Get Out of the Way, ALA — There’s a New, Child-Friendly Library Association in Town

If you have kids in public school or have a library card, you’ve probably heard of the American Library Association (ALA). In case you haven’t, this would be the organization that oversees most public and school libraries, but they get high-profile treatment with the release of their yearly lists of “Banned Books” and “Most Challenged Books,” which are picked up by the media and put out on display in not just libraries but also Barnes and Noble and other mainstream bookstores.

As of late, the ALA has been receiving significant pushback for several reasons. In 2022, they hired a new president, Emily Drabinski, who is a self-described “Marxist lesbian.” In April, their “Banned Books” and “Most Challenged Books” lists were released to celebrate “brave authors” (chosen due entirely to their adherence to woke ideology) and included pornographic, sexually explicit, and erotic books, which, not surprisingly, resulted in an ALA push to get these books stocked in even more public and school libraries. Then in June, the ALA announced that it would spend at least $1 million to litigate against any parents who challenge such explicit content in libraries.

Despite parents’ concerns, and the concerns of state lawmakers, ALA officials don’t seem to have any plans to change their radical direction in the near future. They have only doubled down in their support of age-inappropriate, sexually explicit material for children.

In response, states like Montana, Mississippi, and Idaho are now moving to part ways with the ALA, a decision made easier by the fact that a new library association has been created to give the ALA some long-overdue competition.
The World Library Association (WLA), which officially opened on Monday, is a more conservative organization whose leadership is mindful of what content needs to be made available for kids in public and school libraries — and what doesn’t need to be made available.

In a press release, WLA officials said that the organization’s goal is to “foster safe environments for librarians, curate valuable reading materials for children, and maintain a public space that promotes information literacy and political neutrality.”

The WLA “will also provide a comprehensive database of laws and legal cases pertinent to libraries, with a focus on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The WLA will stand with parents in legal battles for defending their children in school libraries, offering financial support and active assistance.”

Dan Kleinman, the executive director of the WLA and self-proclaimed “library watchdog,” told the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) that the organization would be a significant change from what libraries are currently used to through the ALA. He even highlighted the WLA’s intentions to help cover legal fees for individuals suing to remove sexually explicit books from public and school libraries.

“The World Library Association is going to be able to attract donations from big donors on the other side because somebody has to do something to give some kind of help to parents and communities, or else the nationwide effect of the harm done to children with this inappropriate material is going to be huge,” Kleinman said. “The World Library Association would like to provide some kind of counterbalance to this big group that has been pushing these inappropriate books that they have been for decades.”

WLA board member Shawn McBreairty told the DCNF that the ALA has attempted to “normalize sexual materials,” and the WLA will be what parents are looking for to stop political activism in libraries.

“The World Library Association is going to help parents with an unbiased and conservative agenda and just get back to regular education, the basics of what we all used to think a library was when we were a kid,” he said.

One thing Marxists hate is free market competition because it’s exactly what poses a threat to their agendas. When it comes to America’s public and school libraries, the WLA is exactly that, a threat — both to the ALA and to the self-proclaimed Marxists who run it.

I’ve written previously on the ALA and the specifics of the erotic books they impress upon children here, but with the WLA now available as an alternative and competitor, there may be positive changes coming for concerned parents.

In the meantime, parents can take advantage of the WLA’s free membership by clicking here, which gives members access to thei organization’s many resources and community. Parents can and should also contact their lawmakers and their local library directors and let them know that their want their children to be free and able to peruse the shelves for only educational, moral, and age-appropriate materials — and the best way for that to happen is for libraries to cut ties with ALA.

Finally, parents should pray that lawmakers will not only defect from the ALA, but that they will embrace the WLA in schools and libraries so, as the cliche goes, “kids can be kids” again.

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