Book banning, a form of censorship, occurs when private individuals, government officials, or organizations remove books from libraries, school reading lists, or bookstore shelves because they object to their content, ideas, or themes. Those advocating a ban complain typically that the book in question contains graphic violence, expresses disrespect for parents and family, is sexually explicit, exalts evil, lacks literary merit, is unsuitable for a particular age group, or includes offensive language.
The first Banned Books Read Out occurred in New York City on April 1, 1982. The demonstration protested censorship by school and public libraries under pressure from religious groups.
https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/986/book-banning
Historically, challenges to books occur with individual titles when a parent is confronted with content they do not want their child to read. They submit a challenge, and the governing school district will weigh whether that book should remain within the school library or if they can find an alternative title for the individual student. This has been a process which has worked, it protects parents right to choose which books their students read and allows librarians to prioritize access for the rest of the population. With this method, the goal has always been access.
A new phenomenon has occurred in the past two years or so, where conservative legislators are taking books which center LGBTQ+ communities or race and ethnicity and attempting to, sometimes successfully, remove them wholesale from library collections. These are usually books purchased by librarians to diversify collections. This has gone as far as public and school librarians losing large swaths of materials, or funding, or their jobs, facing jail, or closing their library altogether.
Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community –- librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types –- in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
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.
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. Most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained. This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read.¹
¹ http://www.ala.org/bbooks/about
Book challenges in 2022 nearly doubled the number reported in 2021.
In 2022, nearly 51% of the demands to censor books targeted books, programs, displays, and other materials in school libraries and schools; 48% of book challenges targeted materials in public libraries.
A challenge is 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. Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection.
In his book Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other, Nat Hentoff writes that
“the lust to suppress can come from any direction.”
Books are not the sole target of attacks orchestrated by conservative parent groups and right-wing media. Both school and public librarians are increasingly in the crosshairs of conservative groups during book challenges and subject to defamatory name-calling, online harassment, social media attacks, and doxxing, as well as direct threats to their safety, their employment, and their very liberty.
