Reflection on Five Years of Relentless Attacks on the Freedom to Read by Those at the Center of the Fight via Book Riot

As I have mentioned before on this blog, Kelly Jensen has been the only journalist in America covering the assault on our intellectual freedom that has been happening in our libraries (of all types). Full stop. She is not the only person engaged in this fight, but she is the only one chronicling it as a journalist.

Click here to read her censorship coverage for Book Riot.

Recently, she also launched a podcast called Liberating Lit which I wrote more about here. You can listen now wherever you get podcasts. 

But back to the journalism and coverage. Jensen has been doing this for 5 years. Recently, as part of her regular weekly censorship roundup on Book Riot, she released a special report entitled, "“We Need To Tell The Story”: Literary Advocates Nationwide Reflect On Five Years of Relentless Attacks on the Freedom to Read"

I encourage all of you to read this report. Whether you are a regular follower of Jensen's coverage or have barely paid attention (and every where in-between), please take some time to look at the chaotic and terrifying times we have all been living through. This report gives us all the chance to take a step back (even as we are still deep in it) and try to understand the last 5 years.

Great work by Jensen and her colleagues. From the introduction:

“We Need To Tell The Story”: Literary Advocates Nationwide Reflect On Five Years of Relentless Attacks on the Freedom to Read

Kelly Jensen Sep 18, 2026

There will be no weekly link roundup today–a double roundup will land next week. Instead, this week’s Literary Activism post is dedicated to a report pulled together by the collaborative efforts of Kelly Jensen (Book Riot), Tasslyn Magnusson, Sarah Lamdan (American Library Association), Stephana Ferrell (Florida Freedom to Read Project), and Arielle Haughee (Freedom to Read Project), as well as dozens of right to read champions nationwide. This report reflects on five years of escalating book censorship, including challenges, opportunities, and successes. It does not cover prison censorship during this period; that will be addressed in a future piece.

Please click here to read the full report. I am posting this on a Friday so you take some time to read it this weekend.

Liberating Lit Podcast from Kelly Jensen: Inspiring and Rekindling Literary Advocacy

I am back from a wonderful vacation in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and easing in to the week back with this exciting announcement from Kelly Jensen. There is a busy week here on RA for All as I have a trip to Springfield, MO for an event with Paul Tremblay, but the blog will not stop. I have a lot to catch up on after the week off. 

But first, this press release about Liberating Lit is literally hot off the presses at 9am Eastern today. Please read, subscribe, and get ready to help us all fight the ongoing book censorship happening everywhere.

The Liberating Lit Podcast Aims to Inspire, Rekindle Literary Advocacy Amid Continued and Ongoing Book Censorship

Award-winning author, editor, and anti-censorship champion Kelly Jensen has launched a new limited-run podcast spotlighting the work of literary advocates. Liberating Lit begins its weekly cadence on Tuesday, September 8, introducing listeners to an advocate in each episode whose work has had an impact. Advocates range from national leaders in intellectual freedom, as well as local-level advocates making an impact in their communities as library trustees, teen documentarians, and more. 

Liberating Lit emerged from the Unite to Read Project, inspired by Jensen’s own experiences in community and coalition building around the right to read. 

“Literary advocacy, especially in this moment, is hard work. Finding people who challenge you and inspire you is key to both getting started and continuing forward when things get touch,” said Jensen. “The idea for a podcast that introduces or expands someone’s community felt not only welcomed, but necessary, as we prepare to enter our sixth year of coordinated attacks on intellectual freedom.”

The podcast will run for two seasons. The first lands this fall, with the second season launching in early 2027. Each season features 10 guests, each sharing what sparked their passion for advocacy, how they keep their cups filled, and advice for both those who are looking to get involved in literary advocacy and those who need to find their spark again. 

Among the first season’s lineup are Dr. Emily Knox, Dustin Pace (Nontoxic Masculinity), Amanda Jones, and Marley Dias. Other guests include an array of familiar names, as well as voices that will be new to those tuning in. 

“I hope Liberating Lit is the kind of podcast that people listen to and find themselves fired up and challenged by,” Jensen said. “The more people realize how much of an impact they can make in advocating for diverse literature and in speaking up about what we lose as books are removed from school and public library shelves, the better off we’ll all be. This has been a long decade, full of unrelenting book censorship and attacks on our public institutions of democracy. By centering the stories and insights of people who’ve been doing this work–whether for months or for decades–it’s my hope that others will realize how much they can do to impact change, too.”

The independently produced, advertisement free show is available wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Show notes, transcripts, and other information for each episode will live at the Liberating Lit website, liberatinglit.com. 

Jensen’s podcast is a natural progression of her own advocacy work. She’s been a leader on the topic of book censorship for well over a decade, both at Book Riot and in her own work through STACKED, Well Sourced, and other outlets. She’s twice earned Commendation from the American Association of School Librarians, as well as been named a Person of the Year by Publishers Weekly and a Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune. In 2015, she was named one of the 15 in 15 by the National Coalition Against Censorship for her collaboration with a South Carolina librarian to provide teens with their own copies of a locally-banned title.  

“My work for the Literary Activism newsletter at Book Riot and my own newsletter, Well Sourced, is ultimately about developing an archive of our current censorship moment,” said Jensen. “I see Liberating Lit as a way to document and share the voices and perspectives of the people who are making a tremendous impact right now in the literary world when it comes to protecting the right to read.”

Since 2021, Jensen has given numerous talks and workshops about book censorship to libraries, state library associations, high school writer conferences, and more. She was one of three Americans invited to speak on the topic in Muenster, Germany, at the Kinship in American Studies 2026 Conference. Prior to her work as an editor at Book Riot, she worked in several public libraries in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. She earned her master’s in information studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008. 

