"So many books for young people are being taken off the shelf," said Fritzi Bodenheimer, spokesperson for the Brooklyn Public Library in New York. "If you're a young person, you know, you're 14 or 15 years old and you're just discovering yourself and maybe you think that you might be a member of the LGBTQ community and all those books are taken off the shelf. What message does that send to you? That you're a bad person? That you're dangerous?"
To combat book censorship, some Southern California public libraries, including Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego, are joining libraries nationwide to provide access to online library cards. Children as young as 13 can get a free e-card to access the libraries' catalog of e-books and audiobooks, without parental permission and without any challenges they may face to get a book in their local library.
Long Beach is the latest public library to join this effort, a project known as Books Unbanned that was started by the Brooklyn Public Library as "a response to support the freedom to read," their website states. Long Beach is the latest public library to join this effort, a project known as Books Unbanned that was started by the Brooklyn Public Library. The project's website calls it a response to "support the freedom to read."
Public schools and libraries in Texas, Tennessee and Florida faced the most challenges to book titles in 2024. In the American Library Assn.'s Top 10 Most Challenged Books report from that year, all titles mentioned were challenged for sexually explicit material; some were also cited for featuring LGBTQIA+ content, depictions of drug use and sexual assault, and profanity.
Some parents filing complaints believe early access to content featuring these topics can confuse children, and they believe they should have more of a say in what their children read.
According to a national library survey conducted in 2023, 60 percent of respondents said that certain books should require either an age limit or parental permission to check out, while 57 percent of respondents believed parents should be notified when their child checks out a book. Also, 76 percent of respondents said that parents should be the ones to decide whether their children can check out books that focus on sexual education and racism.
What begins as parental complaints at a local library can turn into major political movements. So-called parents' rights organizations such as Moms for Liberty, Moms for America and Parents Defending Education Action have become the driving force behind a fight for more conservative curriculum and book selections at public schools and libraries in the United States. In 2022, the Southern Poverty Law Center considered these groups to be extremist, "constantly painting themselves as an oppressed class, while vilifying those discriminated against," it said.
Bodenheimer told The Times she had witnessed the rise of aggressive legislation threatening to limit hundreds of titles in book collections — including those that represent marginalized communities.
Since Books Unbanned launched in 2022, nearly 10,000 people from all 50 states have applied for the e-card, she said.
"The more places that young people can access a book," Bodenheimer said, "the harder it becomes to ban it."
The project has become a conglomerate of partnerships among libraries across the nation, including Boston and Seattle, granting young readers access to thousands of e-books and audiobooks, regardless of any regional, federal, accessibility or monetary challenges they may face in pursuit of a book.
Cathy De Leon, the director of the department of library, arts and culture at Long Beach Public Library, said plans to join Books Unbanned began around late 2024. The Long Beach Public Library Foundation, a nonprofit charity that supports the library financially, began communicating with the Brooklyn Public Library about the project and found the partnership to be a "really good fit, and something we really believed in," she said. The Long Beach City Council approved the partnership on July 22.
Long Beach hasn't had many threats of book censorship, which De Leon attributes to unwavering commitment among the city's books community. Friends of the Long Beach Public Library, another nonprofit organization that provides support to the regional library, was created to ward off book censorship threats in 1963. The City Council, the foundation and the Friends of the Long Beach Public Library all support free book access, which aligned with Books Unbanned, she said.
Only three book titles have been challenged in the Long Beach Public Library system in the last 17 years, according to the Long Beach Post, and all remain available to check out in the library system. "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers, challenged in Long Beach in 2008, was placed on the American Library Assn.'s Top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books report, which noted it was challenged for offensive language, racism and violence. "A Queer and Pleasant Danger," a memoir by transgender playwright Kate Bornstein, was challenged in 2013. In 2016, "The De-Textbook: The Stuff You Didn't Know About the Stuff You Thought You Knew," by the humor website Cracked, was challenged for concerns over explicit content and strong language.
At most partnering libraries, the free e-card is available to readers ages 13 to 26. The Brooklyn Public Library cuts off applications at 21. Bodenheimer believed young audiences to be the most vulnerable to book censorship, and most book titles being challenged are ones intended for young adults.
The Long Beach Public Library system uses Libby, an audiobook and e-book service, for its online selection of books. De Leon said that the library was buying more e-books and audiobooks to accommodate users nationwide, and the foundation has started a campaign with a $100,000 goal to help fund these purchases.
Bodenheimer said that some people choose to apply for reasons that might not seem obvious. She said some users live in rural communities with no easy commute to their local library. Some can't afford to pay off old library fines. Some children may want to avoid taking a physical book home to a disapproving household.
"We're delighted to provide that access," she said. "But we're also really sad that we need to. ... How we feel is always bittersweet."
In a 2024 report, Books Unbanned asked users why they felt they needed the e-library card. Some said that it had restored their love of reading, increased privacy in their reading choices and helped improve their learning. Many said that it gave them access to books previously unavailable to them because of restrictions, inaccessibility or unaffordability, among other reasons. But a majority said that the e-card simply gave them access to a bigger and more diverse selection of books.
"That's really what the library is about," De Leon said. "The freedom to read. ... We respect that everybody's different and everyone's got different needs. And it's not our business to tell you what to do with those books."
De Leon said Long Beach hoped to make e-cards available in October, in time for the American Library Assn.'s Banned Books Week, which runs from Oct. 5 to 11 this year. Interested readers can apply for an e-library card through any of the partnering libraries at the Books Unbanned website.
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