It’s Banned Books Week, an annual observation started more than 40 years ago in response to a sudden surge in the number of book challenges in libraries, schools, and bookstores. Sound familiar? Sadly, book censorship has remained an unfortunate spectre since Banned Books Week’s founding in 1982, which makes this observance as vital and important as ever.
Banned Books Week highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community — librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas.
George Orwell’s cautionary tale “1984” warns us about the dangers of censorship. This year’s Banned Books Week theme—“Censorship is so 1984. Read for Your Rights”—reminds us that the right to read belongs to all of us, that censorship has no place in contemporary society, and that we must defend our rights.
Actor, author, and activist George Takei is serving as the honorary chair of Banned Books Week this year, and he encourages all of us to stand up for the freedom to read, so that all Americans can find ourselves, and find each other, in books.
“Those who ban books want to lock away ideas they fear,” Takei said in an Instagram post to kick off Banned Books Week. “But in truth, they are trying to steal our freedom: our freedom to choose what we read and what our children read. Our freedom to learn our full history. Our freedom to see and understand each other. Banned Books Week is a time to remind our communities that access to books and knowledge is essential to democracy.”
By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. The American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles lists of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted by librarians and teachers across the country.
The most common justifications for censorship provided by complainants were false claims of illegal obscenity for minors; inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters or themes; and covering topics of race, racism, equity, and social justice.
Nationwide efforts
Libraries across the country are gathering their communities together at book readings, author talks, and other programs all week to help raise awareness about banned books and censorship.
Outside the West End Neighborhood Library in Washington D.C. on Sunday, concerned residents waited in line to pick up a free copy of a banned book from Penguin Random House’s Banned Wagon, reports WTOP News. The orange truck, decorated with images of famous banned book titles and the words “Save Our Stories,” sat outside the library as volunteers handed out free copies of books.
Penguin Random House chose 30 challenged titles to carry on the Banned Wagon tour, including “The Kite Runner,” “The 1619 Project,” “The Fault in Our Stars” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Local father Harry Gruenspecht waited in line to get books alongside his wife and two children.
“Being able to learn about the world as it actually is, and not some kind of sanitized version of the world is important to us,” Gruenspecht told WTOP. “As a kid, I was allowed to read anything I wanted to read. So I can’t imagine anything else for my kids.”
In Ohio, the University of Toledo (UToledo) is holding its 28th Annual UToledo Banned Books Vigil on Thursday, October 9.
UToledo students, staff, faculty and community members are invited to participate in a day’s worth of programing that includes lectures like “41 Years Late: ‘1984’ has Arrived,” by Dr. Daniel Compora, a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, and “Books Banned Over the Years,” by Dr. Paulette D. Kilmer, a retired UToledo faculty member and Banned Books Vigil coordinator.
“This year, attacks on libraries and the right to express our views freely threaten the future of our democracy,” said Dr. Paulette D. Kilmer, a retired UToledo faculty member and the coordinator of the UToledo Banned Books Coalition. “When books disappear from library shelves, we lose our right to read freely and then we cannot think freely.”
At Wichita (Kans.) Public Library (WPL), Banned Books Week events began Sunday with screening of the documentary, “Banned Together,” and will conclude on Saturday, October 11 with a live book reading at all the city’s branches.
Steven Kelly, Adult Literacies manager at WPL, helped select books for the live readings. Books chosen vary from children’s literature, such as “And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson Flamer, to historical fiction like Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five.”
Kelly told KMUW Wichita that the chosen books reflect the wide range of perspectives and experiences the library strives for.
“It’s important for people to see their lives represented in our collections, in the books that they read,” Kelly said. “That’s really important to … your personal development as a human for you to be able to see people who look like you in the books that we have at the library.”
Take action
Alarmed by the escalating attempts to censor books? Here are six steps you can take now to protect the freedom to read.
- Follow news and social media in your community and state to keep apprised of organizations working to censor library or school materials.
- Show up for library workers at school or library board meetings and speak as a library advocate and community stakeholder who supports a parent’s right to restrict reading materials for their own child but not for all
- Help provide a safety net for library professionals as they defend intellectual freedom in their communities by giving to the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund.
- Educate friends, neighbors, and family members about censorship and how it harms communities. Share information from Banned Books Week.
- Join the Unite Against Book Bans movement and visit our Fight Censorship page to learn what you can do to defend the freedom to read in your community
- Become an ALA Supporter and help us fight for libraries and everyone’s freedom to read.
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