Amanda Jones

That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America examines this nationwide issue through the personal and powerful story of award-winning Louisiana librarian Amanda Jones, who decided to stand up for the right to read and stage a war against book bans and censorship in her small Southern town. Part memoir, part manifesto, That Librarian is an inspiring look and Jones’ advocacy for inclusivity on the front lines of the vicious culture wars that have embroiled libraries, school systems, and parents and kids across the country.

Amanda Jones is currently the school librarian at the same school she attended as a child, where she has worked for the past twenty-three years. Amanda made national headlines in 2022 when she was targeted by extremists in her town for speaking out at a public library board meeting. She decided to fight back and took her harassers to court, while continuing to speak out at both the local and national level against the pro-censorship movement. Amanda chronicles what it is like being the target of white Christian nationalists and the importance of standing up for intellectual freedom, in her book That Librarian: Fighting Book Banners in Today’s America. 

Amanda was the 2021 School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year, a 2021 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and the 2020 Louisiana Librarian of the Year. Amanda has received numerous intellectual freedom awards from the American Library Association, American Association of School Librarians, and Louisiana Library Association for her dedication to eradicating censorship and promoting libraries in Louisiana. She is the Executive Director of the Livingston Parish Library Alliance, a group comprised of citizens in her town dedicated to the importance of preserving the freedom of the library to provide services to all patrons no matter their ethnicity, religion, gender identity, education status, political affiliation, socioeconomic status or any other diversity of life and thought. She is also a co-founding member of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, a grassroots organization fighting censorship in the bayou state.