Efforts to restrict or protect libraries both grew this year; Iowa Capital Dispatch, July 23, 2025

ROBBIE SEQUEIRA | STATELINE , Iowa Capital Dispatch ; Efforts to restrict or protect libraries both grew this year

"State lawmakers across the country filed more bills to restrict or protect libraries and readers in the first half of this year than last year, a new report found.

The split fell largely along geographic lines, according to the report from EveryLibrary, a group that advocates against book bans and censorship...

The geographic split among these policies is stark.

In Southern and Plains states, new laws increasingly criminalize certain actions of librarians, restrict access to materials about gender and race, and transfer decision-making power to politically appointed boards or parent-led councils.

Texas alone passed a trio of sweeping laws stripping educators of certain legal protections when providing potentially obscene materials; banning public funding for instructional materials containing obscene content; and giving parents more authority over student reading choices and new library additions.

In contrast, several Northeastern states have passed legislation protections for libraries and librarians and anti-censorship laws.

New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island and Connecticut have each enacted “freedom to read” or other laws that codify protections against ideological censorship in libraries."

Librarians on the frontline; MV Times, July 31, 2025

Abby Remer, MV Times; Librarians on the frontline

"Kim A. Snyder’s “The Librarians,” screening at the Grange Hall on August 1, is part of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival’s 25th anniversary Summer Celebration Series.

The powerful, deeply chilling documentary exposes the complexities surrounding the rising tide of book bans in libraries over the past five years, and the courageous heroes who battle against them. 

Snyder, an Oscar-nominated and Peabody-winning director, opens the documentary with Ray Bradbury’s unsettling words from “Fahrenheit 451”: “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a specific pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.”

She goes on to weave together tense school board meetings with intimate interviews of librarians on the frontlines who have been fired, harassed, and stalked as they defend books about race and LGBTQ topics. Snyder enhances current real-life events with clips from old movies that rail against librarians and endorse book-burning, reflecting how scarily close reality has come to art. 

The first voice we hear is that of a distressed librarian who is backlit to remain anonymous. “I never imagined that what’s happening now could ever happen. It didn’t dawn on us that we’d come under attack. We never imagined we’d be at the forefront … We’re stewards of the space, of the resources. We’re stewards for the people … Now we’ve moved into the vanguard.”

Throughout the film, we meet librarians in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida as they face fierce opponents — including politicians, the right-wing organization Moms for Liberty, and conservative school boards — while defending access to books that reflect students’ lives. Although their passion is evident, it is even more powerful to watch clips of students testifying or sharing informal moments about their experiences, as they are the ones harmed by the removal of books that speak to their truth. One teenage student at a school board meeting stands at a podium, confronting the members: “The job of the superintendent and school board is not only to protect students in this district, but to make them feel like they have a place in this community. I have got to tell you, from what I’m seeing so far, you are failing at your job … Stop the censorship in our district. Wake up to the reality that we are all different, and we should embrace each other with love and not blatant hate.”...

At the film’s end, the anonymous librarian comes forth on camera, leaving us with her words, “I can’t stay in the shadows anymore … I won’t be censored, just like we can’t let them keep censoring the stories in our books. What I do know is that our story is still being written. But now it’s everyone’s story.”"

ALI VELSHI BANNED BOOK CLUB WITH THE MOST BANNED AUTHOR IN THE COUNTRY; The Philadelphia Citizen, July 28, 2025

 ALI VELSHI, The Philadelphia Citizen; ALI VELSHI BANNED BOOK CLUB WITH THE MOST BANNED AUTHOR IN THE COUNTRY

"While book bans have fallen out of the news cycle, the assault on information and the freedom to read continues to be deployed against our libraries, schools, and the general public. Ali Velshi points out that since January 2025, 133 bills have been introduced in 33 states that would negatively affect libraries, librarians, and access to literature. 

This legislation seeks to cut funding, restrict literary content, and even criminalize school librarians, all with the ultimate goal of censorship.

Fortunately, particularly in red states, citizens are standing up for their rights and successfully fighting these efforts. Coalitions of libraries, publishers, families, nonprofits, and other activists are organizing, protesting, testifying, putting pressure on elected officials, and filing lawsuits.

Velshi Banned Book Club’s very first member, George M. Johnson, author of All Boys Aren’t Blue and Flamboyants, returned to discuss state and school district book bans, legislation, and the lawsuits challenging them. “The lawsuits are helping in a myriad of ways,” says Johnson. “You have to go through the discovery process, that’s when you really start to realize what the true motives are.”"

