Iowa was ranked second in the nation for book bans in classrooms and school libraries in 2024 with 3,671 titles removed — over six times more than Texas, the third-highest state. Only Florida has banned more.

In Iowa City, the Antelope Lending Library, a nonprofit bookmobile, is trying to fill the gap by offering banned titles in its collection. Cassandra Elton, founder and director of Antelope Lending Library, emphasized the importance of a diversity of accessible literature for child development.

“We know that having exposure to different stories, especially stories that reflect yourself and your family and people that you love, is a vitally important part of storytelling,” Elton said. “It also builds empathy when you read stories about people who are different from yourself.”

Elton said the subject matter most targeted by book bans is related to sexuality and gender with some bans arguing such topics are inappropriate for children in any context.

“LGBTQ stories tend to be lumped under sexually explicit stories, which is not accurate,” Elton said, adding the example that a picture book about a child with heterosexual parents is not viewed as sexually explicit, but a similar story with same-sex parents is.

Elton said many concerns arise from the misconception that books intended for teenagers, particularly those exploring themes of sexuality, are being placed in children’s sections at public libraries.

She pointed to “Gender Queer,” a graphic memoir by Maia Kobabe, as a key example of this controversy, noting that its inclusion of mature illustrations depicting the narrator’s journey of self-discovery has made it a frequent target of book bans.

“No library has ‘Gender Queer’ mixed in with the picture books,” Elton said.

This same title previously caused a stir at the Kalona Public Library in 2023 when a patron filed a request for the library to remove the book. Trevor Sherping, the director of the library during this time, said the request sparked months of packed board meetings where community members voiced strong and opposing opinions.

“I got a lot of nasty emails, a lot of comments that weren’t to my face, either about myself or about our staff,” Sherping said.

He added the original request to remove the book stemmed from the concerned patron falsely believing the book was included in the children’s collection. Sherping said it was, in fact, on an all-ages display table at the front of the library focused on LGBTQ+ literature.

While the original patron cited concerns about the material being inappropriate, Sherping said more complaints then came in centered on the subject matter itself.

“Three-quarters of those, I would guess, were saying in addition to the fact that it was an obscene material, that LGBT is unholy against God — some of those nasty things that you hear,” Sherping said.

He said during his time at Kalona Public Library, he would receive emails from community members who were concerned the library was attempting to “corrupt” youth patrons with the selection of books offered. But Sherpingsaid as the one who curated the library’s collections during this time, he prioritized including a range of perspectives and subjects.

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“There were plenty of materials every month that I purchased that I didn’t personally agree with,” Sherping said. “But that didn’t mean that it wasn’t going to be useful for somebody in the community.”

He said the community uproar around “Gender Queer” proved to have the opposite effect of the intended censorship.

“‘Gender Queer’ got a couple dozen checkouts in two or three months [after the complaint],” Sherping said. “But in eight months that we had it prior, it didn’t have a single checkout.”

Currently, the issue of banned books is a major concern for many Iowa public libraries as the state legislature considers House File 274, a bill that would remove legal exemptions protecting schools and libraries from prosecution under obscenity laws.

This legislative effort signifies a shift from focusing solely on school materials to encompassing public libraries, potentially subjecting them to increased scrutiny and legal challenges over their collections.

Lauren Roberts, director of the Oxford Public Library, said this potential legislation undermines the expertise of librarians.

“I would say to the community that you should be trusting your librarians and the background of schooling and knowledge that they share to select materials for the community to be offered in the library,” Roberts said.

She added that the proposed legislation would have an especially harsh impact on smaller libraries.

“As a librarian, especially in a small town, it can be difficult seeing books being taken from our already limited shelves,” Roberts said.

Sherping warned an effect of the proposed legislation could be exposing individual librarians to civil penalties for providing banned books. He said he has spoken with colleagues who are seriously considering leaving the profession if the bill becomes law.

“I think that’s a pretty obvious detriment, to have people who are professionally trained and have worked in their communities and know their community members to leave,” Sherping said. “I think that just opens the door to hiring underqualified people or people who have more of a bias to get in and then narrow the scope of the collection.”