Current:Home > ScamsChallenges to library books continue at record pace in 2023, American Library Association reports-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
Challenges to library books continue at record pace in 2023, American Library Association reports
View Date:2025-01-13 16:42:35
NEW YORK (AP) — Book bans and attempted bans continue to hit record highs, according to the American Library Association. And the efforts now extend as much to public libraries as school-based libraries.
Through the first eights months of 2023, the ALA tracked 695 challenges to library materials and services, compared to 681 during the same time period last year, and a 20% jump in the number of “unique titles” involved to 1,915. School libraries had long been the predominant target, but in 2023 reports have been near-equally divided between schools and libraries open to the general public, the ALA announced Wednesday.
“The irony is that you had some censors who said that those who didn’t want books pulled from schools could just go to the public libraries,”’ says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who directs the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
The ALA defines a challenge as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.”
In 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, the association recorded just 377 challenges, involving 566 titles. The numbers fell in 2020, when many libraries were closed, but have since risen to the most in the association’s 20-plus year history of compiling data. Because the totals are based on media accounts and reports submitted by librarians, the ALA regards its numbers as snapshots, with many incidents left unrecorded.
Continuing a trend over the past two years, the challenges are increasingly directed against multiple titles. In 2023, complaints about 100 or more works were recorded by the ALA in 11 states, compared to six last year and none in 2021. The most sweeping challenges often originate with such conservative organizations as Moms for Liberty, which has organized banning efforts nationwide and called for more parental control over books available to children.
“There used to be a roughly one-to-one ratio, where a parent would complain about an individual book, like in the days when many were objecting to Harry Potter,” Caldwell-Stone says. “Now you have people turning up at meetings and asking that 100 titles be removed.”
The ALA released its numbers in advance of its annual banned books week, Oct. 1-7, when libraries highlight challenged works. Earlier this year, the association issued its annual top 10 list of the books most objected to in 2022, many of them featuring racial and/or LGBTQ themes. Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” topped the list, followed by George Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”
Attacks against teachers and librarians have been ongoing in 2023.
At Chapin High School in South Carolina, some students alleged that a teacher made them feel “ashamed to be Caucasian” for assigning Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me,” an open letter to his son about police violence against Black people that won the National Book Award in 2015. The school removed the book from the syllabus.
In Fort Royal, Virginia, the county board of supervisors is planning to drastically cut funding for the Samuels Public Library in response to conservative complaints about books with gay, lesbian and transgender characters. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill which calls for books depicting sex acts to be removed from school libraries.
Some attacks have affected the library association itself. The ALA’s opposition to bannings has led some communities to withdraw their membership, including Campbell County in Wyoming and a local library in Midland, Texas. Missouri officials announced the state would be leaving the ALA at a time when recent laws limited access for young people to books considered inappropriate for their age.
“I think this trend is going to continue,” Caldwell-Stone says, “at least for as long these groups want to go after whole categories of books.”
veryGood! (3325)
Related
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Red Velvet, Please
- Social media companies made $11 billion in US ad revenue from minors, Harvard study finds
- Tom Smothers, half of the provocative Smothers Brothers comedy duo, dies at 86
- The New York Times sues ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Microsoft, for copyright infringement
- Medical King recalls 222,000 adult bed assistance rails after one reported death
- Fans take shots of mayonnaise at Bank of America Stadium for the Duke's Mayo Bowl
- Nikki Haley, asked what caused the Civil War, leaves out slavery. It’s not the first time
- Magnitude 3.8 earthquake shakes part of eastern Arkansas
- Father sought in Amber Alert killed by officer, daughter unharmed after police chase in Ohio
- Frustration in Phoenix? Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Suns should be unhappy with results
Ranking
- Repair Hair Damage In Just 90 Seconds With This Hack from WNBA Star Kamilla Cardoso
- Taylor Swift Eras Tour Tragedy: Cause of Death Revealed for Brazilian Fan Who Passed Out During Show
- A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market
- Jacksonville, Florida, mayor has Confederate monument removed after years of controversy
- Craig Melvin replacing Hoda Kotb as 'Today' show co-anchor with Savannah Guthrie
- Tom Smothers, half of the provocative Smothers Brothers comedy duo, dies at 86
- New Orleans landlord gifts tenants 1 month of free rent for holidays: Better than Santa Claus
- Ken Jennings reveals Mayim Bialik's 'Jeopardy!' exit 'took me off guard'
Recommendation
-
Dwayne Johnson Admits to Peeing in Bottles on Set After Behavior Controversy
-
Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt pleads guilty to abusing children with YouTube mom Ruby Franke
-
Fox News Radio and sports reporter Matt Napolitano dead at 33 from infection, husband says
-
An Indiana dog spent 1,129 days in a shelter. He has his own place with DOGTV.
-
Volunteer firefighter accused of setting brush fire on Long Island
-
Mississippi health department says some medical marijuana products are being retested for safety
-
Pope Francis blasts the weapons industry, appeals for peace in Christmas message
-
'The Golden Bachelor’ wedding: How to watch Gerry and Theresa's big day