Michigan Library Association launches petition to protect right to read; WKAR, July 28, 2025

Ed Coury , WKAR; Michigan Library Association launches petition to protect right to read

"The Patmos Library, located in the small western Michigan town, faced backlash over its inclusion of LGBTQ+-related material. Voters chose to withhold public funding for the library in 2022, effectively defunding it. Community members later raised nearly $100,000 to keep the library operational.

The association’s petition drive is supported by a statewide Epic-MRA poll conducted in June. Commissioned by the Michigan Library Association, the poll found that nearly 80% of voters approve of the work being done by libraries in the state, and 75% trust librarians to make decisions about which books should be available.

The Michigan Library Association says it hopes the petition will send a clear message to lawmakers about the value residents place on intellectual freedom and access to information."

The Revolution Will Be Card Cataloged: Dispatches From The Law Librarian Frontlines; Above The Law, July 25, 2025

 Joe Patrice , Above The Law; The Revolution Will Be Card Cataloged: Dispatches From The Law Librarian Frontlines

"In his keynote address, Roosevelt Weeks, the Fort Bend County library director, reaffirmed the core values of the profession to serve the public and preserve knowledge. And that calling requires librarians to be both “strategic and subversive,” prompting a cathartic release from an assembled body battered by an assault of budget cuts and book bans. Step outside the comfort zone to make sure the money people understand the library’s importance and make sure the customer gets the knowledge they seek at a time where powerful interests keep throwing up roadblocks. It sparked the librarian equivalent of running through a wall after a locker room speech: filing out of the room in an orderly fashion."

Taking a stand against book bans; American Psychological Association, July 1, 2025

 Rachel Brooks, American Psychological Association; Taking a stand against book bans

"Increasingly, health professionals are engaging in advocacy across their varied life roles: as community members, parents, library patrons, and voters. Psychologists can emphasize that a full range of books teaches students to be critical interpreters of their world, a skill essential for evidence-based practice in clinical and research careers—and for an educated and democratic society."

KY library book challenges rose 1,000% in 2024. That’s not a typo. What happened?; Lexington Herald Leader, June 30, 2025

John Cheves , Lexington Herald Leader; KY library book challenges rose 1,000% in 2024. That’s not a typo. What happened?

"Challenges to Kentucky public library books soared by 1,061% last year, rising from 26 incidents in 2023 to 302 incidents in 2024, according to a recently released state report. That eye-popping number is buried in small type at the bottom of page six of the annual Statistical Report of Kentucky Public Libraries, published in April by the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives."

Pierce County, GA library manager fired following book display including book about trans boy; FirstCoastNews, June 20, 2025

 Riley Phillips, FirstCoastNews; Pierce County, GA library manager fired following book display including book about trans boy

"A longtime employee of the library in Pierce County, Georgia has been fired after a controversial book display including a book about a transgender boy.

Lavonnia Moore was the library manager at the Pierce County Library. Her sister, Alicia Moore, spoke with First Coast News Friday. She said Lavonnia’s dreams were shattered Wednesday when she was fired from her position because of a book in a summer reading display...

Alicia said Lavonnia had been with the library system for 15 years and worked her way up from part-time clerk to library manager.

She explained the book that led to her firing is called When Aiden Became a Brother, a story of a transgender boy preparing for the birth of a new sibling.

The book drew sharp criticism from a community group called Alliance for Faith and Family, the same group that fought for the removal of a mural in the Waycross-Ware County Public Library. The group posted on social media urging people to reach out to the library system and county commissioners...

The book’s author Kyle Lukoff also weighed in. He told First Coast News he received a message about the librarian. He said "the story itself says everything I want it to, which is that trans people are a blessing," and encouraged people to read the book."

How a Single Court Case Could Determine the Future of Book Banning in America; Literary Hub, June 17, 2025

 Anthony Aycock, Literary Hub; How a Single Court Case Could Determine the Future of Book Banning in America

"Bottom line: in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi–the states covered by the Fifth Circuit–libraries are free to remove books for any reason. 

The plaintiffs now face a choice: accept the Fifth Circuit’s ruling or appeal to the Supreme Court. If there is an appeal, the court may not accept it. Over 7,000 cases are appealed to the high court each year, and it hears only 100-150–less than two percent. Yet I think Little v. Llano County has a good chance of making the docket. 

For one thing, the Fifth Circuit’s en banc reversal of its own panel’s ruling suggests the need for the high court to step in. Second, this Supreme Court has been eager to revisit earlier precedents. In the last few years, it has curtailed abortion protections, ended Chevron deference, and canceled affirmative action in college admissions–all long-standing, seemingly bedrock principles. Why not target Pico, especially since it wasn’t a decisive ruling to begin with?

