SF 496: HOW IOWA'S NEW LAW AFFECTS SCHOOL LIBRARIES

LIBRARIAN MS. BERLIN SHELVING BOOKS; PHOTO BY RYAN WEBER

I am sure that you have heard of the SF 496 law that would ban books from the school library and change schools to be gender-fair with age-appropriate content. This law came into effect on January 1st of this year, but after it took effect, a judge put a temporary block on the law because “the law was too broad” and had lawsuits for the block. This block of the law was removed on August 9th, 2024. SF 496 does not focus only on banned books. It is piled in with other school laws and has just a small section that says that the books need to be age-appropriate for the grade.

This law, in the state of Iowa, is banning over 3,400 books from public school libraries. The majority of the books that are being banned are for kindergarten through 6th grade. Most of the books being taken off the shelves for K-6 are about gender identity or sexual orientation, which would silence points of view that exist in the real world. This concern is shared by CCA High School librarian Christine Berlin, who put it this way: “One of my fears for this law is that students will feel silenced or erased… or made to feel as if they do not matter.” The head of the CCA Middle School library, Liz Peterson, has a similar view, saying, “This law is removing access to a wide range of books, not just one, which means it will impact a large percentage of people in the state of Iowa.”

Another aspect of this law that has made its implementation such a long process is the confusing phrasing. According to ACLU Iowa, over 350 school districts across the state didn’t implement the law the first time it was enforced. Two of the libraries that followed the law, despite the confusion, were the CCA High School and Middle School libraries, which removed books from their shelves. They had to figure out which books fell under the law’s requirements by reading the descriptions and relying on their knowledge of the books. Liz Peterson stated, “The phrasing of the law is complicating intent vs. outcome. We also already have some legislation in place that prevented materials in question from being accessible during the school day.”

Christine and Liz both pointed out that nothing in the library is mandatory for everyone to read. As Christine put it, “Nothing in the library is required for a student to read. One of my tasks as a librarian and educator is to help students decide for themselves if a book is the 'right fit.'" Liz added, “I also personally believe that how this law is impacting libraries is unfair, as libraries are always a space of self-selection. There are right-for-me books for everyone, but one person should not dictate a right-for-me book for someone else.” Hearing two librarians from two different schools say similar things about how the book banning law affects students suggests the law may have been created without input from librarians.

To conclude, SF 496 is a law that would bring changes to the curriculum that schools teach. It will take 3,400 books off the shelves of libraries across the state. The confusing phrasing and vagueness about which books need to be pulled have left librarians guessing, and many schools did not remove books because of this. Involving librarians in the construction of the law would have helped clarify which books needed to be removed. What do you think? Is SF 496 a positive or negative change for our libraries, or is it an overreach regarding what students should read?