Some notes from the PW's US Book Show 2022

 Publishers Weekly held their annual U.S. Book Show virtually from May 23 to May 26, 2022. In a nice gesture, they offered free admission for librarians, so I registered and watched the sessions from my desk at work. As I have said before, I do appreciate conferences when they have a virtual option that saves me from traveling and the related prohibitive costs. I wish more LIS and higher education conferences would offer virtual options given they are "relaxing" under the now chic philosophy of "the pandemic is over." For some of us, the pandemic is far from over, but that is another story. 

I did the following sessions during the conference. PW did allow some time after the conference to watch sessions on demand  you may have missed, and I will do that later. I may add notes to the blog from what I see later. 

 

I live tweeted a lot of the event, so if you go on Twitter and search my profile (@bloodravenlib) with the hashtag #USBookShow, you can see more of my notes, which I am using to enhance this blog post. 

Day 1.

• I started with the David Sedaris keynote. Not much memorable here. To be honest, after listening to him I fail to see what the broad appeal is. He is (supposedly) known for humor writing, but this interview with him was seriously lackluster. This was the only event of the first day since they wanted attendees to have time to visit the virtual exhibits. By the way, Sedaris has a new (at this time) book out, but he barely mentioned it.
  

 

Day 2.

• Welcome and Opening Keynote with Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov. Now this was a good way to start the conference with a writer speaking on a timely issue. Some points from his presentation: 
• The role of writer as a witness to war and history. 
• Writers and intellectuals killed in the war. The war in Ukraine has taken a toll on Ukrainian culture and identity. 
• Russian science fiction has a recent trend of military/combat SF with conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. These books are written in Russia. Some Ukrainian writers respond to this and other Russian writings and propaganda, often with satire
  
• Kurkov urges Americans and others to read books on and about Ukraine. He recommended Gates of Europe. He adds that people may know a lot about Russia but little about Ukraine, so a balance is needed. On a small side note, turns out my library had that book, so I have checked it out to read soon. I will review it in The Itinerant Librarian down the road.
  
• The interviewer commented that Ukraine has a very individualistic culture, something that Americans can relate to. Kurkov adds that yes, they are individualistic, very independent, have their own opinions. In running for politics, a Ukrainian is more likely to form his own political party then join an existing one (a touch of humor here from Kurkov). However, Kurkov states that Ukrainians will unite against a common enemy. 
• In terms of recent writing, Kurkov has published articles in places like The Guardian and The Economist.
• "Libraries are essential program, Part 1." This was a program in two parts. I only managed to listen to the first part at the time. I hope to listen to the second part on demand later. This program was the highlight of the conference for me, and I found it well worth listening to. It is also very timely given the coordinated efforts of certain people to censor libraries and librarians and ban books. The program was divided into major segments. An issue was that this recording laster about 2 1/2 hours with barely a break between the segments. That is a heck of a long time to expect someone to sit at a desk. I think they should have made the panels here about 45 minutes long, spread them out better to allow for breaks. Anyhow, some points from the program: 
• They started looking at key issues. 
• During pandemic times, libraries have needed to adapt rapidly. Electronic resource use and availability are on the rise with more access options for patrons. (So far, this is not not anything I do not know already.)
• American Library Association (ALA) did the semi-obligatory for this event promotion of their annual conference. They claim it could be a moment for libraries to make a statement and "march on DC." At least so says the ALA president (but I am not holding my breath on it). 
• A lot of this is the usual "libraries do good" platitudes. That is fine for non-librarians, but it is not too exciting for us librarians. 
• They mentioned the book banning epidemic in the U.S. Statement made that we can't go back to pre-pandemic "normal" (no shit). The work for accessibility and services continues. 
•  On U.S. book bans. 
• In 2021 ALA saw an alarming rise in challenges according to its Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF). They went from one or two reports weekly to 3 or 4 reports of censorship and challenges daily. This makes for a significant increase. The trend here is to challenge and/or ban LGBTQIA+ books and materials.
• In a way, the ALA OIF representative basically tip toes over the real issue: we are dealing with flat out bigotry, often fundamentalist religion motivated, along with bad faith bigots. Overall what we got from ALA OIF was mostly platitudes and a relatively mellow response. As I said when I live tweeted, you need to call out the enemy unequivocally. 
• The PEN America spokesperson is a more more honest and direct, pointing out lacks of process and policies in many libraries and often mostly clandestine bans (i.e. bans that happen from ignoring any due process or review procedures that may be in place. ALA was mostly silent on this). Local politics and proposals are getting worse, and to be honest, that is un-American. 
• ALA-OIF states that local organization is crucial to oppose vocal minorities. Silence here is not an option I would say. ALA at this point took a moment to promote their new online initiative: Unite Against Book Bans. Personally I am not sure how much good another "initiative" will do, but there it is. At the end of the day, librarians are doing the best they can. 
• PEN America spokesperson states this is really about showing up. The bigots need to be challenged. But we need to be mindful of privilege (something ALA is notorious for conveniently forgetting or just giving it lip service): who can or not organize, go to meetings, etc.? Who can speak or not? 
• I say the bottom line here is this needs to be treated as going on the war path. PEN emphasizes this will not go away on its own. It needs to be confronted. 
• On library neutrality, or how the phrase is misused. Panelists in this segment are responding to a New York Times column, "The Battle for the Soul of the Library" (link may be paywalled, consider asking your local librarian for possible access if needed. I had someone ask me, and I sent it to them from our library's access).
  
