‘You Can’t Just Go Online and Make Up Lies About People and Not Face Consequences’

Amanda Jones is a librarian. This summer, worried that her town might try to ban books, she spoke up at a public library board meeting about the importance of a diverse collection and preserving young people’s access to books with sexual health content and L.G.B.T.Q. themes.

A few days later, she found herself accused online of advocating for pornography in the children’s section. That was not unusual — fights about book banning have gotten ugly all over the country. But in response, Amanda did something that few others have done.

[You can listen to this episode of “First Person” on Apple, SpotifyGoogle or wherever you get your podcasts.]

(A full transcript of the episode will be available midday on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Follow Lulu Garcia-Navarro on Twitter @lourdesgnavarro.

“First Person” is produced by Olivia Natt, Wyatt Orme, Courtney Stein, Sophia Alvarez Boyd and Jillian Weinberger. It is edited by Kaari Pitkin and Stephanie Joyce, with help from Lisa Tobin. Mixing and original music by Carole Sabouraud and Isaac Jones. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker. Special thanks to Kristina Samulewski, Shannon Busta, Kate Sinclair, Jeffrey Miranda, Paula Szuchman, Allison Benedikt, Kathleen Kingsbury and Sam Dolnick.