Brian Lerr on WNYC, and to wrap up the show today, did you hear the Barack Obama has

published an open letter to librarians, that was just on Monday, or that the Brooklyn

Public Library is now offering electronic library cards to anyone aged 13 to 26 in

the United States. Why? Well, you probably know that a major front in the culture wars

these days is libraries. Bookshelves across the country have been stripped of titles

like Harper Least to Kill a Mockingbird, and Toni Morrison's The Blueest Eye, and the

list goes on. Choosing a battleground where it's frowned upon to talk above a whisper,

the library might seem odd. Nonetheless, as bookbants have been sweeping the nation, librarians

want a scream, and they find themselves too often in a precarious position. So in that

open letter to librarians on Monday, Obama wrote that librarians are on the front lines,

fighting every day to make the widest possible range of viewpoints, opinions, and ideas available

to everyone. And with us now to discuss bookbans, their effects on students, the librarians,

and very specifically the Brooklyn Public Library's initiative, Books Unband, is Nick Higgins,

chief librarian of the Brooklyn Public Library and one of 2023's librarians of the year. Nick,

welcome to the show. Thanks for coming on WNYC. Hey, Brian, it is great to be here. It's

such a pleasure to be with you. Thank you so much for having me on. You got to tell us

about Books Unband. What is this initiative? Yeah, sure. So Books Unband, as you mentioned

in your opening, is a response really to the rise in censorship and bookbans that were

happening all across the country. Something that we observed early in 2022 and as an institution,

we wanted to figure out how we could support particularly young people across the country who

might not have as supportive communities around them or who are facing the brunt of some of the

business end of some of these censorship efforts where they are. So we decided to create this

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