What's at stake when libraries and librarians become targets for censorship? 

As institutions whose mandates often include the furthering of democracy and prioritizing equal access, libraries are becoming critical battlegrounds between disparate forces, facing pressures to restrict collections, events, even access to our public spaces. 

What happens to librarianship as a profession when its practitioners are forced to choose between resisting and become targets or surrender and change mandates etc? 

Tracie D. Hall, executive director of the American Library Association, and one of Time magazine’s 2023 “100 Most Influential People in the World,” speaks with Toronto Public Library City Librarian, Vickery Bowles, about the vital role libraries play as defenders of free thought, and the increasing responsibility of libraries to protect everyone’s access to information and ideas, now more than ever.

Who decides what books we can read or what opinions are the right ones? Who gets to prescribe events we can attend? And what are the implications for us all when libraries come under attack?

This event is part of our new series exploring what’s at stake when intellectual freedom is threatened.

Toronto Public Library is committed to accessibility. Please call or email us if you are Deaf or have a disability and would like to request accommodation to participate in this program. Please let us know as far in advance as possible and we will do our best to meet your request. At least three weeks notice is preferred. Phone 416-393-7099 or email accessibleservices@tpl.ca

Libraries as Battlegrounds: Defending access to information in a polarized world