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Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week poster, Oct. 5-11, 2025, with "Censorship is so 1984" and "Read for Your Rights." Visit ALA.org/bbooks.

October 5-11

It's Banned Books Week! This is a week to celebrate and assert your First Amendment rights and read a banned or challenged book. Banned Books Week launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of book challenges in libraries, schools, and bookstores.

Now, in 2025, books have continued to be challenged and banned across the country, with a sharp spike in censorship attempts since 2021. From the American Library Association:

"The majority of book censorship attempts now originate from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members, and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries."

Libraries exist to provide materials and resources for everyone. Censorship is not part of that mission. We believe in each person's right to read under the First Amendment and free access to information.

"The most common justifications for censorship provided by complainants were false claims of illegal obscenity for minors; inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters or themes; and covering topics of race, racism, equity, and social justice." - ALA

Take Action

Text: "LET FREEDOM READ DAY" with colorful geometric shapes in the background.

Here are some ideas on how you can fight for your right to read under the First Amendment.

  1. Call a decision maker (i.e. school and library administrators, school and library boards, and elected representatives) to ask them to support the right to read!
  2. Check out a banned book!
  3. Donate banned books to your library to help give others access to these materials.
  4. Take part in Let Freedom Read Day on October 11! Take at least one action to help defend books from censorship and to stand up for the library staff, educators, writers, publishers, and booksellers who make them available!

For more ways to take action, download this action one sheet from bannedbooks.org.