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Intellectual freedom is a core value of librarianship, but fighting to keep controversial materials on the shelves can sometimes feel like a lonely battle. And not all censorship controversies involve the public objecting to a book in the collection-libraries are venues for displays and meetings, and sometimes library staff themselves are tempted to preemptively censor a work. Those facing censorship challenges can find support and inspiration in this book, which compiles dozens of stories from library front lines. Edifying and enlightening, this collection * Tells the stories of librarians who withstood difficult circumstances to champion intellectual freedom * Touches on prickly issues such as age-appropriateness, some librarians' temptation to preemptively censor, sensitive cultural expressions, and criminality in the library * Presents case studies of defenses that were unsuccessful, so librarians facing similar challenges can learn from these defeats There are fewer situations more stressful in a librarian's professional life than being personally confronted with a demand to remove a book from the shelves or not knowing how to respond to other kinds of censorship challenges. Reading this book will help fortify and inform those in the fray. Valerie Nye is the library manager at Santa Fe University of Art and Design's Fogelson Library. She previously worked as a library consultant at the New Mexico State Library, where she started researching and training others on intellectual freedom and banned books. Nye earned her MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has coauthored two guide books with Kathy Barco, and one literary research guide with R. Neil Scott, Postmarked Milledgeville: A Guide to Flannery O'Connor's Correspondence in Libraries and Archives. Nye is a trustee on the board of the New Mexico Library Foundation. Kathy Barco is currently a children's librarian with Albuquerque's public library, following five years as youth services coordinator at the New Mexico State Library. Barco earned her MLIS from the University of Southern Mississippi. She contributed to Thinking Outside the Book: Essays for Innovative Librarians and wrote the foreword to Librarians As Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook. Barco's READiscover New Mexico: A Tri-Lingual Adventure in Literacy won a New Mexico Book Award. She is on the board of the New Mexico Library Foundation and received the New Mexico Library Association's Leadership Award in 2006.