Banned Books: What Can You Do?

There are a lot of reasons to get involved in the community working against the censorship of books. Restricted access to books impacts everyone, but it has a greater impact on minority communities because their books are most often the ones being challenged. Protect access to books for you and for the people around you. Advocacy doesn't have to be sweeping campaigns, it can be shows of support and a letter to a senator. See the panel on the right for easy access to more information about book bans and how to get involved.

Unite Against Book Bans is a great resource to help you get involved in your community. Among their resources are guides for speaking up at library and school board meetings, information on how to speak up against censorship, and resources for voters. Additionally, they share articles related to book bans and challenges as they arise. All of these things are free for anyone to access. 

Books for All is a campaign through the American Library Association that advocates for wide accessibility of books, especially for teenagers. Here you will find information on their Teen Banned Book Club and a free toolkit to help you start promoting access to books in your community.

The Dear Banned Book Author campaign is an effort to show support to authors whose books have been banned or challenged during Banned Books Week. This campaign encourages both public and private support of authors and even supplies virtual postcards to use when sending along your letter. The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness and spread your love of books to the people who write them. Along the same lines, the American Library Association provides this template letter for anyone to adapt and send to their local newspaper in support of keeping books available.

The Freedom to Read Foundation contains information on court rulings surrounding book bans, information around grants and scholarships, and education resources about book banning and its impacts.

EveryLibrary directly tracks bills that would limit access to books around the United States. On their website, you can find documents of these bills to read as well.