Censorship

With the message "Open books, open doors," this beautiful poster by Rafael López is available to SLJ subscribers and here, as a download. Created by SLJ, supported by Penguin Random House, and in partnership with NCTE, NCAC, PEN America, FReadom, and Library Journal, the powerful image promoting free expression is also available as social graphics for sharing on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.    

To support teachers and librarians in the face of ongoing censorship, School Library Journal and Penguin Random House—in partnership with PEN America, NCAC, NCTE, FReadom, and Library Journal—have created a poster that vividly illustrates the importance of intellectual freedom.

We Need Diverse Books is fundraising for LGBTQIA+ book donations, President Biden speaks out against book banners, May 6 is Floyd Cooper Day, and more in this edition of News Bites.

After Google pulled the interactive reading app from its store because of the inclusion of Dawn McMillan's I Need a New Butt in its collection, Library Ideas appealed and won. The iVOX app is available again in the Google Play store.

Two New York City library systems are opening up their collections to readers across the country; YALSA needs a Pura Belpré award committee volunteer, LitUp writing fellowship is accepting applications, and more in this edition of News Bites.

LGBTQIA+ authors and writers of color are getting fewer invitations to speak to students at schools as attempts to ban books continue across the country.

As adults try to pull books from school library shelves across the country, students are responding with book clubs centered on the challenged titles.

Graphic novel authors Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada, who wrote about Kim's experience in a banned book club in South Korea in the 1980s, now find their book relevant to U.S. students.

Recent censorship developments include a decision to keep the Bible in the library and classrooms at a Kansas high school, and the removal and review of the Epic! digital library app because of a concern over An ABC of Equality and other titles.