Library Newsletter

What Should We Think About Banned Books?

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Banned Books

What Should We Think About Banned Books?

Not all book bannings are made equal.

Books may be challenged for any number of alleged reasons. Age-inappropriate content, harmful ideology, misleading historical revision, racist language, portrayal of demonic influence… the list goes on. They are also challenged in different contexts. Some books make the list because a handful of rural schools didn’t want them on the library shelves. Others inflamed controversy strongly enough that they earned federal governmental attention.

As librarians, we advocate for free access to information. Free knowledge allows people to seek truth, and to not be limited by a singular perspective. Censorship of any kind is abhorrent to us. But free information is not our only dictum – our duty also lies in encouraging our communities to examine the information available to them, to aggressively parse through what they are being told and determine whether it is accurate, reliable, and worthy of incorporating into their worldview.

The fact that a book was banned is not nearly as important as why it was banned, and in what context.

The most common banned books (such as 1984, The Great Gatsby, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, etc.) are uncomfortable books. They point a finger at uncomfortable truths and challenge us to see if what they say is still true. Compare this to books that were banned for demonic influence (such as Harry Potter) or sexual content (A Court of Thorns and Roses). These books were made for recreational reading, not to challenge the real world. Any kind of censorship is a hazard, but it is difficult to lump all of these bans into the same category of concern.

As you look at the banned books the library presents this week, we would like to challenge you to carefully consider why these books have been blacklisted, in what context they would be found threatening, and what that tells us about the world we live in. And, we would like you to consider whether the very fact that these books are divisive makes them all the more worth reading.

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Banned Books

Check out these resources from the American Library Association to learn more about Intellectual Freedom, Censorship, and the Library Bill of Rights

Intellectual Freedom | Censorship |  Library Bill of Rights