Apr 17, 2025 By Brad Hundt 3 min read

MT. LEBANON – The late author Paul Auster once said that libraries are “places apart” and “sanctuaries of pure thought.”

And the Board of Trustees at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library has declared that it is a “book sanctuary.”

Robyn Vittek, the library’s director, said it is the only library in Pennsylvania to make itself a book sanctuary, which means it will, according to the resolution approved by the library board, “pledge to collect and protect endangered books that meet the standards of the library’s collection policy.”

As a book sanctuary, the resolution stated, it will also “carry out its mission in providing a forum to exchange ideas through conversations and programs about intellectual freedom and related topics.”

Declaring the library a book sanctuary is simply a way to underscore that “libraries are for everyone,” Vittek explained, and “simply asserting our essential services will not change.”

The library board approved the resolution at its February meeting. Though it appears to be the first in Pennsylvania to declare itself a book sanctuary, Mt. Lebanon Public Library is joining a nationwide effort that started in September 2022 when the Chicago Public Library and the City of Chicago declared themselves book sanctuaries. Libraries in Seattle, Dayton, Ohio, Hoboken, N.J., and Arlington, Va., have since followed suit. Individuals can also declare their own libraries to be book sanctuaries, with a digital toolkit being made available at booksanctuary.org.

The book sanctuary movement was launched to counter the increasing number of challenges to and complaints about books in public libraries. As part of National Library Week last week, the American Library Association reported that 72% of attempts to remove books from public or school libraries came from an assortment of governmental entities, elected officials, administrators and pressure groups, with 21% coming from parents or individual patrons. Most of the books targeted dealt with race or sexuality.

Patrons of Mt. Lebanon Public Library still have the right to express misgivings about anything in the library’s collection, but, according to the resolution the library board approved, the library “will not condone removal of any materials from the collection” that meet its collection development policy.

The library is selling T-shirts, stickers and pins to promote its “book sanctuary” designation.

The response from the Mt. Lebanon community to the library being declared a book sanctuary has been “100% positive,” Vittek said.

“What we’re really doing is saying we believe in the First Amendment and a patron’s right to choose the information that is important to them,” she added.

Additional information about the library’s book sanctuary resolution can be found at https://mtlebanonlibrary.org/706/Book-Sanctuary.