School Libraries

The organizations leading the fight for intellectual freedom need data, money, and locally led action—big and small—from people who support the right to read and access materials.

Banned Books Week (BBW) starts on Sunday. While some school librarians are avoiding the week-long event because of censorship attempts and community controversy, others will engage students in BBW activities and conversations.

In the past year, school librarians have faced coordinated, hate-filled censorship campaigns that impact available books and collection development decisions. Here, they share their stories.

Samuels, the former Katy (TX) ISD student who led the student protests against censorship, talks about the fight for intellectual freedom and what Banned Books Week means to them.

Amid threats and hate-fueled protests, performers and allies remain committed to the program.

Children can handle the hard truths about slavery, say educators.  Literature can help the conversation.

Ed tech platform Edmodo will shut down in September, the Center for Antiracist Education will no longer produce new materials; Sora is a Google Classroom add-on, and more in this edition of News Bites.

IdaMae Craddock and Ouida Powe began a bibliotherapy initiative to help combat the growing mental health crisis among children and teens.

New policies are impacting school library purchases in Pennsylvania and Florida; one Texas district cancels its Scholastic Book Fairs for the year; and a South Carolina state senator threatens to eliminate the salaries of public library executives in his county in the latest Censorship Roundup.