Banned Book Brigade! : ALA Statistics on Challenged and Banned Books
Banned Book Brigade! We Read Banned Books!
“People don’t challenge materials that don’t say something to the reader. If you look over the materials that have been challenged and banned over the years, they are the materials that speak to the condition of the human being, that try to illuminate the issues and concerns that affect human beings. They’re books that say something, and they’re books that have meaning to the reader. Innocuous materials are never challenged.”
-- Judith Krug, inaugural director of the American Library Association, Office for Intellectual Freedom
ALA (American Library Association) Resoures
Definitions:
Challenge:
An attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.
Censorship:
A change in the access status of material, based on the content of the work and made by a governing authority or its representatives. Such changes include exclusion, restriction, removal, or age/grade level changes.
Intellectual Freedom
The right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.
(Home - Researching Banned or Challenged Books - LibGuides at American Library Association)
Who Initiates Challenges
Books and Beyond
Censorship on the Rise
Where do Challenges Take Place?
Censorship by the Numbers
"Censorship by the Numbers", American Library Association, April 20, 2023. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/by-the-numbers (Accessed September 11, 2023)