Library employee is fired over a book-burning video

Here’s a table-turning story of library books being destroyed: this time, it was a staffer, not a patron, who did it.

To be clear, we should start out by saying that the employee in question — Cameron Williams — says the Chattanooga (Tennessee) Public Library had instructed him to remove titles from the political section that met certain criteria.

Specifically, they must either contain misinformation, contain views that have since changed, or be more than ten years old.

This, again, is according to Williams; a library spokesperson would only confirm to the Washington Post that the process relied on “publication date, circulation date, and physical condition.”

Williams thus removed Crippled America by Donald Trump and How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter, then posted a video on Instagram in which he burned the books.

Shortly afterwards, he was placed on leave by the library and then, last week, he was fired.

Literary Hub links to articles by the Chattanooga Times Free Press and Washington Post in its coverage of the book-burning story.

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