Challenges in Library Book Censorship from Jan. 1 to Aug 31, 2020: The U.S. Library Association Revisited

The data was released by the American Library Association, and it shows that there were almost 700 attempts to ban library books.

From Jan. 1 to Aug 31, the attempts sought to challenge or censor 1,915 titles, a 20% increase compared to the same months in 2022, the organization said. Last year saw the most challenges since the ALA began tracking book censorship more than two decades ago.

The actual numbers may be higher. The ALA collects data on book bans through library professionals and news reports, so its numbers might not encompass all attempts to ban or censor certain books.

“These attacks on our freedom to read should trouble every person who values liberty and our constitutional rights,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “To allow a group of people or any individual, no matter how powerful or loud, to become the decision-maker about what books we can read or whether libraries exist, is to place all of our rights and liberties in jeopardy.”

In one instance, a local group called Clean Up Samuels hosted barbecues to give out the “Request for Reconsideration” forms. More than 500 forms were filled out for about 150 titles. The county board of supervisors there has since voted to deny 75% of the library’s funding and the library director resigned in August, the ALA said.

The increase in the number of books banned from schools’ libraries in Iowa is an indication of the continued momentum of a book ban, says Kasey Meehan

The Urbandale Community School District in Iowa did not know if many of the books they listed were available in the schools’ libraries. The list was reduced to 65 books and titles were removed from the libraries.

Book bans, and attempts to ban books, have become more common in recent years, so much so that President Biden created a role within the Department of Education specifically focused on the practice. Illinois also became the first state to ban book bans in June.

If you count only the books that have been permanently removed from school libraries and classrooms, the report’s lead author, Kasey Meehan, says the increase is even more alarming. The number in the last school year was 1,263, up from 333 the year before.

“We’re not quite sure if we’ve reached the peak yet,” he says. “And all signals suggest that there’s still growing momentum, and it really is against kind of public opinion.”

More than one third of the books involve violence or physical abuse, including sexual assault, and almost all of them contain characters of color and themes of race or racism.

“It’s going to explode, it is,” says a member of a Moms for Liberty chapter in Florida. “If you show the people what’s in their children’s schools, they will do something about it.”