• For one, libraries are more about place and service. 
• Also keep in mind, not all libraries have the same values, and the history of our profession has not always recognized the value of humans, or certain humans.
•  On a side note, the book Libraries: a Fragile History, which I recently read and reviewed, has a whole section on ALA and its historical failures. 
• Note that much of the rhetoric from bigots is to make minorities seem like they are toxic, thus the need to "protect the children" (if you take a moment to think about it, you can see how insidious that rhetoric is).
• A good quote: "One person's or family's norms are not the norms of the country."  
• If you do not want to use and consume certain materials and books, then don't. Who are you to dictate to others? That arrogance is and should be offensive to decent people. What you don't want to read does not mean it is not desired nor valued by others. 
• Information access for all means for ALL. Still, the library profession as a whole needs to keep working on this. 
• Librarians do need to interrogate our work and our processes. Need to think about equity and work towards inclusion. This means libraries need to be representative of communities, country, and even the world. The field needs to take an expansive and inclusive view for everyone. Need to work on it, talk about it in the "nuts and bolts" sense. Like the public at large, there ARE some librarians who need to do their work, serious work not just performative. DEI work is meant to be ongoing, not "trendy." 
• Why now, the bans? This is a bit cyclical, but it is also a backlash. Censorship of books is low hanging fruit in their agenda. It's part of larger a whitewashing agenda erasing history, difference and culture. (I have said this before, the Right Wing in the U.S. is very organized, and they give zero fucks about the rights of others.)
• "Can't point to somewhere else and say it can't happen here." This is why you need vigilance and to stand up and fight against fascists, bigots, fundamentalists, etc. 
• Librarians need to honestly think beyond themselves. So do writers like the author of that column, who in using their kind of rhetoric put librarians in danger. As for us, we need to have empathy in our counter-narratives. 
• One thing librarians can do: read (or reread) and act upon our professional Code of Ethics (see ALA: https://ala.org/tools/ethics), which is pretty clear on things like intellectual freedom and resisting censorship. You may or not agree with ALA, but this is clear.
•  On bans and politics. This session included political activists like folks from EveryLibrary.
  
• The Right Wing in the United States has politicized families and politicians, schools, and libraries. Anti-intellectual, anti-education, anti-funding for public schools. Accusing librarians and educators as porn peddlers, etc. This is the RW attack strategy.
• You need to know your history. History shows that conservatives have spent the 40 years or more attacking government, its institutions, and the public good. Public education is a prominent target for them. It is an assault on the idea of government and institutions. 
• In politics, you have to "message well," and RWNJs do it well. How do decent people counter?
• Debunking is needed, but more needs to be done. You need to learn history, about people and perspectives (as I say, you need to know your enemy). Need to understand others. (The question I have is we do understand them, what next? Empathy is nice and all but it's not going to get you far with certain folks.)
• Books are targeted because they move hearts and minds. Need to talk about the First Amendment but also talk more about the 14th Amendment (the one about due process). Librarians, folks need to hear our story, why we do our work. 
• Librarians need to be defended, and our first defense is us librarians. But we also need to show up with others to listen as well as lead. 
• For some, this may mean running for office, especially at the local level. For the less able, keeping an eye on the community and reporting to watchdog groups. 
• Remember that the library is one of the few places where everyone meets and connects. Librarians need to remember this and highlight it and all we do. 
• For librarians, consider doing readings outside of libraries, make alliances with students doing them.
• You may need to turn to courts, but this may require a brave plaintiff willing and able to sue with some support from lawyers, so on. Also keep an eye out on judges who are elected, especially at local levels. And keep working on making alliances. 
• Important: lift the idea of how librarians expand knowledge, teach, teach to ask questions, so on. Tell these stories. (On a side note, reminds me of a certain college administrator early on my career here now that urged me to tell my story. I need to work on that.)
• Don't get distracted by individual bans, so on. This situation is moving to state government levels. You need to also watch and work to counter broader attacks. 
• The final segment is an interview with R. David Lankes, whose latest book is Forged in War. 
• He spoke on propaganda and how to counter it. 
• The truth is out there,  but it is confused by noise and gets drowned. This ranges from spins of truth to outright disinformation. This is censorship of noise. 
• Technology is not neutral.  You need to build in liberatory structures. 
• Lankes reminds us again that free speech does not mean speech without consequences. It requires responsibility. 
• Of concern are efforts to remove librarians and information professionals from discussion and decisions by certain anti-democratic forces. This is new now. Book bans have always been here. The other big concern is conversations not happening, again due to those anti-democratic forces. 
• After the long libraries segment, I listened to a graphic novels and comics panel. 
• A highlight here was the book Ducks (link to publisher info). At the time, I saw galleys were available on NetGalley, so I requested one. We'll see if the publisher approves the request. 
• After presenting the titles, editors are speaking on their work and how they do what they do to get comics and graphic novels for us. A bit of how the sausage is made. 
• Interesting point about cartoonists: a concern for what they are NOT showing on the page. A degree of restraint is good in their line of work.  

