TESTIMONY
Dennis Walcott, President of Queen's Public Library on Supporting Freedom of Expression and Denouncing Book Banning
0:06:31
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6 min
Dennis Walcott, serving as the President of the Queen's Public Library, provides testimony emphasizing the library's commitment to supporting freedom of expression and its firm stance against the banning of books.
He highlights various efforts, including updating policies, hosting forums and book talks, and maintaining a diverse collection that resists censorship attempts. Walcott also references specific initiatives like Banned Book Week, reinforcing the library's opposition to censorship through policy updates and community engagement.
Notably, he mentions the library's rich collection that supports underrepresented voices, including the largest circulating collection of materials related to the black experience in New York State.
The testimony concludes with Walcott expressing gratitude towards council members for their leadership and reaffirming the library's dedication to serving the public.
Dennis Walcott
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Cheah Rivera, it's a pleasure to see you and congratulations on your appointment.
0:06:36
Member Jose, thank you for your leadership as well.
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It's a pleasure to see council member on here, and we have talked and participated in Arluna New Year Parade together.
0:06:46
It's always a pleasure and other members of the council.
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My name is Dennis Walcott, and I have the honor of being the president of the Queen's public library.
0:06:55
And I wanna do a summary of the summary quite frankly since you've already heard Linda and Tony, and I really do applaud both the Brooklyn Public Library and the New York Public Library for all of their outstanding work around this important topic.
0:07:11
And my summary of the summary, especially since you have my testimony, we'll just touch on a couple of things because like my fellow colleagues and library systems we participated in Band Book Week and also stood with the mayor as far as denouncing what has taken place throughout the country, and we will continue to do that.
0:07:30
And I just wanna share a couple of things with you because I vividly remember standing outside of Jackson Heights library with helicopters flying overhead, with police barricades erected in the street me in the middle of the street between people pro library and what we were doing inside and those who were opposed to what was going on inside our Jackson library.
0:07:53
And I never ever wanna see a repeat of that again in New York City or throughout the country, people trying to stop the freedom of expression.
0:08:03
Plain and simple, trying to stop the quiet and the beauty of what was taking place in the library.
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And as a result of Linda, Tony, Brooklyn, and New York public library and what we're doing at the Queen's public library.
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Our goal is working with you to make sure we, 1, raise this issue, but 2, making sure we defeat the issue not just here, but as Linda's doing and others are doing throughout the country as well.
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And one of the things that we're doing at Queen's is making sure, 1, we articulate the issue, but also we do a lot around publicizing and putting policies in place.
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Just recently, our board of directors, our board of trustees, really updated our policy around banned books, and we'll be making sure that it's widely distributed, making sure people have a clear understanding of what's going on.
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We've held forums.
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We've held book talks.
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Just recently, we had a great book talk at our South Jamaica library to talk about the issues that are important to our communities.
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In addition to that, we've had literary Thursdays throughout the system talking about issues of importance, but also making sure we those are communities to a wide array of books that are available to them so that way they're all books for all people and we have that ability to do that.
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System wide, we have more than 5,600,000 books and materials representing over 30 languages throughout the Queen's public library system.
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This past fiscal year, we circulated 7,700,000 physical and digital materials and nearly, which represents a 15% increase.
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Last month, the library advised, as I indicated, our collection development policy to reinforce our opposition to censorship attempts and our goal to offer the widest diversity of views and expressions.
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The policy also made clear that the library's decision to acquire and remove materials from our collections will not be determined by partisan or doctrinal points of view.
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We believe in making sure books are available for all.
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QPL, the Queen's Public Library, is a home to research collections like my colleagues as well.
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That uplift and amplify the voices that have been historically suppressed.
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At our Langston Hughes Community Library And Culture Center, Our black heritage reference collection is a testament to the richness and the depth of black history, covering a wide range of subjects including African history, slavery, critical race theory, African American art, and much, much more.
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This collection is one of the largest circulating collections of materials of the black experience in New York State and throughout the country writings by prominent figures such as Malcolm x, Barack Obama, Our central libraries, Cartagie, What's in reference collection, has more than 4000 reference materials covering various aspects of African American culture and life and papers on the most influential black leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr, book of tea, Washington, and others.
0:11:04
As you indicated in your introduction, we have our journal collection that really captures Black History Month and people noting the importance of every day throughout the month and beyond, and we are very proud of that as well.
0:11:19
As many of the amazing programs and book discussions that we've had, As I indicated at our South Jamaica library, we just had the acclaimed author Charmaine Wilkerson on her first novel, Black cake, which is now an Oprah Winfrey produced series of the same name on Hulu.
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The library was jam packed.
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Chant packed with people who stayed and the author who stayed for over 4 hours really participating with the audience.
0:11:46
We are here to work to review chair and the members of the council to make sure that we articulate this issue and we make sure that we're out front and talking how we to really will focus on addressing the issue, not just in New York City, but throughout the country as well.
0:12:02
I was distracted by my council member who walked in, so I would be remiss and not be able to return home.
0:12:09
If I didn't say hello to council member, Tasha Williams.
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It's a pleasure to see you, man.
0:12:13
I'll see you at the Cambria Heights library at some time in the very near future.
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So as I close, I just wanna say again, thank you for your leadership share.
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Thank you for your leadership members of the council, but most importantly, we at the Queen's Public library along with Brooklyn, New York are here for you to make sure we serve the public at art.
0:12:33
Thank you.
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Do you believe that New Yorkers are sufficiently aware of the threat that stems from banning books, considering that books are not being banned in the city's public libraries?