Legislation Proposed that Can Make Librarians Felons
- by Michael Stillman
Judge Shakespeare decides whether his writings are felonious.
The obscenity police are on the prowl again. This time, it's school librarians and teachers they have in their sights. A bill has been introduced to the Ohio legislature to turn pornography promoting school librarians into felons. Apparently, this must be a problem with school librarians in Ohio, although the state does not have a reputation as a hotbed for such strange practices. Why else would a state legislator see a need to introduce a bill titled “To amend sections 2907.32 and 2907.35 of the Revised Code to create criminal liability for certain teachers and librarians for the offense of pandering obscenity.”
The author of this apparently needed piece of legislation to control the obscenity-promoting school librarians and teachers of Ohio is Rep. Adam Mathews. Naturally, “obscenity” is hard to define. Mathews indicated this is not a problem because Ohio law already defines “obscenity,” but that definition is typically vague. It defines material as obscene if it appeals to “prurient interests,” is patently offensive, and as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. Of course, that is all subjective so it is hard for a librarian to make that determination. However, they better not make a wrong call or they could end up being a felon.
Rep. Mathews said that the legislation set a high bar to books being classified as obscene, reassuring that Shakespeare and The Scarlet Letter would not be banned. However, nothing in the legislation prevents those books, or any others, from being banned if some authority decides they appeal to “prurient interests.” Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro was less sanguine about the effects of this bill. According to NBC4 Columbus, he said he was “appalled” by the bill, questioning whether teachers would want to stay in the profession with the potential for criminal prosecution “with a fuzzy definition of what would constitute a crime.” In a hopeful sign to those opposed to censorship, Gov. Mike DeWine indicated that book bans are generally dealt with by parents at a local level, rather than state legislation.
Is this really a problem? Are Ohio school librarians really filling their shelves with pornography, with the approval of local officials? This looks like a fake issue, a politician using what sounds like a motherhood and apple pie cause to burnish his reputation, with little concern as to what impact it might have on their constituents' basic freedoms to read, speak, teach and learn. Legislators should not be messing with First Amendment freedoms without a compelling reason, and creating fake issues to embellish your image is not a compelling reason. I'd rather see librarians writing legislation than politicians choosing books for libraries. I trust their motivation and ethics more.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
