Banned Books

Every person has their own values, beliefs, and ideas about the world. Authors often bring their unique perspective to the books that they write. As a result, not everyone can agree with everything that they read in books. Sometimes this leads to a book being challenged within a library collection. A challenge can either seek to remove or restrict access to the resource. When a book is challenged, librarians often have a process through which they consider the value that a book brings to a collection or they may check it against a pre-defined checklist. When a challenged book is removed from a collection, it is called a banned book. 

Unfortunately, sometimes librarians are not able to make the ultimate decisions and must abide by school administrators or political decisions. You can see this playing out right now with Senate Bill 5. 

Book bannings are in direct opposition to intellectual freedom. The American Library Association defines intellectual freedom as: "The right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored." 

Jefferson's Learning Commons is committed to maintaining a diverse collection that includes controversial or debated books in circulation. 

There is a ton of information about banned books online. Here are a few of the resources: 

• ALA's Banned Books Page
• Banned Book Week 
• Authors Speaking Out on Censorship