Banned Books Week is only two weeks away! With many libraries across the country in full preparation mode for the annual celebration of the freedom to read during the week of Sept. 24-30, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and the…
Author: Maren Williams
Pro-Censorship Library Board Member Removed in Downers Grove
A library board trustee in Downers Grove, Illinois has been removed by a unanimous vote of the village council after he publicly questioned why library staff should receive training on inclusion and diversity, and further advocated that “young children should…
Book Burning: A Sordid History of Cultural Erasure
For as long as books have existed, people have been trying to burn them. Book burning is in the Bible, as some 19th century Los Angeles ministers pointed out in advocating a purge of the public library. In recent times,…
Personal Biases Must Not Impede Library Services
Recently a children’s librarian wrote to Pat Scales, School Library Journal’s anti-censorship advice maven, with a workplace dilemma. It seems that a fellow librarian who works on one of their large system’s bookmobiles had requested not to receive any books…
California Parents Protest Kindergarten Read-Aloud of Transgender Books
A public charter school in Rocklin, California is defending a kindergarten teacher’s choice to read the picture books I Am Jazz and Red: A Crayon’s Story out loud to her students in order to help them understand a classmate’s gender…
Holocaust-Denying Book Vandal Plagues Minnesota Library
One or more determined book vandals is at work in the town of West St. Paul, Minnesota, where staff from the Wentworth Branch of Dakota County Library report that at least five to ten books about the Holocaust have been…
Utah Judge Rules Against Speech-Chilling Liquor Law
A Utah judge has struck down a state law that prohibits the serving of alcohol during the exhibition of simulated sex acts, vindicating the Salt Lake City movie theater Brewvies which was fined and threatened with the loss of its liquor…
CBLDF Joins Letter Thanking West Chicago Library for Defense of This Day in June
After the resounding defeat of a challenge to the LGBTQIA-themed children’s picture book This Day in June at the public library in West Chicago, Illinois this week, CBLDF and other organizational members of the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Kids’ Right…
For Access to Iranian Market, Social Media Companies Might Agree to Censorship
Social media companies including Twitter, Instagram (owned by Facebook), and YouTube (owned by Google) are reportedly negotiating with authorities in Iran to censor “immoral content” as a condition of their sites being readily accessible within the country. Unsurprisingly, activists inside…
London Police Ask For New Leads in 1987 Murder of Palestinian Cartoonist
Thirty years ago, Palestinian political cartoonist Naji al-Ali was gunned down on a London street as he walked to work. With his assassination still unsolved, police this week renewed an appeal for leads in the case, hoping that “people who…