Banned Books Week 2024: Celebrate the freedom to read!

Sunday September 22nd marks the start of Banned Books Week 2024! This annual event brings awareness to library censorship happening around the country. According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, challenges to books in 2023 reached their highest point in more than 20 years of tracking data, saying "4,240 unique book titles were targeted for removal from schools and libraries. This tops the previous high from 2022, when 2,571 unique titles were targeted for censorship." You may consider Massachusetts safe from such attempts, but that includes 37 challenges in Massachusetts to 63 different titles. 

47% of those titles targeted in censorship attempts represent the voices and experiences of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC individuals. Restricting access to books not only closes us off from experiences other than our own, it is an attack on our academic freedoms. Stop by the library lobby to visit our pop-up display of the top 10 most challenged books of 2023 and grab a button to show your support for everybody's freedom to read, learn, and explore. You can also browse our collections of frequently challenged titles online as downloadable eBooks and audiobooks or physical books.