This week marks the annual Banned Books Week across the country, which celebrates free speech and rallies against censorship. The Hawaiʻi Library Association and American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii partnered to launch this year's celebration, which is themed “Censorship is so 1984. Read for your rights".

North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong vetoed a library content bill, calling it “a misguided attempt to legislate morality through overreach and censorship.”

Anecdotal evidence suggests a rise in requests to take books off shelves, particularly LGBTQ+ titles

The two research collections state officials ordered for deletion included material from professional journals, conference papers, books, student dissertations, periodicals and newspaper articles.