School uses AI to remove 200 books from its library – takes out Orwell’s 1984

Oh, the irony.

Senior staff at the school used the technology to remove material from its library which was deemed to be "inappropriate", as per Index on Censorship.

Amongst the books removed by AI includes Michel Obama's autobiography, The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

As per an anonymous interview between the school's librarian and Index on Censorship, it all started when the librarian ordered in the book 'Men Who Hate Women' by Laura Bates, a book about the growing network of incels and misogynists.

She was ordered to remove the book by the school's headteacher and later put under investigation by the school, leading to a meeting.

After defending the importance of books which cover such themes, she went home, only to return the next day to find a number of other books pulled from the shelves.

She then disclosed that she was asked to conduct an audit of the library and told to remove any books that "were not written for children, books with themes that could be upsetting to children and books that could be inappropriate or constitute a safeguarding risk."

The school admitted in documents that AI was used to categorise the books, with one document ,presumably from school staff, saying: “Although the categorisation was generated using AI, I consider this classification to be broadly accurate.”

Things got worse for the librarian who was even reported to the local authority by the designated safeguarding lead for introducing books deemed allegedly inappropriate for school kids.

She told Index: “I was absolutely gobsmacked. When I’m shocked, I kind of shut down. So, I stopped speaking, but I remember I was stamping books or something, and I just kept on doing that because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”

The librarian initially went off work sick and then later decided to resign, ending the investigation into her.

“I’ve done that job for over a decade, and it was my dream job, and I was brilliant at it,” she said.

She is being supported by the School Libraries Group (SLG), part of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).

Caroline Roche, chair of the SLG, told Index: "This is over the top. It's ruined her career.

"The fact it's gone through safeguarding means [she] will never be able to work in a school again."

A full list of the books removed by the school can be found at the bottom of Index's article here.