“Every recording was an opportunity for me to learn more and for me to think about how I can be a better and more effective champion for literature. I think listeners will be as surprised and delighted as I was with the depth of insight, the encouraging stories, and even the challenges faced by those doing the work of literary liberation,” she added. 

Contact: Kelly Jensen

kellybjensen@gmail.com 

liberatinglit.com 

Office of Intellectual Freedom Releases Additional Reports on Censorship in 2025

I have a quick but important post to close out the week. While I was on the East Coast for family stuff, ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) released detailed reports on censorship in both public and school libraries throughout 2025. These have additional information from the more general reports that were prepared for other media events. 

I missed the initial announcement of these "Let Books Be" overviews, and I did not want you to miss them as a result. 

Please head over to their blog to access these reports for free.

These reports mix narrative with infographics and links. And I really appreciate the differentiation between school and public libraries. Yes, some of the info is the same, but some is not and that matters. 

Please take a look and use some of the information here to educate your patrons. And stay on top of censorship issues by following Kelly Jensen's detailed coverage on censorship and literary activism over on Book Riot.

Click here or on the images below to see more.

The Political Librarian: EveryLibrary Institute’s Open-Access Academic Journal

Anyone who has read this blog for more than a week knows that I am not only unafraid to get political but I believe it is necessary for us to survive. Somehow libraries have decided that if we keep quiet when the world is attacking us, people will stick up for us without us fighting back. We WRONGLY think that fighting for ourselves is political. Just because we are tax payer funded does not mean we get to be the punching bags of our patrons and our government.

As I have said many times on the blog and in public-- we are 100% responsible for the political and censorship mess we find ourselves in. 100%. You can blame T*ump all you want but that is wrong. When the attacks started to come for us we put our heads in the sand and claimed that we could not fight back because libraries are not allowed to be political. 

Sticking up for ourselves, countering false narratives, and sharing the truth is NOT POLITICAL. It is actually what we claim to do every day in our profession, for others. And yet, when it comes to ourselves we won't do it. Think about that for a minute. It is okay for us to inform others on how to fight for their rights but when it comes to ourselves......crickets. 

Others like my friend and colleague Kelly Jensen have been screaming this far and wide for over 6 years now. And all everyone does is try to vilify her or tell me that I don't understand since I am an independent librarian. But both of us are entrenched in committees for our state library associations, both of us understand the law, both of us are fighting this from within the library profession as well, and both of us refuse to be quiet. No one has thrown us off these official committees and in fact, I know I have been told privately (too many times to count) how much people admire me for speaking out. But when I tell them to join me.....again.....crickets.

One of the only supporters librarians have to actively fight for us is EveryLibrary. They do many things to support libraries. One of my favorite things they do through the EveryLibrary Institute is their peer reviewed, open source, Academic Journal the Political Librarian. About The Political Librarian:

The Political Librarian is dedicated to expanding the discussion of, promoting research on, and helping to re-envision locally focused advocacy, policy, and funding issues for libraries. 

We want to bring in a variety of perspectives to the journal and do not limit our contributors to just those working in the field of library and information science. We seek submissions from researchers, practitioners, community members, or others dedicated to furthering the discussion, promoting research, and helping to re-envision tax policy and public policy on the extremely local level. 

Today, I am directing you to their latest issue which just published. You can access that and all back issues here.  Read what they have. Understand that being political as a librarian is not only allowed, it is necessary. I understand that it will be hard for some of you to argue that with yourselves or your places of work, but having a peer reviewed resource is only going to help. You can point to academic articles to make your own arguments.

Make reading The Political Librarian part of your personal professional development. Use the articles there to inspire yourself to act first, and to then gain the knowledge and courage to gather others to help you. Again they are free and open sourced.

Stop making excuses. It is past time to be political. Not being political put us where we are today and it keeps getting worse. Not acting, not pushing back, making excuses for why you are not allowed to fight.....all of this makes you complicit in what is happening. Yes, you are complicit until you act. I need you to sit with that. You may think you are fighting the good fight, but I am here with the tough love to tell you YOU ARE NOT. YOU ARE COMPLICIT. YOU ARE MAKING IT WORSE. 

You will not be fired over fighting for the library. My goodness, you know how hard it is to fire people at most libraries. It takes years of paperwork to fire the worst employees. Stop using that as an excuse.

No more excuses. I am giving you the resource you need to stop being complicit and start doing something.

And if you are out there fighting the good fight, contact me and I can feature your work on the blog.

ALA 2026: Wrap Up Post 2 of 2 (the Becky's Rant Version)

Back for day two of Becky's wrap up, but I do think after the holiday, I may come back with other people's  roundups as well. 

But right now, you can follow PW's libraries reporter who has Day 1 and 2 reports up now. But if you use the link I provided for all their library news, you can follow more as it is published.

I am going to address the opening and closing sessions in a moment, but first, I want to begin with some o fly observations from the Exhibit Floor.

