Dear ALA Colleagues,
President Barack Obama published an open letter to librarians this morning, expressing his support for libraries and library workers amidst rising book challenges and subsequent attacks on those defending the right to read. His letter was shared online and across his social media pages (in addition to the social media accounts for Michelle Obama and the Obama Foundation), with a note directing followers to the Unite Against Book Bans website and encouraging support for the campaign.
See links to the social posts below.
President Obama:
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
The Obama Foundation:
Instagram
Twitter
To ensure that the letter would reach its intended recipients, President Obama's team requested that we share the letter with the ALA community. You'll notice that the letter has been amplified across ALA's social media pages and shared via American Libraries: Open Letter from Former President Obama Supports Librarians | American Libraries Magazine
Also, ALA contributed to this exclusive story in the Washington Post this morning, which highlights the recent increase in book bans/challenges and President Obama's efforts on social media (particularly, TikTok and Instagram) to bring awareness to the issue in hopes of rallying support for libraries and library workers.
Please feel free to share these posts and news stories with your respective networks. We are grateful to have this wonderful opportunity to have our work uplifted in such a powerful way during this critical time and to be able to bring higher visibility to the Unite Against Book Bans campaign (which is already gaining traction in support and donations)!
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Emily Drabinski
Critical Pedagogy Librarian
The Graduate Center, CUNY
She/Her/Hers
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