SAN ANTONIO — Cresencia Huff has worked at the San Antonio Public Library for two decades.

“I love helping children make joyful connections with books,” said Huff, the coordinator of children services.

Huff said they work hard to offer a diverse collection.

“We’re not trying to subscribe to any one political ideology or way of thinking,” Huff said. “We’re really trying to help people have access to a wide variety of thoughts and ideas and information.”

About 2 million items fill library shelves across the city. But in 2022, across the state, Texas attempted the most book bans in the country.  

“We have seen an increase in the number of requests for reconsideration in the last few years,” Huff said.

According to the American Library Association, last year there were 93 attempts to restrict access to 2,349 book titles in Texas. Huff said book banning attempts aren’t new. But they do take customers’ concerns seriously. 

“We look at the author’s intent, who they were trying to create that item for,” Huff said. “And then also we consult with our colleagues in other library systems to see what they’ve decided to do with an item.”

Recently, EveryLibrary Institute polled about 850 parents of minors about book bans. The majority, 67%, thought “banning books is a waste of time.” And 74% of parents agreed that book bans infringe on their rights to make decisions for their children.

“In recent years, we have not actually removed an item from the library collection,” Huff said. “There has been an item that we reclassified.”

The majority of surveyed parents were more comfortable with their kids accessing titles about social justice and race than age-appropriate books with LGBTQ+ characters and sexual themes.

“It’s not surprising that there’s people that would disagree with some of the items they we have in our collection,” Huff said.

Huff said parents have the right to be concerned about what their kids are watching, reading and listening to. She suggests asking librarians for book recommendations and setting clear expectations at home.

“That is a good opportunity for them to have conversations with their children about what they as a family feel is appropriate for them,” Huff said.