OLYMPIA TIMBERLAND LIBRARY & OFS PRESENT: THE LIBRARIANS

Monday, January 12, 2026
Olympia Timberland Library & the Olympia Film Society present:
The Librarians
Introduced by Washington State Librarian Sara Jones
6:00pm doors & 7pm film
Free Admission
Librarians emerge as first responders in the fight for democracy and our First Amendment Rights. As they well know, controlling the flow of ideas means control over communities. In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQia+ stories — triggering sweeping book bans across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to lay bare the underpinnings of White Christian Nationalism fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work — the librarians’ rallying cry for freedom to read is a chilling cautionary tale.
Dir: Kim A. Snyder / 2025 / US / 94 min

“For many children, school libraries are the only place in their lives where they have guaranteed access to books for leisure reading, resources for interest-based exploration, and the freedom to choose the direction their learning will take. School librarians are the guides for this imperative facet of education, and are often under-resourced, over-worked, and (in many cases) being lost to budget cuts. They are also under attack. We are currently living in a world where a small group of adults are attempting to control what children have access to in their school libraries. Fortunately, there are also those fighting back. This documentary is a celebration of the librarians who spend their careers fighting for the rights of the youth they serve, a wake-up-call to those who care deeply about open access to information, and a sobering look at the reality of our current landscape’s impact on our own children.” – Sara White, Youth Services Consultant, WA State Library