Third, unlike most book ban cases, Little pertains not to a school library but a public one. Public libraries, according to UCLA professor Eugene Volokh, are not like school libraries. “I tentatively think a public school,” Volokh wrote, “is entitled to decide which viewpoints to promote through its own library,” whereas public libraries “are much more about giving more options to readers, rather than about teaching particular skills and attitudes to students.” 

Public libraries also serve more people–an entire county rather than a school system. Remember Judge Duncan’s belief that anyone who wants a certain book “can buy it or borrow it from somewhere else”? Llano County is small and rural, and many of its residents may not have the purchase option. For them, a book being unavailable in a library is a de facto ban. The pro-library organization EveryLibrary agrees, writing that the Fifth Circuit’s opinion “reveals an indifference to the lived reality of millions of Americans for whom public libraries are their only or primary means of access to books.” 

Here’s hoping that, if Little or any other book ban case ends up before this Supreme Court, those nine justices will consider the issue thoughtfully, creatively, and most important, impartially."

Bill Clinton says he wondered if Trump administration might try to ban his latest book; The Hill, June 18, 2025

 JUDY KURTZ , The Hill; Bill Clinton says he wondered if Trump administration might try to ban his latest book

"“Maya Angelou, who read the inaugural poem at my first inauguration — wrote it, and read it and was a great human being — the first thing the White House did was to ban her book, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,'” Clinton recalled.

Angelou’s 1969 autobiography was reportedly one of nearly 400 books that was pulled from the U.S. Naval Academy library in April as part of an effort to remove titles containing diversity, equity and inclusion content. 

Calling it a “magnificent book,” Clinton reflected on Angelou’s personal story about a child who “loses the ability to speak for a couple of years because she was abused, and then she blooms.”

“I couldn’t figure out why that was a problem,” Clinton said.

“I don’t like book banning,” the 42nd president added.

“I wasn’t ever for banning books that were full of things they said about me that weren’t true,” Clinton said.

“It never occurred to me that I should stop you from reading them.”"

Unbound Pages: Authors Against Book Bans fights for the freedom to read; WGBH, June 20, 2025

Andrea Asuaje, WGBH; Unbound Pages: Authors Against Book Bans fights for the freedom to read

"Thousands of books are facing scrutiny throughout the country as the book-banning movement continues to gain support, from Florida, to Wisconsin and even New Hampshire. Now, hundreds of authors are using their voices off the page to spread awareness about the effect book bans have on democracy and free speech.

The organization Authors Against Book Bans (AABB), which was formed in 2024, is focused on the freedom to read and composed of authors from all genres who write for readers of all ages. Many of the members have had their work challenged or banned, like AABB board member, Adib Khorram, author of several books including the often-challenged or banned “Darius The Great Is Not Okay.” The book and its sequel, “Darius The Great Deserves Better,” have come under fire for addressing race, sexuality and, according to Khorram, Marxist ideology."

Trump administration could change the way we read, from book bans to author talks; USA TODAY, June 18, 2025

Clare Mulroy , USA TODAY; Trump administration could change the way we read, from book bans to author talks

"Hazelwood's tour snag sparked a discussion on book communities about how President Donald Trump's recent policies would trickle down to publishing. Amid book banning, border policies, new anti-DEI sentiments and federal library grant cuts, these are the ways the new administration may impact readers. 

Trump administration's policies shake author tour plans...

Authors worry about impact of Trump, DEI backslide...

Grant cuts threaten libraries, public spaces for readers...

Book banning continues in libraries, classrooms"

Last-ditch legal effort tries to halt NC regional library system breakup over LGBTQ+ content; Carolina Public Press, June 20, 2025

Lucas Thomae , Carolina Public Press ; Last-ditch legal effort tries to halt NC regional library system breakup over LGBTQ+ content

"Local debates capture national attention

The heated debate in Yancey is just one more example of a larger national trend: the transformation of public schools and libraries into political battlefields.

John Chrastka is executive director at EveryLibrary, a self-described “non-partisan, pro-library” political advocacy organization. He told CPP that the emergence of social conservative groups seeking to limit materials in public libraries has led to policy changes at both the state and local level. Sometimes, he said, the best means of pushing back is through the courts.

“Sometimes (court) is the only place that you can go, because you can organize all day long locally and the politicians and the political actors won’t listen because they’re not in for the rule of law,” Chrastka said.

First Amendment challenges are common in these library disputes, but Chrastka said an often underlooked litigation strategy is through a civil rights lens.

Federal law dictates that all people are entitled to “equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages and accommodations of any place of public accommodation.” Public libraries, being taxpayer-funded institutions, are considered places of public accommodation.

