SMU Libraries will not be coordinating events for Banned Books Week, while the Dallas Public Library will hold multiple events this week.
Banned Books Week is “an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries,” the Dallas Public Library’s website said.
The Municipal Library Board on Tuesday discussed plans for the first week of October, celebrated by libraries across the U.S. as Banned Books Week. Displays and various programs including banned book scavenger hunts, escape rooms, trivia, crafts, and the memory station will be incorporated into libraries all around Dallas.
“We did ask all of our library locations to do displays in relation to banned books week,” said Kristen Calvert, the Dallas Public Library’s central district manager. Everybody should have some kind of creative [display] and tailor to their location’s display that talks about books that have been banned in the past.”
Dallas Public Library visitors will soon be able to record a sample of their favorite controversial titles at a new “memory station.”
The memory station will allow participants to pick their favorite banned title like the Harry Potter books and “To Kill a Mockingbird” and tell a story about a memory they associate with it. Then, the book is scanned and the memory is transcribed. Participants can keep a copy to take with them or share with others.
Calvert said the idea was inspired by an event at the American Library Association Conference that a few board members attended earlier this year.
“I remember looking through the [banned] books and trying to decide which one I wanted to read from because they all kind of give you different memories,” Calvert said.
SMU Libraries is not holding any related events this week.
Other Banned Books Week events across the city will involve other parts of the Dallas literary community. Wild Detectives, a bookstore and cafe in the Bishop Arts District, will host banned book trivia, which Calvert said was extremely successful last year. There will also be blackout poetry related to banned books, trivia events, and book title coasters spread through different locations.
“You really can do anything you want surrounded by banned books next week,” Calvert said.
Update on Bonds
The Municipal Library Board also discussed the city’s upcoming $1 billion bond proposal, and the library’s portion of those funds.
From outdated construction to non-upgraded disability-standard accessibility, the board has set renovations as a priority in the City of Dallas’ 2024 bond package at three library locations: Preston Royal Branch Library North Oak Cliff Branch Library and Park Forest Branch Library.
If the bond package passes in 2024, the Preston Royal branch will be remodeled and updated while the North Oak Cliff and Park Forest branches will be torn down and replaced.
The city’s bond committee is recommending $35 million for the library renovations, although the board originally asked for $50 million. That would give about $15 million for each new build library, and about $10 million for Preston Royal’s renovation.
The bond funds will supplement $3.8 million set aside previously in the library’s budget for the renovation.
Jo Giudice, the director of the Dallas Public Library, said that as a city employee she and other library employees cannot advocate for the proposed funds at a series of town hall meetings scheduled to discuss the upcoming bond package. She encouraged members of the all-volunteer municipal library board to attend each town hall meeting and push for the funding of libraries.
Giudice said the renovations will help the system better serve all Dallas residents. She said land was bought for the new libraries as part of the 2008 bond, and that the new funds will fulfill a promise to build them.
“We’re here to serve all the residents of the city of Dallas,” Giudice said. “We serve a very diverse population.”