• The book stages were not a factor this year. At least to me. Look, they were there but unlike last year, I did not hear them or see people flocking to them. People were talking about the stages last year. And I am not surprised because a few months before ALA I was talking with the publishers who had me do moderating on this stages and all of them said they had nothing there this year. I thought they were just trying to get rid of me, but then I looked at the schedules and honestly, they were mostly publishers doing buzzes or stuff for YS librarians. So maybe your experience is different but I 100% did not factor them into my plans this year, and again, the last few years, I was at those stages more than ever.
• I did not think there were as many big name authors there this year-- at least for adults. Don't get me wrong, there were huge people like John Scalzi and Tananarive Due, but the number of big name authors was down. But again, librarian, my experience may not be anything more than my experience. So I started to ask a variety of people who are bringing the authors in (leaving names and affiliations out but these are top people), and they told me that when the conference people reached out for names of authors, the ones that were chosen to appear were surprising to them. And it seems like there were few options for the people hosting the author panels via United For Libraries and LibraryReads as well. Again, at least for the adult side. The number of kid lit and teen authors was much higher.
• I was heartened to see that the comics and graphic novelists authors were higher and more on point this year though. That is a win.
• And the most noticeable but least surprising thing I learned on the exhibit floor was the number of vendors and even publishers who are all flocking to fill the B&T gap. Ingram could not step in and do everything-- obviously. B&T, for all of their issues, was a stalwart for libraries for delivering the highest number of processed books, uniquely tailored to your libraries call number and sticker placement quirks as well as the best provider of standing order authors. They developed these services over decades. What I saw was interesting. First publishers like PRH are trying to fill the ordering and inventory gaps by now allowing libraries to order directly from them with a cart system that we are used to. But second, and more interesting, I saw a variety of vendors offering parts of what B&T offered, no one offering everything, but pieces. For example, Amazon now will send your books to you from their new library ordering portal with mylar covers. They also are going to roll out a standing author program and there are people talking about Amazon leveraging their customer data to help libraries understand what books are most popular in their zip codes. Follett is also ramping up their services for public libraries. I have worked with Follett on ordering and cataloging through their school library linked systems for years as I have volunteered at the school library, but they are now saying they will be able to offer processed books and catalog records that will upload into systems that are not theirs. I also ran into many former B&T employees who are at many of the vendors and are sharing their knowledge with their new companies. My overall assessment of everything I saw (and I have only shared a few things), all of these promises and new services are going to take a few years to ramp up. In the meantime, we are all going to continue to struggle to get books on the shelf. Talking to librarians from all over the country, most are making due by hiring a few new people to process and teaching library associates how to do copy cataloging and processing as a job ON TOP of their other duties to make due. 

Again, those are my brief overview thoughts from the exhibit floor, but now I want to talk about the opening and closing sessions.

PW has a longer report of the opening session but I want to talk about one small part, but a part that ruined the entire session and quite honestly, clouded my entire experience at ALA,  the appearance of the Sharjah Book Authority CEO Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri. This is all PW said about that, and it was buried in a paragraph with others:

At the welcome ceremony, speakers included Illinois Library Association president Carolyn Ciesla, Chicago Public Library commissioner Chris Brown, and Sharjah Book Authority CEO Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, who reminded the assembly that “knowledge should move freely across borders.” Dan Montgomery, wrapping up his first year as ALA executive director, praised Helmick and other volunteer leaders for their dedicated efforts, “not made any easier by the times we’re in.” 

First, our president, a nonbinary person giggled with excitement as they were introducing this man without telling us who it was at first. And then he came out. Here is what I said on Bluesky:

Not sure why ALA gave the mic and opening session stage to the librarian from UAE, a country that does not have intellectual freedom. I will make sure someone in charge has to answer this question.

To say I was incensed at him walking on the stage under the pretense that he was there to celebrate the libraries' 100th anniversary and to advertise that they were hosting the International Book Fair, would be an understatement. This is a place where being gay and especially being nonbinary like the person introducing this man is ILLEGAL. This is a place (UAE) where freedom of the press and intellectual freedom are squashed by rule of law. Freedom House listing for UAE gives them a score of 18/100 for Freedom. 18 out of 100! I am not exaggerating.

Why are we, the ALA giving precious time on the microphone to a man who got up there and praised his government, a government that is suppressing free speech. A government who are actively queer people existing. WHAT ARE WE DOING? These are people related to those who are doing the same thing here, in our country, the people the ALA and all of us have been exhaustively fighting for years. People who some library workers have lost their jobs standing up to.

I have no problem mentioning them with the many, many others in the library world who are celebrating milestones this year-- and there are a lot. I have no problem with him being on the welcome slide listing all of the international librarians that were attending. And I have no problem with them having a booth for the International Book Fair because that is an event that library people might want to know about. 

BUT to give this man a chance to speak at the mic, and give no one else that space, that is a choice I cannot get behind.  It is a slap in the face to every one of us who is fighting for intellectual freedom every single day.

Because I am me, I stopped paying attention to anything else after this and spent most of my night reaching out to others involved in ALA decision making and those officially working to protect intellectual freedom. Surprise, surprise (sarcasm) not a single one had any idea who okayed him to speak. And for a while many of these people were also surprised he got mic time. And then, but the next day, these same people (and there were a few) got back to me with sanitized responses that claimed things like:

• He was speaking because it was a 100th anniversary for them and they are hosting the International Book Fair with ALA is a partner with.
• My responses-- they have a booth, he doesn't;t need the mic too; you put a bunch of anniversaries on the screen but only he talked, many of which were major ALA specific initiatives.
• They want to highlight the huge international support of ALA's 150th and he spoke for all International attendees
• Again, they listed at least 4 major international attendees and any one of them could have spoken instead. 
• While we might not agree with his country's politics, we cannot blame him for that. 
• Okay this one made me mad because that is not the point. He can do whatever he wants and has to follow the rules of his country, that is his choice. BUT WHAT ABOUT OUR CHOICE? We actually have the freedom to make a choice to NOT support those who suppress intellectual freedom.

