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We all have digital footprints and legacies, even if we aren't the ones actively curating our own trajectories. Virtually every move we make online is tracked in some way, and [...]

This essay aims to take an introspective look into soft censorship’s complexities and demonstrate how conforming to the ideals of soft censorship makes libraries perpetrators of implicit bias. It begins by defining the concept of book banning before delving into its long and complicated history, which dates back to 212 BCE. By initially looking back at the chronology of book banning, the authors aimed to make a case for how the practice of book banning has continuously been a concerted effort to whitewash and sugarcoat history and to continue dismantling our public educational institutions. The essay dives into disseminating implicit bias through soft censorship in libraries and information sciences. The authors justify how soft censorship directly undermines the intellectual freedoms of library users and readers and demonstrate how, by engaging in soft censorship, libraries are not only perpetrators of implicit bias but are also catalysts of inequity within their institutions. The essay then gives readers a step-by-step guide on resisting censorship in their respective roles. After that, it urges readers to take action and concludes with an important message emphasizing the need for a cultural approach to combat censorship. By doing so, we can begin dismantling the inequities plaguing the library and information science field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs about public talks and workshops in the spring of 2019, had the pleasure of talking to quite a few youth services librarians about equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and why it matters in librarianship. Topics discussed include librarian not really understanding how to promote diverse materials; how to promote diverse books to their predominantly white community; and library professionals should ideally be culturally competent when working with communities.

The article discusses that in fall 2021, Cooke and Valerie Byrd Fort from the South Carolina Center for Community Literacy introduced the virtual program the Augusta Baker Storytelling Experience: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programming for Children of All Ages (AB Kids). It mentions that the AB Kids team looks forward to offering more programs in the fall of 2022, focusing on a range of diversity-related issues.