This week, the American Library Association released its “2024 State of America’s Libraries” report. This year’s report heavily focuses on censorship, book bans and book challenges libraries across the country have been facing.
In the report’s introduction, titled “These Are Not Ordinary Times,” ALA president Emily Drabinski shared the challenges facing U.S. libraries.
“The unprecedented wave of organized censorship intensifies, particularly in our public libraries,” said Drabinski. ”Adverse legislation that would undermine librarian agency and authority is getting a hearing in legislatures across the country.”
According to the report, in 2023, the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) “recorded demands to censor 4,240 unique book titles in libraries, the highest number of books challenged since ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries.” That’s a 65% increase from 2022. Between 2001 and 2020, the office received an average of 273 attempts at book bans and censorship.
LGBTQ+ content
Books featuring LGBTQ+ themes and characters are at the core of the censorship. Of the top 10 books challenged in 2023, 7 featured LGBTQ+ themes. All five of the most challenged books had LGBTQ+ characters and themes.
Those books were:
Maia Kobabe’s “Genderqueer”
George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue”
Juno Dawson’s “This Book is Gay”
Stephen Chbosky’s “Perks of Being a Wallflower”
Mike Curato’s “Flamer”
Rising threats
In addition to an unprecedented rise in the level of censorship attempts, the ALA also brings attention to the rising threats of violence against libraries and library staff, including bomb threats. The ALA also highlights attempts by state lawmakers to pass legislation that would significantly affect the future of libraries in America.
“Supporting many of these threats were legislative proposals by state lawmakers, who introduced 151 bills that would authorize the criminal prosecution of librarians, threaten library funding, or that imposed unconstitutional content-based restrictions on books for children and adolescents,” said the report.
Click here to read the full report.
To learn how you can help support the ALA, your local libraries and LGBTQ+ authors, check out Unite Against Book Bans.
