I actually ended up interviewing two librarians. I was originally just going to interview the Adult Services Librarian, Ken Miller, at Pack Memorial Library, but I decided to reach out to UNC Asheville’s User Engagement Librarian, Amanda Glenn-Bradley, in addition as backup since, after weeks of emailing each other back and forth and with my deadline fast approaching, I thought that having a back-up interviewee would be wise.

Funny enough, I ended up interviewing them both on the same day. Though I’m actually glad that it turned out that way. It was extra work on my part in terms of preparation and travel, but I thought it was interesting to see the difference between public and university libraries. Ken did a particularly great job of enlightening me on the distinctions during our interview together. Knowing what I know now, I should have posed different interview questions for Ken since public libraries do have their differences, but hindsight is twenty-twenty.

Neither one of the libraries these librarians represent had anything to do directly with The Bluest Eye challenge in Buncombe County, but I did learn a lot about the process of censoring (or at least moving books into other sections of the library per a patron’s request) within the public library sphere. I found it interesting that public libraries have such a process in place and I was intrigued when I flipped through a form that Ken gave me called “Statement of Concern about Library Records”. I think that even though this wasn’t used in the case we’re researching, it would still be useful to put up on the website so that viewers can learn more about the process of book censorship in Buncombe County more generally and holistically.

Amanda also had some interesting insights to offer in terms of the historical context of our case. Figuring out what to say about why the book might have been challenged has been tough. I liken it to being a fish and not fully noticing that you’re in water all the time.

“I think, right now, it’s people are being encouraged, for better or for worse, to voice their opinions on everything. And social media and the Internet make it very easy for people to voice their opinions on everything. Even, sometimes if those opinions are either not very well-formed or maybe misinformed. Bans and challenges have always gone on, but now we’re paying more attention to them. We’re learning about them. For example, the ban in Buncombe County got picked up by a major website, who said that they were going to follow it (it’s actually an advocacy group around comic books in libraries) and, years ago, back when I would have been in high school – back in the dark ages in the nineties – news like that would have barely gone outside our community. So I’m not sure that more challenges are happening. I think they’re being better covered now.” – Amanda Glenn-Bradley

I’m not sure if I think that book challenges are happening more or less, but I do think that putting social media into historical context for this case might be interesting. Some questions I have in mind now are:

How does our own free speech make us feel empowered to challenge the speech of others?

How has the rise of social media and the Internet in general impacted how people approach censorship?

Overall, I think that the gems that I got out of these two interviews will prove to be valuable contributions to our project.