I need to be clear here-- asking someone to speak at the ALA Opening Session, giving them the mic, that is a choice. Not allowing someone to speak is also a choice. ALA made a choice that is 100% counter to everything we claim to believe in. I will not forget this. I will not stop talking about this to all of you and ALA people. And I will not stay silent.

As you can imagine, I heard nothing back after I countered these arguments. My friend Kelly Jensen told me all you can do is challenge them but in the end you will not get a response and also she said no one will admit who invited him. That is what I am finding out. I also found out along my journey of talking to people over the conference, that folks I thought were involved in major planning committees were relieved of their duties a few months ago. Hmmmmmm

Look, I have no proof but everyone knows ALA's finances are a mess. I am guessing a pay out from the UAE to ALA was involved. And look, if you are going to basically take a bribe-- because that is what it is when you go against everything you "believe in" and are fighting for in exchange for money. Let us talk in front of everyone with your blessing and endorsement and stay quiet because we paid you. Again, no proof but why else will no one go on the record to explain why he got the mic.

As you can tell, I am still upset about all of this, and quite honestly, it clouded my experience at the closing session which was added after the closing speaker cancelled:

Closing General Session: 250/150: Intellectual Freedom, Public Engagement, and the Infrastructure of Democracy

As the United States celebrates 250 years of democracy, ALA leadership – current President Sam Helmick, President Elect Maria McCauley, Director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom Sarah Lamdan, and Executive Director Dan Montgomery – will discuss the issues at the heart of the profession: librarians as vanguards of intellectual freedom, information literacy and civic engagement, and libraries as welcoming spaces that provide a sense of community and belonging for patrons.

I will start my comments here by saying Sarah Lamdan is 100% better than her predecessor who thankfully retired. I will not say her name but I will say we had some clashes. All she did was say no when challenged to actually fight for our intellectual freedom. Lamdan is doing much better. One of the best ways to see that, as soon as the former head of OIF retired, magically Kelly Jensen (the leading journalist fighting for our intellectual freedom) was included in the ALA's fight against censorship.

Before the conference began, I was hopeful about this conversation but as you can imagine, after that Opening Session experience, I was less so. Well I was not disappointed in my lowered expectations. This conversation had NO TEETH. Instead of interrogating the state of censorship in America, instead of rallying us to fight with renewed energy, instead of giving us things we can do to work together both in our communities and across the country, instead, they gave us a conversation about JOY?!?!? 

They wanted us to joyfully rally our comunities about all the great things libraries do. She wanted if to focus on our joy of serving those patrons. They wanted us to look at joy as an act of resistance.

This last one mad me even more mad, but I was too tired to put that on socials. We need actual resistance, I don't care if this attack on all of us is taking an emotional toll on us. It is not taking an emotional toll on enough of us. Too many library workers say things to me like-- well that is their problem or my community is fine. People, it is not. I am on the ILA's Intellectual Freedom committee-- in a  state where book banning is technically illegal-- I can tell you our meetings are filled with libraries needing help (school and public) as their freedoms are being eroded. 

Joy is not the resistance we need. The other side of this debate has all the time and money and federal political support to keep pudding away at our freedoms. They ar not going to stop. And with power and money int heir corner, JOY will never be enough. In fact, this argument by ALA leadership that we should take a break, deal with our emotional health, and not do anything other than be joyful is a kick in the gut to those of us engaged in this fight. What we need from ALA is a clearer, stronger, and quite honestly, more anger fueled game plan to really fight back. What we got instead was some touchy feely nonsense.

Lamdan also said we should lean on others if we need it, but again, too many library workers are ignoring the problems either because they think they are not relevant to them or because they hide hoping people don't go after them. But first, everyone is in this fight whether we want to be or not. And second, ignoring the issue is what got us in so deep to begin with. How can we lean on others when you are not rallying them to help us.

Look, I clearly had a lot of thoughts about ALA's messaging. And they are very critical. But I went to this conference knowing I might feel this way. I went as a member who writes for ALA's publishing division. And I went and am a member because I truly believe if you want to fight to make something better you do not abstain. No. Instead you stay and become a thorn in their sides. You fight from within. I have been doing that for years and I will continue. And I do this with the knowledge that I have colleagues on the inside who must stay silent publicly but appreciate that I can fight for them. 

I promise to all of you, I will keep fighting and I will keep being a member. They are not going to be able to get rid of me that easily. I know many of them read this blog because it gets back to me through other channels. So to those in charge, I say-- If you thought I was fighting before, you haven't seen anything yet.

Are Public Libraries Becoming Children’s Libraries? A Report on the Unintended Consequences of Censorship via 404 Media

I talk about censorship and preserving the Freedom to Read here often, but not as often as Kelly Jensen tirelessly covers the issue over on Book Riot. Click here for the Book Riot censorship archives. I have pointed to her coverage many times. [Use my censorship tag for examples]. 

What I love about how Kelly has been covering the deterioration of our Freedom to Read is that she doesn't just report on the actions, she writes articles about what these censorship actions do, how they affect everyone in our country, and how they are changing the entire library landscape no matter where you live. I hate saying I love this about her coverage because I hate that she has to do it, but I am thankful we have her working on it for 6 years and counting.

She is inspiring others to look at the implications of these challenges and the laws that have sprung up. She is also inspiring others to use FOIA for good. The book banners FOIA us all the time, but people like Kelly, and now 404 Media, are using FOPIA to fight against censorship.

[Side note, I am on the Illinois Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee and we are talking about creating a program about this exactly. Too many libraries are afraid of getting FOIA requests because usually it is from nefarious people, but people like Kelly Jensen and 404 Media are using FOIA to help us protect intellectual freedom and to expose how horrible the book banners are. We are trying to flip the script and remind those of us on the side of protecting intellectual freedom that FOIA is there for everyone!]

