The Seattle Public Library (SPL) is celebrating the freedom to read during Banned Books Week (September 22-28), with programs, displays, and an update on its Books Unbanned program. The program fights censorship by offering people aged 13 to 21 access to the SPL e-books and audiobook collection.
Giving youth across the country access
According to SPL, Books Unbanned cardholders have more than doubled to over 10,300 since it launched in 2023. In that time, cardholders checked out more than 73,000 unique titles, with a total of 250,000 checkouts. In the past six months, the Library has renewed Books Unbanned cards for 2,900 youth.
Launched in 1982 by the American Library Association, Banned Books Week highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community in shared support of the freedom to seek out, access, and express ideas.
In a recent opinion piece in The Seattle Times, Seattle Public Library Chief Librarian Tom Fay wrote: “It is as if the library built a new branch and welcomed thousands of teen and young adult readers through the doors. But this program has been built by positive word-of-mouth and voracious young readers instead of a new building. ”
Stats and impacts of book banning
According to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, which tracks attempts to censor library materials and services, there’s been a 65% increase in the number of challenged and banned books between 2023 and 2024 alone. Those attempts targeted 4,240 titles, the majority of which were written by or about people of color or the LGBTQIA+ community.
In April 2024, Seattle Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) released the report “In Their Own Words: Youth Voices on Books Unbanned,” which highlights the impact of censorship on teens and young adults across the US. The report shows how restrictions and other barriers to access build upon and reinforce each other.
In the report, 855 young people aged 13 to 26 share their stories and their reasons for signing up for a free Books Unbanned e-card from either library between April 2022 and December 2023. University of Washington Information School graduate students categorized and tagged the stories to identify common themes. The stories analyzed for the report are a subset of thousands that the two libraries have received from every state in the nation, as well as D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico.
What bans do
The analysis showed that formal acts of censorship, bans, challenges, and restrictions to reading material can create a climate of fear and intimidation for young people. Cardholders also mentioned the impact of more “hidden” forms of censorship — self-censorship, soft or “quiet” censorship (pre-emptively restricting access as a means to avoid controversy), or the threat of future censorship — in affecting their freedom to read.
“In an era of unprecedented challenges to the freedom to read, their stories document, in heartbreaking and hopeful detail, both the serious impacts of censorship attempts and how programs like Books Unbanned are providing joy, representation, and escape for a new generation of readers,” said Fay at the time of the report’s release. ous impacts of censorship attempts and how programs like Books Unbanned are providing joy, representation and escape for a new generation of readers.”
Get involved in Banned Book Week
Banned Book Week started on Sunday with a free letterpress printing session. Partners in Print led the session, which invited participants were asked to letterpress print their own words about what books mean to them. On Monday, Seattle Public Library Chief Librarian Tom Fay and Folio librarian Lillian Dabney lead a discussion about the impact of censorship on public libraries and communities and what Seattle has done to respond.
Reading lovers of all ages will have another opportunity to letterpress print what books mean to them during a second session of Banned Books Week Letterpress Printing on Friday, September 27 at the SPL University Branch. The free event, supported by The Seattle Public Library Foundation and the Gary and Connie Kunis Foundation, is drop-in from 2-4 p.m.
The library’s Greenwood Branch will host a Pop-Up Book Sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 29. The sale has been orchestrated run by Friends of The Seattle Public Library with Dr. Christopher Hanson, Artistic Director of Rainbow City Performing Arts, providing the musical entertainment. Registration is not required.
In a post last year on the SPL blog, Fay summed up the reason parents should get involved in the movement to stop book banning: “The freedom to read includes the freedom to learn and to know. An increase in censorship attempts over the last few years is a significant threat to these rights for the youth of America.”
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