Debates over speech, censorship and free inquiry dominated headlines this week, the University of Arizona staged a counterpoint: a weekend gathering aimed at expanding, not restricting, conversation

The American Historical Association has released a statement condemning the removal of 381 books from the United States Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library.

The American Library Association (ALA) today released the highly anticipated Top 10 Most Challenged Books List.

"This concise but comprehensive book engagingly lays out answers to myriad questions about free speech principles and current controversies, including those pertaining to hate speech, disinformation, and social media. Nadine Strossen, one of America's leading free speech scholars and advocates, focuses on modern First Amendment law, explaining the historic factors that propelled its evolution toward more speech protection -- in particular, the civil rights movement. She highlights the many cases in which robust speech-protective principles have aided advocates of racial justice and other human rights causes. The book also shows how these rulings reflect universal, timeless values that benefit everyone, regardless of identity or ideology. Correcting prevalent misunderstandings, the book explains that the First Amendment sensibly permits government to outlaw the speech that is the most dangerous, while outlawing the censorship that is the most dangerous. The book's lively question-and-answer format clearly and memorably presents free speech tenets, citing colorful episodes and eloquent language from landmark Supreme Court opinions. It will be illuminating to a wide range of readers, from those who know nothing about free speech law, to experts who seek a well-organized summary of major doctrines, as well as insights into their background and rationales." --

The Prejudicial Materials Working Group (PMWG) of the RBMS Controlled Vocabularies Editorial Group (CVEG) was convened in the summer of 2020 to review, revise, and generate new terminology in the RBMS Controlled Vocabulary for Rare Materials Cataloging (RBMS CVRMC) that would be useful for indexing works that are prejudicial in nature, or that are the byproduct of prejudicial and hateful systems and ideologies. This work included review and revision of scope notes and relationships between terms.

The American Library Association responds to the Department of Education's dismissal of complaints about censorship and discrimination: the "effort to terminate protections... advances the demonstrably false claim that book bans are not real."

South Carolina considering a law that withholds public library funds if "inappropriate" materials are available and more censorship news.

Every library — academic, public, and school (public, private, charter, independent, and international) — should have a comprehensive written policy that guides the selection, deselection or weeding, and reconsideration of library resources. The most valuable selection policy is current; it is reviewed and revised on a regular basis; and it is familiar to all members of a library’s staff. The policy should be approved by the library’s governing board or other policy-making body and disseminated widely for understanding by all stakeholders.

List of books by Native authors that have been challenged or banned

The final count for the 2023-2024 school year will be released later this fall along with a public Index of School Book Bans.

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has released new data documenting book challenges throughout the United States, finding that challenges were nearly double that of 2021, reaching the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago.

As Publishers Weekly reported this week, the Internet Archive, nonprofit home to a robust digital library, has lost its latest appeal in a case brought by publishers. A panel from New York’s …

Originally issued in 1953, the Freedom to Read Statement is just as important 70 years later. We invite all to sign onto the newly affirmed statement.