To commemorate National Library Week, Unite Against Book Bans has expanded its free collection of book résumés to support librarians, educators, parents, students, and other community advocates in their efforts to keep frequently challenged books on shelves. The collection has expanded by more than 50% to support an additional hundred titles.
Unite Against Book Bans launched the book résumé resource in February. Created in partnership with dozens of publishers and with information provided by publishers, librarians, and School Library Journal, these easy-to-print documents are designed to help support access to books that are targeted by censors. Each book résumé summarizes the book’s significance and educational value, including a synopsis, reviews from professional journals, awards, accolades, and more. When possible, the book résumés also include information about how a title has been successfully retained after a demand to censor the book.
National Library Week kicked off the release of the American Library Association’s (ALA) highly anticipated annual list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023 and the State of America’s Libraries Report, which highlights the ways that libraries and library workers have taken action to address community needs with innovative and critical services, as well as the challenges brought on by censorship attempts. Monday was also the second annual Right to Read Day, which asked people to contact Congress and to take other actions to stand up to censorship. It’s not too late to participate — visit the Right to Read Day action page throughout the week to send a letter and to find other ways to stand up for libraries.
The number of unique titles targeted for censorship surged 65 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, reaching the highest levels ever documented by ALA. Censors tried to remove a staggering 4,240 unique titles in 2023.
The Top 10 Most Challenged Books are included in the book résumé resource. Unite Against Book Bans will continue to work with its publishing partners to regularly expand and update the book résumé collection.
