This story first appeared in the Kentucky Lantern, an outlet of States Newsroom. It is republished here as part of a reporting partnership with WUKY.
Back then, the wacky war on woke was gaining ground in our legislature and in our libraries. I remember talking to librarians like Erin Waller of the Daviess County Public Library, who was going through a list of 248 books that had been challenged by the “Daviess County Citizens for Decency,” a local group that got mad about a drag show and decided to move their anger to the stacks.
Many of the books they challenged were about kids with two mommies, but sadly many more were about our nation’s history of racial injustice. People did not like the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and did not want their children reading about why we had to have them.
In Paris, Mark Adler had a similar list of 102 challenges. Apparently, the challengers had never thought that if they were offended by materials in the library, they didn’t have to check them out. Or look at them. Or even go to the library.
Well, it’s Banned Books Week again, so I gave Adler a call. And the news was … very positive.
“We’ve had absolutely no more issues,” Adler said, “and I think in large part it was due to our very diverse community being tied together by a common belief that everyone is entitled to their freedoms, including First Amendment freedoms.”
In late 2023, the Paris-Bourbon County Public Library Board of Directors did something pretty extraordinary for a small, rural, mostly conservative place: Members voted to become the first library in Kentucky to be a “First Amendment Library,” which means a place where people have free access to read whatever they want, without anyone else choosing for them or their children.
The movement started in Chicago, where they are called First Amendment Sanctuary Libraries, but has spread around the country. Becoming a First Amendment Library has no legal teeth, of course, and people can still make their challenges. But the message, Adler said, was real and consequential.
The library’s move was supported by Judge Executive Michael Williams, who commended the library board for standing up to their oaths of office. The county’s fiscal court and Paris City Council passed resolutions supporting the designation as well.
“Our First Amendment rights are not political,” Adler said. “Conservative people should have materials on their shelves to meet their needs, just like liberals. Everyone should be able to find themselves in books at the library.”
A better pattern
Now unfortunately, this good news has not been as widespread as we would like. According to the American Library Association, 4,235 unique titles were challenged in 2025, only five titles short of the highest number ever documented by the ALA in, you guessed it, 2023. Between 2001 and 2020, the annual average was just 273 unique titles.
But in Kentucky, the storm has mostly calmed, said King Simpson, the executive director of the Logan County Public Library and the current president of the Kentucky Public Library Association.
“There has not been nearly the number of controversies we’ve seen in years past,” Simpson said. “I don’t know if people have moved on; I would like to think people have been able to work proactively in their communities to come to understandings and encourage people to support the First Amendment.”
Back in 2023, library folks were also worried about a then-new state law that would allow county fiscal courts to have a say over who was appointed to library boards.
But that hasn’t really been a problem either, Simpson said.
“We’ve tried to be more proactive and have encouraged our members to have those conversations and build those relationships, so officials can reach out early on, rather than when we’re butting heads,” Simpson said.
It’s sad this needs to be proclaimed, but public libraries are sanctuaries: havens from boredom, ignorance, loneliness, anarchy, hatred. They provide warmth, knowledge, entertainment, enlightenment, tolerance, and yes a real live place to exercise your First Amendment rights. They are some of the finest inventions of mankind, and one of the best developments this young country ever fostered.
It’s good to know that in Kentucky at least, the fever dream of libraries as dens of iniquity has cooled so our librarians can get back to the crucially important and extremely challenging job of getting more books into all our hands. Even the banned ones.
