I was a big library user growing up because it was really a refuge for me and a place where I just found ideas that connected me to the world, but also broaden my perspective.

Carolyn Foote loved libraries as a kid.

When she got older, she became a school librarian, and she loved that too.

And just the student's passion for reading really matched my own when I was growing up,

and I felt like being in communication with that all of the time could just be very, very powerful.

I think people sometimes think of the school librarian as the person who helped them find

the shelf with the book about Mesopotamia for their social studies report.

Right.

Can you tell me what else a librarian is?

Like when people picture a librarian, what do you hope that

picture looks like? What I hope that they think of is someone who's passionate about books

and getting books in the hands of readers, but also passionate about how to help students

ask good questions, become information literate, get involved in STEM and engineering.

A lot of libraries now are very active, dynamic places,

and librarians are sort of guides to that world of information.

A guide to a world of information.

But lately, some parents and politicians have desperately tried to limit what kinds of information

a school librarian can guide kids to.

They're not just protesting specific books, but entire themes.

Carolyn Foote was a district librarian in the suburbs of Austin, Texas, for about 30 years.

Last year, not long after she retired, a Texas Republican state legislator named Matt Krause

launched an official inquiry demanding some information from school libraries in the state.

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