Speaking of 404 Media, they just released a long piece about the implications of censorship. The title, "Are Public Libraries Becoming Children’s Libraries?" is provocative, but the article goes into a very deep dive here about how public library collections are going to be decimated over time. Specifically because libraries are complying with laws that say they have to move children's' material that non-professionals (citizens) have deemed "adult" to the adult sections, not only will kids and teens not find those books, not check them out, meaning that they will get weeded for non used, but also, adult sections will become filled with kids materials, turning adults off from browsing.

There is a lot more here, and they have looked at libraries all across America. They have shared the records they have obtained via FOIA, including collection policies with the track changes turned on. 

Please read this article and aways follow Kelly Jensen's censorship coverage on Book Riot, Specifically this article which 404 used for their piece as well. And please, fight, do not give in to the book banners. Our biggest issue is our supportive public has been unwilling to fight for us as hard or in as an organized a fashion as those who want to stop any of us from having intellectual freedom. 

As wee head into the ALA Conference starting up on Friday, this is the issue we should be focusing on. Fuck AI and all the programs about how we need to embrace it. We still haven't stopped our intellectual Freedom from being undermined. And, in fact, it is only going to get worse according to the 404 Media report.

Speaking of ALA Annual, I will be back tomorrow with information on how everyone-- whether you are joining us in Chicago or not-- can get resources from the conference. 

Pride Month Begins: Why you MUST Participate and Advice to Support LGBTQIA+ Authors All Year Long

This is a repost of an evergreen reminder post as Pride Month Begins.

Pride Month Begins: Why you MUST Participate and Advice to Support LGBTQIA+ Authors All Year Long

Today marks the start of Pride Month and I know, because people have reached out to me about this, that many libraries are either being told NOT to put up Pride displays or they are selecting not to.

I need to unequivocally tell you that this is not okay. No matter what you MUST put up a Pride Display.

We should celebrate all of the identity months at the library...every single one. Why? Well a couple of reasons. First, they give you a chance to highlight a community and allow them to see themselves in your collections. Second, the media in general has picked up on all of this months and they are all over the news even used by corporations in their marketing. By not celebrating any of these identity months, you will stand out for your lack of participation. 

Now, I know some of you are under attack from those who want to stop you from doing Pride in particular, but to that I say, you cannot give in. In fact, June is the easiest time for those of you under attack to highlight LGBTQ items because the entire world is doing it. You are no  different. And if you did anything for other identity months (Black History, AAPPI, etc...) you are simply following that lead. 

This is also why I advocate for drafting Book Display Procedures. Notice I say "procedures." Those do not require your Board to get involved, that is policy. Procedures are created by staff to guide what they are doing and make sure things are standardized. Here is a post where I write about starting with the main goal of your displays being"We will promote and display books that our readers would not find on their own." 

From there you need to add that you will have a featured display for every identity month. And also a final statement that you will make sure your displays are intentionally diverse. Why?  Because this allows you to offer the widest range of titles as possible to your patrons. You can decide if you set a number or percentage to use as a guide, but these three statements need to be in your display policy.

Once you have that in writing, you can use it to audit all displays, remind those who do not comply (ie, put up all white, hetero displays) that they need to fix them, and, most importantly, if they don't comply, write them up for not following established procedures. When you put things in writing, you show all staff that you are serious about this work and you have a way to discipline those who don't follow the rules. As Robin likes to say, "You can't stop people from being racist, but you can make it against the rules." She also like to add, "They probably won't be willing to lose their health insurance over it." But if they are, I say, good riddance.

This procedure will also protect you if you get a challenge to a Pride Display by allowing you to use the  less inflammatory argument, "We have procedures that state that we have a featured display for every identity month." Or if you have a Women's History display up with a trans woman author, you can point to the procedure that says you make sure every display is as diverse as possible so that you can offer the widest range of titles to your patrons. When push comes to shove you can also make the money argument that our collections represent the second largest monetary investment of our library (building/real estate is first) and we owe it to our taxpayers to get the books they would want, if only they knew about them, in their hands.

[These moments are when my two decades as a trustee come in handy.]

These are the basics. But there is so much more you can and should do, but we need to start here. The most important thing you can do to promote all marginalized voices is to make sure you have these titles in every display. In March of 2022, Robin Bradford, myself, and Alene Moroni did an "Actively Anti-Racist Service to Leisure Readers" Preconference at PLA (details here). During her section, Alene gave advice on this that I quote everywhere I go because it is so easy to follow.

To paraphrase Alene, when you move from February to March-- Black History to Women's History months-- you start by simply removing all of the authors that identify as men from the Black History display, leaving all of those who identify as women. Then you add other women to the display. This ensures that your display is diverse before you even started.

Now, taking it back a step, you should have already had LGBTQ authors already in the Black History month display. As we move throughout the year, you keep authors that apply to each month on display. The more you do this, the easier it will be to diversify your displays because they will already be diverse before you switch them up.

But specifically, since LGBTQ authors can be included in every identity month, you should be making sure they are represented always. Having LGBTQ authors on display all of the time will help to give you less inflammatory examples when people challenge anything LGBTQ, any time of year. You can make it clear that all of your displays are always diverse in every way, all of the time and point to LGBTQ authors showing up in every display.

The key take away here is that you CANNOT include marginalized voices ONLY during their identity months. This practice is harmful. When you have, for example, a Fantasy display, you must make sure every identity is represented within that display. It is good practice in that it offers a full range of perspectives of the genre and because doing so will allow you to argue back to those who want to stop you from highlighting anything that isn't white and straight. You can confidently say, we incorporate all voices in every display. Only doing it in an identity month opens you up to being challenged.

