Amanda Jones' memoir recalls being branded 'That Librarian' by haters for calling out censorship

The battle over books is just the latest iteration of a culture war.

Over the past years, conservatives have challenged books in public libraries and school libraries, claiming some contain sexually inappropriate material, or tell stories of LGBTQ+ people and other groups they deem unsuitable. Most often these battles to remove books from libraries are fought at the local level. In some cases, they upended the lives of librarians like Amanda Jones.

Jones — a middle school librarian from Livingston Parish in Louisiana — spoke at a public meeting in 2022. Four days after making her speech about censorship, Jones woke up to find a campaign against her on social media accusing her of pushing for young kids to read erotica.

After that speech, life in her tiny town was turned upside down. Now, she's written her story in a new book called “That Librarian: The Fight Against Banning Books in America.”

Jones says her intention with the speech was to “uphold readers rights” after people in the community started posting pages of books out of context to the local Facebook page. A library board member put book content and signage on the meeting agenda, so Jones wanted to talk about censorship and existing policies.

Two “keyboard warriors” — one from inside Jones’ community, one from outside — have been posting about her ever since. One of the men, Michael Lunsford, posted her address online last week, she says.

Lunsford once posted an image of a framed picture of Jones on his desk, she says.

“I've never spoken to them or interacted online with them, and they just started posting about me saying these things that are not true,” Jones says. “And it's been two years. They're still posting about me.”

By Amanda Jones

Excerpted from "That Librarian" by Amanda Jones. All rights reserved.