''Books Unbanned'' is a United States library program that issues library cards nationwide from regional libraries in order to give electronic access to the library's digital and audio collections to teens and young adults living in U.S. locations where books are being challenged. Initially established by the

Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is the public library system of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is the sixteenth largest public library system in the United States by holding and the seventh by number of visitors. Like the two othe ...

, it was created in response to a wave of book challenges against schools and libraries in 2021 and now encompasses five libraries across the United States.

History

Efforts to censor teenage access to books in the United States swelled in 2021 after a video of a parent at a

Fairfax County Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...

School Board meeting demanding removal of the graphic novel ''

Gender Queer Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

'' from the high school library went viral. Afterward, libraries and classrooms across the US became targets of coordinated campaigns frequently led or funded by right-wing activists. In April 2022, the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) introduced the ''Books Unbanned'' program in response to the movement, offering free BPL ecards to teens and young adults aged 13 to 21 anywhere in the US. Teens apply to get an ecard through email or the library-run

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

account. By January 2023, 6,000 teenagers had requested cards through the BPL's ''Books Unbanned'' program and 52,000 books had been checked out. On April 27, 2023, the

Seattle Public Library The Seattle Public Library (SPL) is the public library system serving the city of Seattle, Washington. Efforts to start a Seattle library had commenced as early as 1868, with the system eventually being established by the city in 1890. The syste ...

joined the ''Books Unbanned'' initiative, making it the second library system to participate. Seattle's ecard is for teens and young adults aged 13 to 26. In October 2023, in honor of

Banned Books Week Banned Books Week is an annual awareness campaign promoted by the American Library Association and Amnesty International, that celebrates the freedom to read, draws attention to banned and challenged books, and highlights persecuted individua ...

, the program expanded to three more libraries:

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonweal ...

LA County Library LA County Library is one of the largest public library systems in the United States which serves residents living in 49 of the 88 incorporated cities of Los Angeles County, California. United States, and those living in unincorporated areas r ...

, and

San Diego Public Library The San Diego Public Library is a public library system serving the city of San Diego, California. History The San Diego Public Library was established on May 19, 1882, by an elected board of library trustees, one of whom was civic leader a ...

Participants

Impact

In August 2022, a teacher in Oklahoma was put on administrative leave after posting the

QR code A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...

for BPL's ''Books Unbanned'' in her classroom. The Oklahoma Secretary of Education called to have her teaching license revoked. The teacher subsequently resigned and, several months later, accepted a job with the Brooklyn Public Library.

Awards

*2023, BPL's ''Books Unbanned'' team recognized as Librarians of the Year by

Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...

*2023, BPL's Books Unbanned program given

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

's World Changing Ideas Award

References

{{reflist

External links

Books Unbanned, Brooklyn Public LibraryBooks Unbanned, Seattle Public Library
Book censorship in the United States Brooklyn Public Library Seattle Public Library