“So many of the book bans, so many of the challenges to displays, so many fights over what kind of programming is done in the libraries is based on the comfort of the majority,” Chrastka said.

“If the majority population isn’t comfortable with a minority population — whether it’s race or gender or sexuality or religion, we see these fights. The relevance of a program, the relevance of a display, the relevance of a title to a minority population should be considered in that civil rights framework.”"

Appeals Court Ruling Raises Bar for Challenging School Book Bans; EducationWeek, May 28, 2025

Mark Walsh , EducationWeek; Appeals Court Ruling Raises Bar for Challenging School Book Bans

[Kip Currier: Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan's majority opinion statements that "“Removing a library book does not deny anyone the chance to read it...“The book has not been ‘banned.’ …People who want the book can buy it or borrow it from somewhere else.” are disingenuous and elitist. The reality is that the book has been made inaccessible.

The chief rationale for having a school library is to enable students to be able to access information and materials like books. Taxpayer monies support the acquisition of materials for school libraries. So requiring a student and their family to have to resort to buying a book that the school library would arguably be likely to have is inequitable. A hypothetical student's family's tax dollars support the purchase of school library books. However, the state's stance requires that family (or any other family!) to elect to spend additional monies on a book that their child may want to read or forego access to that book. The other option, as Judge Duncan notes, is to try to borrow that book from somewhere else, which in and of itself raises obstacles. Either way, these are unethical barriers to information that only some students are required to navigate, while other students have unfettered access to state-favored resources. That's censorship and treats some people disparately from others.

The court's rationale is also inherently problematic and potentially unconstitutional as viewpoint discrimination because the court's position prioritizes the views of some books over others. It is acknowledged that no library is able to purchase and provide access to every book. Yet, this policy favors some students and families over others by the nature of the resources that tend to be removed under bans of this nature, i.e books that include references to issues and characters of color or that are LGBTQ+-related.]

[Excerpt]

"The court’s 100-page decision in Little v. Llano Countydevotes much discussion to school library book challenges. Notably, the court expressly overruled its own 1995 precedent that suggested students could challenge the removal of books in their schools.

“Removing a library book does not deny anyone the chance to read it,” says the majority opinion by Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, an appointee of President Donald Trump. “The book has not been ‘banned.’ … People who want the book can buy it or borrow it from somewhere else.”

The majority also rejected the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1982 decision in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico, which stemmed from a New York state school district’s 1976 removal of books from school libraries including Black Boy by Richard Wright, Soul On Ice by Eldridge Cleaver, and Go Ask Alice by an anonymous author."

SC banned more school books than any other state. Can any be reinstated?; The Island Packet, June 5, 2025

Isabella Douglas, The Island Packet; SC banned more school books than any other state. Can any be reinstated?

"Following last month’s state education board meeting, South Carolina now leads the nation in the number of books removed from public schools. The books banned have drawn national backlash and packed board meetings with pleas from students, parents and advocacy groups. But with no formal process to reverse the ban, efforts to “unban” books face legal uncertainty, regulatory hurdles and no clear path forward.

At the heart of the controversy is Regulation 43-170, a policy that allows for the removal of public school library and classroom books that contain descriptions or images of sexual conduct."

Navy set to rename ship honoring Harvey Milk amid DEI purge; Politico, June 3, 2025

 GISELLE RUHIYYIH EWING and PAUL MCLEARY, Politico;  Navy set to rename ship honoring Harvey Milk amid DEI purge

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to rename a naval vessel named after gay rights activist Harvey Milk, with several other ships honoring civil rights activists and women also potentially being rechristened.

The move targeting the ship named after the gay rights icon comes as LGBTQ+ communities kick off pride month celebrations across the country. The step furthers Hegseth’s agenda to stomp out DEI initiatives at the Pentagon, which has included removing books from service academies and scrubbing some mentions of women and people of color in the armed services from DOD websites."

5th Circuit reverses injunction against Texas library that removed challenged books; Alabama Political Reporter, May 29, 2025

 JACOB HOLMES, Alabama Political Reporter; 5th Circuit reverses injunction against Texas library that removed challenged books

"The majority opinion took a derisive tone about the plaintiffs’ arguments, calling them “over-caffeinated.”

“We note with amusement (and some dismay) the unusually over-caffeinated arguments made in this case,” the majority wrote. “Judging from the rhetoric in the briefs, one would think Llano County had planned to stage a book burning in front of the library.” As an example, “one amicus intones, ‘Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people.’ Take a deep breath, everyone. No one is banning (or burning) books.”

The dissenting judges took issue with that tone.

