that define who we are as a collective, diverse community. As a community, we are free to read and we are free to think. Let’s continue to protect that freedom for all, remembering that “Free People Read Freely.” With aloha - HLA’s Community Engagement Committee
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by Ellen-Rae Cachola The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Library and Information Science (LIS) program is part of the School of Communication and Information (SCI). The SCI held their open house on April 11, 2025 to introduce visitors and guests to the disciplines within this school, situated in the College of Social Sciences. It was a day of intriguing mini workshops covering Communication, Journalism, Library and Information Science, and Peace and Conflict Resolution.
The University of Hawaiʻi’s Library and Information Science Program is well-positioned in this new School of Communication and Information. Library Sciences brings a unique lens with its focus on physical and digital stores of both historical and current data, knowledge, and wisdom and how best to preserve and make accessible these invaluable resources today and for future generations. In addition, the library field faces challenges similar to other communications disciplines, including rampant misinformation and emerging technologies like AI. For example, school librarians are working hard at teaching children how to identify misinformation and avoid being misled. By working alongside the disciplines of communication, journalism, and peace and conflict resolution, library science students, faculty, and researchers can engage in relevant dialogue on how information is disseminated and experienced in different contexts. Together these disciplines will find new ways to address our shared challenges. We wish the LIS Program an exciting chapter of learning and scholarship ahead!
Statement on the firing of Carla Hayden and HLA's Concerns about Hawaiʻi's Shifting Landscape5/15/2025 by The HLA Board HLA is concerned about the firing of Dr. Carla Hayden by the current Administration. Dr. Hayden was the first African American Librarian of Congress, who was hired in 2016. She was targeted by a conservative group for circulating what they called “radical” perspectives. But Hayden connected her purpose at the Library of Congress as an opportunity to represent broader views of history and knowledge, as a descendant of African Americans. Moreover, Shira Perlmutter, the Register of Copyrights, was also dismissed. Her office played a vital role in guiding the nation’s understanding of artificial intelligence and intellectual property. These acts resonate with the firing of Dr. Colleen Shogan, the National Archivist of the U.S., earlier this year. HLA is concerned about the firing of qualified information professionals from the highest library and archival institutions in the U.S. These professions require a high degree of professional ethics and neutrality in their practice in order to protect intellectual freedom and public trust in government.
Meanwhile, we are seeing efforts to dismantle the Institute for Library and Museum Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities. These actions are already impacting us at the state level. Next Steps What can you do now? By May 16, we encourage you to write or call our Congressional Delegation to press for 2026 federal funding for public and school libraries. This resource, the Dear Appropriator Letter to fund libraries for FY 2026, will help you speak up for 2026 funding for the Library Services and Technology Act and the Innovative Approaches to Libraries grants. Share how your library is an invaluable resource for our community. Next, if you want to know what is being done locally, join the online HLA Spring Meeting on Saturday May 31, 2025 from 11-3pm. This will be an opportunity to discuss these issues with our community. By sharing our experiences from different vantage points, we can find the hope in one another to move forward as a profession. ʻAʻohe hana nui ke alu ʻia. No task is too big when done together by all. Hawaiʻi's Shifting Landscape We also witness the local impacts of the shifts in current federal priorities and want to highlight how Hawaiʻi librarians and supporters are responding.
-Hawaiʻi Library Association Board The Hawai‘i Library Association stands with library workers, patrons, and the communities we serve who are discriminated against and are subject to violence based solely on their race or ethnicity. We do this in support of our brothers and sisters in the ALA Black Caucus “Statement Condemning Increased Violence and Racism Towards Black Americans and People of Color.”
Libraries, at their core, are communities where all are welcome. We stand for diversity, equity, inclusion, and open access to information. The pervasive and institutionalized racism in our society today denies these principles, promotes oppression, and dehumanizes our brothers and sisters. We must work together to end such racism and discrimination. While libraries have long considered themselves as neutral ground, there is no neutrality in the face of oppression. Using power and structure to limit others is contrary to our principles and mission. All have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. All have the right to have their voice heard. We cannot be silent. We cannot just stand by. Change will not happen overnight. But it will only happen as we work together. Libraries can facilitate this work by providing safe spaces, by helping educate, and by supporting those who feel voiceless. Let us stand together and lift up those who have been pushed down, kneeled upon, and discarded. Let us stand together as libraries, as communities, and as sisters and brothers. Let us stand together and support those who need it most. Let us stand together so Black People and People of Color can breathe freely. Let us stand together as one ‘ohana. After careful review of current circumstances and out of an abundance of caution, the HLA Board has cancelled the HLA Spring Meeting. Concerns related to COVID-19 have impacted every facet of our society, including libraries. We are often the frontline of community interaction and work with many vulnerable members of our population. As each of us develop response plans to the current circumstances, we would encourage a review of ALA’s Pandemic Preparedness site (http://www.ala.org/tools/atoz/pandemic-preparedness) for library specific resources and the CDC’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) site (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html) and the State of Hawai‘i’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) site (https://health.hawaii.gov/docd/advisories/novel-coronavirus-2019/)
In the meantime the HLA Board hopes everyone will be safe and be able to make a smooth transition to serving our users during this challenge. |
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