There have been attempts to remove library book titles from the shelves

The Challenges of Library Book Censorship during the First Twenty-Year, and the Effects on the Samuels Public Library

There were many attempts to ban library books in the first eight months of the 21st century.

Over the course of a year from January to August there were over 1,700 attempted challenges or censors, a 20% increase compared to the same months in the previous year. Last year saw the most challenges since the ALA began tracking book censorship more than two decades ago.

“What this data set does not reveal are the people who want books that speak to their lived experience and librarians who want to make books accessible to people who find them relevant. Both are under attack,” ALA President Emily Drabinski said.

The director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom said that the attacks on ourfreedom to read should trouble everyone who values liberty. “To allow a group of people or any individual, no matter how powerful or loud, to become the decision-maker about what books we can read or whether libraries exist, is to place all of our rights and liberties in jeopardy.”

In one instance, a local group called Clean Up Samuels hosted barbecues to pass out “Request for Reconsideration” forms at the Samuels Public Library in Front Royal, Va. There were more than 500 forms to fill out. The county board of supervisors there has since voted to deny 75% of the library’s funding and the library director resigned in August, the ALA said.

How Many Books Are Banned from the Urbandale School District? Why Book Bans are Quadrupling in a State in Florida, Texas, Missouri and Utah

In July, the Urbandale Community School District in Iowa listed 734 books that it had issues with but was unsure of their availability in the schools’ libraries. The list was trimmed down to 65 books, and titles, including The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Beloved by Toni Morrison and All Boys aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, were removed from the libraries.

The restrictions came disproportionately from Florida, which accounts for more than 40% of book bans in the last school year, or 1,406 cases. The states with the most laws banning books are Florida, Texas, Missouri and Utah.

If you count only the books that have been permanently removed from school libraries and classrooms, the report’s lead author, Kasey Meehan, says the increase is even more alarming. That number has quadrupled — to 1,263 books in the last school year from 333 the year before.

“We keep wondering if we have reached our peak yet,” he says. “And all signals suggest that there’s still growing momentum, and it really is against kind of public opinion.”

Just under half the books involved deal with violence or physical abuse, including sexual assault; a little less than a third focus on LGBTQ+ identities; and nearly a third include characters of color and themes of race or racism.

“Of course, it’s going to explode,” says Michelle Beavers, a member of a local Moms for Liberty chapter in Florida. People will feel compelled to do something when they are shown the contents of their children’s schools.