“The majority—apparently ‘amuse[d]’ by expressions of concern regarding government censorship—disparages such concerns as ‘over-caffeinated’ because, if a library patron cannot find a particular book in their local public library, they can simply buy it,” the judges write. “This response is both disturbingly flippant and legally unsound. First, as should be obvious, libraries provide critical access to books and other materials for many Americans who cannot afford to buy every book that draws their interest, and recent history demonstrates that public libraries easily become the sites of frightful government censorship.”

APLS officials already touting the decision

That decision is already being touted by board members leading the Alabama Public Library Service, although Alabama falls in the 11th circuit, not the Fifth. 

“It’s so common sense, no library has every book that has ever been written,” Wahl told Jeff Poor on the Jeff Poor Show Tuesday. “Every library has to choose which books are in its collections and which are not. This is not book banning, this is not book burning. This is literally just deciding what is most edifying, what is most beneficial for our readers … This is not about politics, this is about what is best for our children and what is best that we put in front of them.”"

US Naval Academy canceled author’s lecture that would have criticized book bans; CNN, April 19, 2025

Natasha Bertrand , CNN; US Naval Academy canceled author’s lecture that would have criticized book bans

"The US Naval Academy canceled a lecture that author Ryan Holiday was scheduled to give to students there last week after he refused to remove slides from his planned presentation that criticized the academy’s decision to remove nearly 400 books from its main library.

Holiday, a writer and philosopher who has lectured at the US Naval Academy more than half a dozen times since 2019, told CNN on Saturday that he was invited by the academy in November to give a lecture about wisdom to midshipmen on April 14. He had previously spoken to students there, including during the first Trump administration, as part of a series on stoicism and the pursuit of virtue and excellence.

But an hour before he was scheduled to give his talk last week, as he was getting ready in his hotel room in Annapolis, Holiday says he received a call from the school asking him if he could refrain from mentioning the academy’s decision earlier this month to remove 381 books from the shelves of its Nimitz Library.

“I said I couldn’t do that,” Holiday recalled. “I couldn’t have spoken in front of these midshipmen about courage and about doing the right thing, and then remove, I think, a very reasonable objection to a very egregious concept."...

“I actually agree that the Academy should be apolitical,” Holiday told CNN. “That’s what makes this political meddling in their access to books so troubling. And then to suppress criticism of that obvious mistake, is to model even poorer moral leadership to the midshipman.”"

Who’s In and Who’s Out at the Naval Academy’s Library?; The Guardian, April 11, 2025

John Ismay, The Guardian; Who’s In and Who’s Out at the Naval Academy’s Library?

"Gone is “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou’s transformative best-selling 1970 memoir chronicling her struggles with racism and trauma.

Two copies of “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler are still on the shelves.

Gone is “Memorializing the Holocaust,” Janet Jacobs’s 2010 examination of how female victims of the Holocaust have been portrayed and remembered.

“The Camp of the Saints” by Jean Raspail is still on the shelves. The 1973 novel, which envisions a takeover of the Western world by immigrants from developing countries, has been embraced by white supremacists and promoted by Stephen Miller, a senior White House adviser.

“The Bell Curve,” which argues that Black men and women are genetically less intelligent than white people, is still there. But a critique of the book was pulled.

The Trump administration’s decision to order the banning of certain books from the U.S. Naval Academy’s library is a case study in ideological censorship, alumni and academics say.

Political appointees in the Department of the Navy’s leadership decided which books to remove. A look at the list showed that antiracists were targeted, laying bare the contradictions in the assault on so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies."

Being a librarian was already hard. Then came the Trump administration; The Guardian, April 7, 2025

Rainesford Stauffer, The Guardian; Being a librarian was already hard. Then came the Trump administration

"For many librarians, the stakes of the job are high – they’re facing burnout, book bans, legislation pushed by rightwing groups, and providing essential resources in an effort to fill gaps in the US’s social safety net.

Now, as Donald Trump’s administration rolls out their agenda, many librarians are describing his policies as “catastrophic” to accessing information and the libraries themselves – institutions considered fundamental to democracy...

Elon Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency” recently gutted the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which the American Library Association noted greatly affects the important services they offer, including high-speed internet access, summer reading programs, veterans’ telehealth spaces and more, with the most intense losses in rural communities.

While the majority of public library funding comes from city and county taxes, according to EveryLibrary, the IMLS provides grants that support these critical services in every state...

Librarians are speaking out about what communities could lose, including internet access and workforce development in Kentucky, the Talking Book and Braille Center in New Jersey, digital hotspots in North Carolina, and much more outlined in reporting from Book Riot. As librarians grappled with losses that would directly affect their work, the IMLS Instagram accountissued posts appearing to mock grantees."