Again reminder that general display procedures will not only support you in these challenges but also, will make it standard for all staff to follow them. This will ensure that even staff who do not want to make their displays diverse, have to. This ensures that you don't have some displays that are diverse and some that are clearly not. You need to standardize this practice.

All of this being said, there are still concerted efforts to stop you. Please see my colleague Kelly Jensen's article from earlier last month in Book Riot with detailed instructions on how you can prepare your Library Pride Displays.

You need to do everything I said and what she suggests-- both.

And finally, please go outside the box for titles to put on your Pride displays. Think about ways to frame them to make them more interesting. Identities are not a genre. Just like I advocate against simply putting books by Black authors on display as a monolith in February [rather, you should frame it by genre or a topic], do the same of Pride. Make displays like "Thrills and Chills: Pride" and put up crime, horror, fast paced mysteries. Or, "Love and Pride." You get the idea.

You can also use Pride content from other places  to come up with interesting ideas like this list from LitHub, "10 LGBTQ+ Authors on the Books That Taught Them." This is a great way to have 20 books with an interesting frame for display online or in the building. Your work is done.

Also, here is the link for all of Book Riot's Pride Coverage. They will be posting multiple links every day and framing them in genres or topics like I suggest doing. If you can't think of ideas, don't worry, Book Riot will give them to you in ready to use lists that are also diverse by the identities as well. There is no room for excuses here.

I know this post is long, but the moment we are living in requires that I spend the time to help you fight back. We have collections that represent a world of ideas and identities on purpose. We have crafted those collections as professionals. We got degrees in how to do this. We know what we are doing. And while everyone has a right to decide what they read for themselves, no one has the right to decide for others. We must stand by that basic freedom. You cannot self censor and not participate because you don't want to be challenged or because you are afraid. That is worse than someone coming in and asking you to remove books for all because they don't like them. Why is it worse, because you know better. Because I told you not to.

Get those Pride Displays up, diversify your displays all year long, and get some display procedures in writing. 

And if you have questions or concerns, email me and Robin and I will help you for free. We are especially   good at speaking to  you mangers or admins who don't agree. Let us argue with them for you. 

American Booksellers Association's Winter Institute Recaps via PW and Self Awareness

I am back after a long weekend to watch my second kid's Junior recital at college with the whole family in attendance. I will be catching up on emails and such today but first, for all of you, I have something for you to catch up on as well.

Last week the American Bookseller Association had their Winter Institute 2026 (WI2026) in Pittsburgh. This event is comparable to their ALA Annual. Bookseller and authors converge from all over the country. There are panels, an exhibit hall, and tons of ARCs. 

I have said this before, but I know many of you still don't take it as seriously as I do, but understanding what independent booksellers are focusing on, how they are promoting books, and how they are attracting readers-- all of it-- is comparable to what we are doing. We need to be not only paying attention to them, but also, working with them more.

I am doing the working with them more part right now and there will be more on that soon. (Do stay tuned for more on this, I am working on a larger initiative and some smaller collaborations.  

In the meantime, you need to do your part and follow the news from last week's WI2026. I have made it easy for you. 

Click here to pull up all of PW's coverage.

Click here to pull up all of Shelf Awareness' coverage.

There is a lot of information here that you can use. This is the first major gathering of booksellers and authors for 2026. See what they are talking about, what authors were there, what the panels were about, what people said. It is all there. 

I did here from my colleague Lauren, one of the owners of the Twisted Spine, a horror only bookstore in Brooklyn, that there was a general consensus at WI2026 that horror author events are among the most popular at bookstore and this is true all year long. 

Finally, one of the reports that comes out during the Winter Institute is the Lee and Low Baseline Diversity Survey for Publishing. However, this year, Jason Low had to suspend the survey because of the state of book bans. And this suspension is indefinite. He instead released a call to action for everyone to work harder to fight books bans, especially those of children's books. Click here to read his call to action as published in PW.

And follow Kelly Jensen's censorship coverage on Book Riot for the most up to date information and even more action steps. 

60 Small Things You (and Your Patrons) Can Do To Defend the Right to Read via Kelly Jensen

It's the second full week of 2026 and my question to you is the same one I have had for the last 5 years-- What have you been doing to fight for the freedom read in the face of increasing censorship across the entire country?

Seriously, I hope everyone reading this is doing SOMETHING to help fight censorship where they live. And don't say to me Becky, my state is doing fine, so I am good.

NOPE. This is wrong on so many levels.

First, I am in IL which was the first state to ban book bans, I was there when the bill was signed, but I also serve on the Illinois Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee, and let me tell you, we receive requests for help from library workers whose libraries are facing threats to their intellectual freedom all the time. So if you think you are "safe" where you live you are not.

Second, and this is what I spent all of 2025 discussing everywhere I went-- We need to be speaking out BEFORE there are problems. It's too late in some places, but everywhere else, why aren't you showing up to be in favor of the freedom to read at Board Meetings. Here is my keynote from the Bram Stoker Awards where I shamed every author and every viewer for NOT acting and then gave concrete info on how to go to a meeting and speak up. From that speech which you can read or watch here:

I am asking you tonight to commit to attending a meeting (or 2 or 3) of your local library board in the next few months. Even if, and especially if, they are not experiencing any book challenges. Why? Well, first, they probably are and you just don’t know it. The Federal Government is actively striping money from every public library in the nation right now. They have put the American Library Association on their “enemies” list. We library workers are in the thick of this horror novel level chaos every single day. What we need is to see the public come out and support us.

