SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Across the nation, some libraries have been turned into battlegrounds for politics, education, and societal debates with efforts to ban and remove some books from shelves. Now, New Mexico lawmakers are moving forward with a bill that would prohibit public libraries from banning books.
“ House Bill 123 is a very simple bill. It just states what we are already following in public libraries throughout the state: that public libraries will need to follow written processes and procedures based on the Library Bill of Rights,” Rep. Kathleen Cates (D-Bernalillo and Sandoval Counties) told lawmakers in the House Education Committee. “If they don’t follow their own processes and procedures, they will lose their state funding.
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The Library Bill of Rights is a document put together by the American Library Association. The document notes that “Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment” among other things.