 

Day 3. 

 

• Did the 10am chat with Adult Books Authors session. 
• A highlight were Amber Ruffin and Lamar, authors of The World Record Book of Racist Stories (link to publisher info). I am adding this to my TBR list. Way to look at this book: Better you (white Anglo fuckbagel) learn about these things you are not supposed to do privately, with a good book, than through a meeting with HR.
• Alan Moore spoke about his new collection of short stories, Illuminations (link to publisher info) I will be looking for this one. 
• Thomas E. Ricks spoke on his new forthcoming book Waging A Good War (link to publisher info). This is one we may need to order for our library, in fact, we'll probably order it since we get most everything we can on the Civil Rights Movement.  
• Next, I listened to the interview with John Grisham. He is not really my jam, but still worth a look. He also has a new short fiction book: Sparring Partners (publisher info link).
• Next, listened to the sessions of PW's picks for Thrillers and Mysteries, Biography and Memoir, and Fiction. Nothing here stuck out for me as much, but worth listening to for reader's advisory purposes. On my live tweet, I did highlight some books that, while I may not be interested, may be of interest to other readers. 
• A quote from the Fiction panel, one of the authors: "...every novel written in American now is (or should be) a horror novel." Do what you will with that. Keep in mind by the way fiction here means literary and/or commercial fiction. 
• I also managed to listen to the PW Picks of Current Affairs. I found this more interesting, even if the books likely fall on my self-imposed moratorium on books and materials that are political/social issues/activist. 
• First book highlighted is Surveillance State (link to publisher). This is about the Chinese surveillance state, but should be of interest to anyone interested in surveillance and privacy issues. 
• Another book, this one may be very relevant in these Hard Times, including recent events this week (as of this post, a big event was the school shooting in Uvalde, TX). May need to break my politics/social issues/activist reading moratorium for it.  The book is Raising Them Right (publisher info link).
• Book highlight: Chaotic Neutral (link to publisher info). This is a bit of a history of Democrats in the US, of interest to those who think the party needs to grow an effing pair. To be honest, before my self-imposed reading moratorium, this is a kind of book I might have read. A good point from the editor commenting on this book: "Do not allow for compromise with those who are basically destroying the nation."
• Next book highlighted: Ransomware Hunting Team (publisher info link), and yes, this is nonfiction. This may be one for readers who enjoy books about history, technology, and/or true crime. 
• Book highlight, exemplifying how often white supremacists use racism and xenophobia as scapegoats when it is corporate America effing them over. Possible TBR list add for me.  The book is The Fishermen and the Dragon (publisher info link).
• Some other points from the panelists: 
• What can publishers do better? Find new readers. The field is losing readers, esp. in nonfiction. This because authors do have important things to tell to readers.
• Current Affairs needs to shed a bit that image that it is a field where you have to be an expert in order to read one of those books and/or that those books are dry. Ideally would be good to see these books more all over media, incl. places like TikTok.  On a side note, I do review some current affairs books now and then, but to be honest, at times, they can be on the dry side. In my humble opinion, this category also needs to shed away some of the image a lot of its books are political junkets and politician navel gazing books that will soon go in the remainders bin of a bookstore. 

 

Day 4. 

 

• This day was mostly children's and young adult books, which are not part of what I commonly read. To be honest, I think the organizers needed to spread these panels over the other days too instead of bottling them up on the last day. I mostly listened a bit less on this day.