Teacher Chat: Tom Bober

Tom Bober is an elementary school librarian, the immediate past president of the Missouri Association of School Librarians, and an advocate for diverse books. In this teacher story, Tom sat down with Everyday Advocacy’s Jennifer Buehler to talk about how he worked with community stakeholders to respond to state legislation limiting students’ access to books – and to share how advocacy in elementary school libraries can be safe, savvy, smart, and sustainable. 

“We let people know what we stand for, what we value, what we find important – and those conversations happen with colleagues in classrooms, those happen with administration, those happen with parents, and of course those conversations – in different forms –  happen with the students.”

Jennifer Buehler: I love that you led with the word values. Have the talking points around what you value in the library shifted at all in this moment where libraries are under attack and book bans have been in the headlines?

Tom Bober: I think they've just become more clear in how we articulate those things, as far as what we value and how we value that our young readers are able to come into this space and see not only themselves with the books on the shelves, but the wider world around them – and have a wide variety of information that is age appropriate and age relevant.