School libraries' content is hotly debated in some places; study finds disputes related to local politcal environments

School libraries are supposed to be quiet oases of reading and study. But when it comes to deciding what books are on the shelves, they have become a hotbed of cultural debate. "School libraries have become a key battleground in contemporary culture wars over public education," reports Kirsten Slungaard Mumma, a postdoctoral fellow at Wheelock Educational Policy Center of the Brookings Institution. "In the 2021-22 school year, PEN America reported a record-setting 2,532 book challenges affecting 1,648 different titles in 138 school districts. Many of the challenged titles contain content related to LGBTQ+ issues or race/racism, topics that have also been the concern of state legislative efforts."

Photo from Brookings Institution

Mumma did a study: "I assembled data on hundreds of titles in public school libraries across the country. The list of titles across controversial topics includes both fictionalized stories and nonfiction titles. . . . My school library sample consists of 5,240 elementary/middle and 1,391 high schools in 48 states. This sample includes schools in rural and urban areas, schools in counties with conservative and liberal political leanings, and schools that serve students of very different backgrounds. I use these data to identify patterns in library resources and content, especially as they relate to political preferences, state laws, and book bans."

She shares some of the main findings from that work:
Finding #1: Libraries in low-income areas have lower staffing levels and less up-to-date collections. Compared to school libraries in low-income areas, school libraries in high-income areas have higher book acquisition rates (2.05 vs. 1.40) and employ more full-time equivalent librarians (1.12 vs. 0.80 per school). School libraries in high-income neighborhoods also have nearly twice as many recent best-sellers in their catalogues for young adults (18.58 vs. 9.44 titles) and middle grades (8.43 vs. 4.02 titles)

Finding #2: Access to controversial content is related to local political environments.
School libraries in the most conservative areas have fewer LGBTQ+ titles and fewer books that deal with race/racism or abortion than libraries in the most liberal areas. Libraries in conservative areas also have more Christian fiction titles and more Dr. Seuss titles that were discontinued from publication in 2021 because of racist imagery.

Controversial content is also associated with state laws that restrict curricular content. Libraries in states with anti-Critical Race Theory laws are 3.5 percentage points (46%) less likely to have The 1619 Project, a particularly contentious publication that reframes American history around slavery and its legacy. 

Finding #3: Book challenges may have chilling effects on the acquisition of LGBTQ+ content.
I find that schools in districts that were subject to book challenges over the last school year were less likely to have added recently published LGBTQ+ titles this fall. Specifically, libraries in districts subject to challenges were 0.55 percentage points less likely to have a recent LGBTQ+ title, a 55% decrease relative to the sample mean. I interpret this as suggestive evidence that book challenges are having “chilling effects” on the acquisition of LGBTQ+ content, leading librarians to avoid purchasing content that parents or politicians could find objectionable.