Nationwide & On Your Side

    If you've gotten the impression that a lot of books are being banned these days, that impression is correct. The American Library Association reports that there were "729 challenges to library, school and university materials and services in 2021, resulting in more than 1,597 individual book challenges or removals" -- the most since the ALA started tracking such things. "Most targeted books," the ALA noted, "were by or about Black or LGBTQIA+ persons."

     Libraries tend to frown upon the banning of books. One of them, aided by modern reading technology, is taking a nationwide stand against the practice.

B(r)ooklyn Public Library

 

     The Brooklyn Public Library has a project called BooksUnbanned. As part of the project, BPL is launching a "National Teen BPL e-card," which anyone in the US of A (between the ages of 13 and 21) can use to borrow from a hoard of 350,000+ e-books and 200,000+ digital audiobooks. The idea is that if your local school board has thrown Maus or The Hate You Give into the dumpster, you can still resd it. 

    In addition, the Brooklyn Public Library has gathered a collection of the most-banned books in America and made them available as e-books with no wait times (!) for anyone with a BPL card. Therefore, if a group of teens in Texas wish to study the work of Nobel winner Toni Morrison, complaints from "anti-CRT" groups cannot stop them.   

    There are many problems with e-books, but it must be noted that they make the suppression of books more difficult.