Celebrate Banned Books Week!

September 26 - October 2, 2021 is Banned Books Week!
Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.

In 1976, five teenagers sued their Long Island school for banning 11 books from their classrooms and school libraries. That case made its way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982) that the First Amendment limits the power of school officials to ban library books. Since the 1980's, Banned Books Week has been used as a time to celebrate the freedom to read and to call attention to attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. 

Where do we stand today? In 2020, the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) tracked 156 challenges—targeting 273 books—to library, school, and university materials and services. Visit the top 10 challenged books by year page to view the list of titles along with the reasons cited for censoring the books. 

Interested in checking out a banned or challenged book? We have curated a Banned Books Week collection on OverDrive and can help you find books in our print collection at the library. Let us know if you need a hand choosing a book to help you celebrate your freedom to read.

For more information about banned and challenged books, visit the ALA’s Banned & Challenged Books webpage to view the top 10 challenged books by year (archived back to 2001), Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books: 2010-2019, banned and challenged classics, Banned Books Q&A, and more. Don't forget to follow #BannedBooksWeek on Twitter and Instagram!

Sources consulted:

Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/457/853

Dawkins, A. (2017, November 7). The Pico case – 35 years later. Intellectual Freedom Blog. https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=11481

LaRue, J. & Diaz, E. (2017, November 1). 50 years of intellectual freedom: The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom celebrates its history. American Libraries. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2017/11/01/50-years-office-intellectual-freedom/