I also gave a version of this speech to a room full of publishers at an ALA Preconference. 2 people in an entire room of supposed library lovers had ever even attended a meeting of their local library board meeting and one of those was because he served as a trustee. I know many library "supporters" are not acting. 

Third, no one is "safe" from threats to our intellectual freedom in America. When anyone is being threatened, we all are. And this point is one Kelly Jensen has been making for over 5 years now. No one has done more to help fight for the Freedom to Read than Kelly Jensen. I have shared her clear action steps on the blog many times before-- click here and here for examples just from the last few months or use this link to pull up all of her literary activism pieces and censorship info roundups on Book Riot.

Even though Kelly has had many easy to adopt and follow action steps for you and ones you can pass on to your patrons, you all still aren't pulling your weight. Have you done ANYTHING? If yes, you can do more. And most importantly, have you used your library's platform to share how your community can help? 

The time for excuses is long past, but it is never too late to start acting. And to help you, Kelly has made a spreadsheet of 60 small things you can do to actively defend the freedom to read. 60 things you can also encourage your patrons to do because we get asked by the public how they can help all the time. Don't tell me you don't. I have been stopped at the grocery store, local restaurants, parties, etc... and am asked to explain what the heck is going on and how they can help. 

Please go here to read her article. Read the entire thing. And then especially pay attention to this part:

 To help with this, as the list below can be overwhelming to take in as a whole, I’ve created a Google Spreadsheet for you to use in tracking, documenting, and including any notes that might help you along the way. The document is locked, so to edit it, you’ll need to go to File, then select ‘Make a Copy’ onto your own Google Drive.

Please follow her directions. You click here to get access to the spreadsheet, but then you must go to "File" and "Make a Copy " so you can save the spreadsheet to your own Google Drive.

The 60 tasks themselves would also make a great series on your own social media or websites. Things you can share with your community throughout the year. Things everyone can do. Number 11 is one similar to what I have been advocating that people do:

Write a letter to your library board complimenting something about the work being done in your public library. Don’t overthink this. You can say you borrowed a book you loved because you saw it on display. You can say that library workers do a fantastic job of selecting material that meets the needs of your community. If you work in a library, advocate for making it easy for your users to advocate for you (examples here and here)

Please commit to 2026 being the year you finally step up and do something. And if you have already been active, make it the year you get someone else involved. There are 60 small things right at your fingertips.

Libraries Year in Review 2025: Most Checked Out Titles, Top Stories and More

Today is the next to last blogging day of 2025 and I wanted to use this space to gather up the US Library "Year in Review." While you can obviously use this post to get a very solid sense of the year we are about to leave behind, remember, it will also help you figure out where we are going. More on that from me right at the start of January.

I am hoping each of you has a chance before the end of 2025 (or if you are off, early in 2026) to take a look through the links I have posted here. 

First and foremost, the aggregated list of the most checked out books from 40 US Public Libraries via Book Riot. You can see the top fiction and nonfiction here and then at the end of the post, you can click on any of the 40 libraries who lists were used to make this aggregated list.

Book Riot gathered a nice mix of libraries in terms of size and location. They also added a narrative with some observations at the start of the post here. I will be using their work (with citation) in my own Year in Review presentations coming in February.

The most checked out books in general, and more specifically, at your own library, is another kind of best lists, this one driven by library patrons, with more genre, and more backlist than 2025 titles.

Obviously censorship is still a major issue as another year wraps up. But this year, the American Library Association, Book Riot, Florida Freedom to Read Project, PEN America, and Texas Freedom to Read Project all came together to sound the alarm on the major censorship crisis they’ve observed in 2025. Together they put together the comprehensive-- 2025 Book Censorship Wrapped: Trends, Challenges, and Successes Over The Year. You should not go into 2026 without reading this, no matter what your role at your library happens to be.

Publishers Weekly also had an article gathering the top library stories of 2025 here with of course the shuttering of B&T as the top story. But you know it was a doozy of a year when Carla Hayden getting fired was only story #5 out of 10. Each story in the article is linked to more of their reporting on that topic. 

They also shared this year end report on Hoopla's trend and growth categories. It is interesting to compare this article to the aggregated list of the most checked out books above. 

Libby hasn't done their most borrowed report for 2025 yet. When they do I will post it. But they do a most borrowed post every single month of the year. Click here to see those titles in reverse chronological order.

There are sure to be more year in review pieces worth sharing with you, but this is all I have before I stop blogging until 1/5. 

Come back tomorrow for my annual Best Books post.

In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times vis LitHub

In today's LitHub newsletter, they have are featuring this essay:

In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times

SARAH WEINMAN ON THE AWESOME RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SEEKERS AND KEEPERS OF TRUTH

I have been staving off some of the despair of everything that is happening with the joy of Spooky Season, but now that the spotlight is off Horror, what has been a feeling of doom itching at the back of my skull, has come back to the forefront.

Look, I know one essay by Sarah Weinman is not going to change what is going on, but to have an author of her renown and respect write this very public essay about the hard work we are all doing (including real talk about the horrors of AI) is helping me start this week off right.

I am passing it on hoping it helps you as well.

I know starting today many of us are going to be enlisted to help fill the food gap, especially for our youngest patrons. I know we have many patrons who have been working without pay for a month now. And this is on top of the increase in censorship and infringements on our intellectual freedom. Oh, and the Baker and Taylor collapse not allowing many to even add books to their libraries. We are being attacked and piled upon. We are tired and overworked, but also, we want to do what we can for our communities.

