Hey John,

As we stare down the barrel of 2025 and beyond over here at Fight for the Future, one thing we know will be more important than ever is access to the truth—historical truth as in racial and gender justice, medical truth as in sex and abortion ed, and the truth of current events as in resisting the hell out of authoritarianism and censorship.

You probably know things aren’t looking great. Journalism has been gutted,¹ the national archivist is already trying to erase Black history under Biden,² and AI slop³ is making it dang near impossible to even find a news article you read last week.

That’s why Fight is going to double down in our battle for the rights of libraries and their patrons in 2025. We need to raise $40,000 by the end of this year to push hard for private and uncensored access to information, and right now, we’re behind. Can you pitch in any amount today?

SUPPORT THE BATTLE FOR LIBRARIES

We’re going to need surveillance-free access to uncensored books,⁴ both in brick-and-mortar libraries and online, at places like the Internet Archive, or via e-readers for those who can’t get to a physical library. Right now, that access is nearly extinct. And where it exists, like at the Internet Archive, it’s threatened.⁵

In order to roll back the nationwide surveillance⁶ of library readers through third party tech platforms like Hoopla and Libby and Kindle, we’ve got to make some noise. That’s why we’ll be working to include surveillance-free library book access as a part of our new initiative to advocate for surveillance-free sanctuary cities. We’ll also be taking this demand to DC and demanding that legislators investigate library surveillance.

And, like every year, we’ll be screaming from the rooftops how important and badass institutions like the Internet Archive are.⁷

We’ve got a long way to go in pushing back the tides of ubiquitous surveillance and data collection, but as authors and book-lovers at Fight for the Future, we are here for this cause. And really, we think most people who work in publishing and libraries are too—they just aren’t always in the best position to fight like we can. With sustainable support from small-dollar donations, we can move the needle on this issue and more (and we already have).⁸

So, can you support us as we say what needs saying and do what needs doing to fight anti-library crackdowns? Every dollar makes a huge difference for our small team.

DONATE NOW

Thanks so much for anything you can give, and any work you can do to amplify our advocacy on this crucial issue. There are tons of good resources and links in the footnotes!

For books,

Lia at Fight for the Future

Footnotes:

Fight for the Future, PO Box 55071 #95005, Boston, MA 02205
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