Emory Award Presentation and Celebration - RSVP required

This year book collectors honor book protectors by presenting the Emory Award to three women who led the fight to defeat a group attempting to shut down the Dayton Memorial Library over titles they wanted removed.

RSVP needed please go to: https://www.bookclubofwashington.org/events-1/emory-award-presentation-and-celebration-2 to RSVP

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Tanya Patton, Elise Severe, and Deb Fortner from Dayton, Washington are receiving the 2024 Emory Award for their leadership in saving the Dayton Memorial Library in Columbia County, Washington. Without their actions, Dayton could have become the first library in the US to be shut down because of book challenges.

Last year’s fight was the second time Tanya Patton, former chair of the Dayton Library Board, has helped save the library. Patton also led the 2005 campaign to create the rural library district that restructured the library’s funding model so it could remain open and continue serving the community.

Deb Fortner is a wheat-farmer in Columbia County who worked alongside Patton to save the Dayton Library and build community support for the library in the face of 2023’s dissolution challenge.

Elise Severe founded Neighbors United for Progress, the political action organization that sued to stop the library dissolution measure from going on the November ballot. Severe was also one of the two named plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The group attempting to shut down the library chose to pursue dissolution because library staff refused to remove over one hundred books relating to gender, sexuality, and race from the children’s and young adult collections. Columbia County Superior Court Commissioner Julie Karl explained the stakes in her ruling against the dissolution ballot measure. “The city and county would lose a valuable resource that would disproportionately affect the poorest members of this community that depend on this library,” she said.

The American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom’s 2023 report documented 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources, with public libraries coming under greater attack than ever before. The number of book titles targeted at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, and book challenges at public libraries now account for about 46% of all book challenges. Finally, the ALA’s 2023 report documented the highest number of challenged book titles they have ever recorded. Titles representing the voices of LGBTQ and BIPOC individuals made up 47% of those censorship attempts.

Preserving public access to books has rarely been more urgent. In the face of historic levels of attempted censorship, more communities across the country – and across Washington state -- will need to stand up and fight for books and for libraries. By presenting this award, The Book Club of Washington affirms that it stands with them.