Remember, none of this is going away. And the censorship stuff in particular, it is just getting more insidious as it is less about outright book banning and much more about removing our rights to intellectual freedom. And don't think you are safe if you are in a "blue" area. It is everywhere. I am on the Intellectual Freedom Committee for ILA and it is happening here all the time. 

Everything else is important and awful, but also, it is a distraction to the larger issue-- an assault on those who want to protect "the truth."

Please keep staying up to date with Kelly Jensen's censorship coverage in BookRiot at this link. It is an every day job to be aware of the issues all across the country. No state is too "red," too unimportant, too fringe to NOT pay attention.

But again, as bad as it is for Libraries, public comments and strong pro-library essays like Weinman's help. They help the larger literary world understand that we need their support. They help get the word out about our struggles. And they provide us some hope as we enter a new week, a new month, and watch an Election Day across the country tomorrow.

Please read and pass it on. Post it to your websites to share with your patrons. If they see it, they will pass it on to others. We need to start with those on our side and help them spread the word to those who are not as tuned in to the book and library world.

Beyond Banned Books Displays: How Did Your Library Celebrate Intellectual Freedom Earlier This Month?

I am on the Illinois Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee and I just created a survey for IL Libraries asking them to share any creative ideas for rising above the basic "Banned Books Week" display that they tried out earlier this month.

During the ILA Annual Conference, our committee had a great program on "soft censorship," and at the end, we asked for feedback as to what else the ILA community wanted us to work on int he coming year. This topic-- how to promote Intellectual Freedom beyond just talking about book banning or putting up banned books displays-- came up many times.

We all know that book banning gets people's attention but the issue is so much deeper. In fact, because Intellectual Freedom in general is in jeopardy, it is important for us to pivot and focus on advocacy and information about our rights over just putting up displays of books that have been banned.

This is something Kelly Jensen writes about all of the time for Book Riot here, but before Banned Books Week 2025, she went into more detail about how she was helping her local bookstore focus on advocacy over banning. I shared her thoughts and bookmarks here.

It is this kind of "beyond banned books displays" idea that we are looking to gather for a program here in IL, but I also want to gather even more examples, from all over the country to share with my followers all over the world here on the blog.

So, if you had a successful display, campaign, promotion, etc.... during Banned Books Week that you want to share with a larger audience, please contact me (bspratford at hotmail dot com) with the subject heading, "Beyond Banned Books Displays" (to make sure it doesn't get lost in spam) and I will work to feature some of your Intellectual Freedom advocacy ideas here. I might even pass your library's work on to Kelly Jensen to feature on Book Riot as well.

You did the work to educate your community, but here is your chance to help libraries and their patrons all over the country. Please share. No library is too small. I want to hear about all of it.

Let's work together to share ideas. Our Intellectual Freedom could hang in the balance. Thanks in advance.

How to ACT During Banned Books Week via Kelly Jensen

 Before I get too caught up in 31 Days of Horror, I wanted to make an addendum to this post I had last week: Getting Ready For Banned Books Week.

If I have not made it clear to you already (and I think I have)-- all library workers should be speeding next week focused on ACTION STEPS. As I said in that post:

Banned Books Week is coming October 5-11, 2025. Now is the time to prepare. Well, every day is the time to prepare because those who want to limit intellectual freedom are busy every single day.

But Banned Books Week is the one week of the year where all media outlets will be paying attention. There will be a blitz everywhere and your patrons will be hearing and reading about it. They will have questions and most will want to help us in our fight. 

Kelly Jensen who I mention in that post, put out the latest issue of her newsletter and in it she has an easy and IMPORTANT action step every single one of you can do. She did the work for you and it is FREE. Here is the information from her newsletter:

My (awesome) independent bookstore reached out to me after reading that piece. We have an excellent relationship, and they wanted to know what they could do to better encourage our community to stay on top of what’s going on and be actively involved in pushing back against censorship. We met and built upon something they were already doing: making Banned Books Week about giving banned books back to schools in the community.

This year, I asked if they’d be interested in something else. They already have programming planned around the week to continue raising awareness of what’s really happening, so I thought: what would be an easy way to get some important information across without having to do anything particularly time- or effort- consuming.

The answer was a straightforward and straight-to-the-point bookmark outlining what the average person can do in their own town to protect the right to read.

Click here for the free download

These bookmarks aren’t meant to be sexy. They’re intended to make acting on behalf of intellectual freedom easy and practical to the average person. These are bookmarks you can print out on whatever paper you’d like and slip inside a bookmark holder at an institution where you might work or that you can hand out wherever it may be appropriate. Making a banned books display in your classroom or library? Print some of these out, too.

There’s no authorship on the bookmarks and that’s intentional–Literary Activism gets noted at the bottom for the practical purpose of keeping tabs on the news in book censorship, but otherwise, the point here is to simply spread the word and spread it far. This isn’t about marketing or ties to a specific institution or organization. It’s about meeting the average reader right where they are.

You won’t want to print from the above image. It won’t come out at the right dimensions. Instead, you can download the file from Google Drive.

Click through to read the entire newsletter because there is a lot of useful info there, but I wanted to make sure that the bookmarks and the link to download them were front and center here.

Print these and hand them out, but not just next week...ALL YEAR LONG. The library should be a place for intellectual freedom advocacy all year long. Jensen has made it easy for you to print and stock these bookmarks always. And get them into your online spaces so your supporters have access to them as well.

Just do more than make a display. Act. Speak out. Get your supporters engaged. We are past the time to do something but that doesn't;t mean we should give up.

Thanks again to Jensen for making these bookmarks.