CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — As fake bomb threats against public libraries in the Chicago area forced closures and evacuations on multiple occasions over the past month, leaders with the American Library Association (ALA) have said the attacks amount to a threat to free thought in the United States.
On the latest episode of Looped In: Chicago, WBBM’s Jim Hanke is joined by his colleague, Bernie Tafoya, and journalist Alison Cuddy to dig into the threats — and how they differ from censorship efforts in the past.
“We should always be concerned when people are trying to limit our access to information,” Cuddy said. “Stand up for your library.”
Cuddy, a former artistic director of the Chicago Humanities Festival, previously hosted a six-part podcast series called “Library for the People,” which was supported by the Chicago Public Library Foundation and looked into the 150-year history of the Chicago Public Library System.
She said censorship efforts have similarly popped up during times of economic and political instability, such as the Great Depression or McCarthyism. A recent difference, though, comes back to social media, which Cuddy said has given a small number of voices the ability to really escalate things.
That’s part of why ALA head Tracie Hall has described these most recent threats as “the McCarthy era on steroids,” Cuddy added.
Technology has also changed the way these threats have been made, which Tafoya said has largely been via email. Although he said that the ALA is still investigating the motive behind these threats, Cuddy said she’s noticed a focus on books with themes about representing people of color, indigenous people or the LGBTQIA community.
“It’s definitely kind of focusing on diversity of identity,” she said. “I think links to previous eras, but it’s focused right now on … spaces where you see political advances happening for groups.”
Part of the ALA’s response, Tafoya said, has been to encourage members of the community to sign up a library card and to attend their local library board meetings so that the “loudest voices in the room aren’t just the people who want to take control” over what Illinoisans can read or watch.
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