Getting Police Out of Libraries Is the Aim of the Abolitionist Library Association

In June 2020, as the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests started in earnest, everyone suddenly wanted to read. Anti-racist reading lists circulated in the media and on social platforms, pressure to support local and independent bookstore sales increased, and more attention was paid to Black authors. This newfound interest in literature also created more work for many librarians. 

Last summer, a group of librarians from across the country started meeting regularly to discuss the need to make libraries a safe, accessible space for people to read and access all kinds of information. They eventually formed the Abolitionist Library Association (AbLA), a group of library workers, students, and community members who aim to divest money from policing in libraries and redistribute resources to communities. Over the past year, the association has worked to remove police from libraries nationwide and allocate funds to community-led efforts. In June, the group officially launched a website, which shares resources related to police abolition, anti-racism, cybersecurity, and more.

Though the association has dozens of members from various states, members all work toward similar goals on a local level. Reanna Esmail, the lead librarian for instruction at Cornell University and a member of the facilitation team at AbLA, tells Teen Vogue that two of the group’s biggest goals are to ensure that library budgets do not go toward policing and to create a safe library environment without the use of police force. 

“For me, one immediate goal of AbLA is to advocate for transparency about how police and policing affects libraries,” Esmail says via email. “There is still a lot we do not know about how pervasive policing is in our institutions. This includes not only the physical and visible presence of police, like [with] police security in some libraries, but financial commitments such as budget allocations, ties to the prison-industrial complex, and issues with data access and privacy rights, like when surveillance cameras are used.”

AbLA’s campaign to divest from policing in libraries has already had immense success. In 2020, Los Angeles members of the association were able to get the Board of Library Commissioners to transfer $2 million from LAPD Security Services to a Reimagining Safety Initiative. According to Esmail, “local organizing efforts that AbLA members have been involved in or supported have resulted in the elimination of library fines, an increase in the minimum wage for library workers, increased trainings on de-escalation and crisis intervention techniques that do not involve police, and investments in community-affirming resources.”

The fight to remove police from libraries has been ongoing for years: Activists in cities across the country, including St. Louis and New York, have recently called for police divestment, as have students from several universities, including Cornell, Columbia, and MIT. But many members of the AbLA tell Teen Vogue that libraries can uphold policing and the prison-industrial complex in unexpected ways; for example, some libraries use furniture made by incarcerated workers. Association members want not only to remove the police presence from libraries, but reimagine and create a sense of public safety for library patrons that is entirely separate from policing and prisons.

“I think that the work of the association is vital, as it is redefining the relationship between libraries and the community,'' says Jess, a staff librarian at a public library in Massachusetts who prefers not to use her last name. “Libraries can often be seen as gatekeeping institutions, and it isn't uncommon for marginalized people to feel unwelcome or have negative connotations with libraries. It's important to actively create a library culture that pushes beyond the preconceived notions of what a library is meant to be or who belongs there, and that is exactly what AbLA is doing." 

“Cops don't belong in libraries because their presence does not make people feel safe,” Jess adds. "Public libraries that continue to host Police Officer Storytime and Coffee With a Cop are, whether intentionally or not, upholding racist and outdated ideals.”

Aside from being a space of safety and accessibility, libraries have long been a site for political education, particularly because patrons can educate themselves for free. AbLA hopes to continue this tradition by circulating literature about abolition to interested readers, as well as providing resources to incarcerated people. 

Lesley Garrett, a Bookmobile coordinator at McCracken County Public Library in Kentucky and a member of AbLA, tells Teen Vogue that they regularly make visits to domestic-crisis shelters and recovery centers to distribute library cards. Garrett also plans on launching digital tool kits, accessible via computer or cell phone, with resources about abolition to assist people who were previously incarcerated.

“I think the role of libraries in abolitionist political education only starts at reading lists and displays,” says Garrett. “As an outreach worker, my perspective is [that] it's great to have the radical reading lists and radical titles in our collections, but there's got to be the materials circulation and resources-in-hands to match. Political education is an active role for libraries and is ideally community-based and responsive to actual asks.”

Marissa Elliot Little, an outreach assistant in Jail & Prison Services with the Brooklyn Public Library and a member of the AbLA, has been working to ensure that incarcerated people at the Rikers Island jail complex have reading material. Little tells Teen Vogue that since her library does not receive monetary support from the Department of Correction, she is forced to rely on donations and grants to do her work, which can be stressful and frustrating.

“I love my job,” says Little. “But I hate that it exists. I strive to provide excellent service to my patrons because that’s my top priority, but I wish jails and prisons didn’t exist so there wasn’t a need for people like me.”

Though AbLA’s work is by no means easy, the association is definitely growing in numbers and dedication over time. In the coming months, AbLA plans to expand some of its online resources to include tool kits for library staff and patrons, creating a research group to determine which library vendors and publishers use prison labor in order to encourage them to stop; conducting a survey to review security and policing in libraries; and to work toward the abolition of the prison-industrial complex.

“I hope that there will be continued discussion and awareness of how police and policing affect libraries and the communities they serve,” says Esmail. “It is important to acknowledge that the communities served by different kinds of libraries are unique and therefore have different information needs and different relationships with police and policing. I also hope that AbLA will reinforce the function of libraries: community information spaces, rather than surveillance or security spaces.”

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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue