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Banned and challenged books: American Library Association banned and challenged books

ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom

Established December 1, 1967, the Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, the Association’s basic policy on free access to libraries and library materials.

Censorhip by the numbers infographic - 2020

Censorship by the numbers infographic - 2022

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ALA's censorship by the numbers infographic for challenged books 2022 includes information about rise of challenges of individual titles from 223 in 2020 to 2,573 in 2022.

Banned book lists

The American Library Association (ALA) Banned and Challenged Books

"Top 13 Most Challenged Books of 2022" by American Library Association. Standard YouTube license applies.

Reasons over time, 2014-2020

Reasons for Challenges 

For the time that ALA has been creating word clouds of the reasons, 2014 to current, we can see visually that reasons change over time. Book challenges are a snap-shot of our current cultural, social, and political fears. Note for 2020 that objections to content that promotes Black Lives Matter makes its first appearance. (Unfortunately this word cloud was not available from ALA for 2022.)

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image of ALA's top reasons for challenges 2020 word cloud with LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter content being prime reasons for specific books being challenged

Reasons for Challenges, 2019

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ala's word cloud for reasons books were challenged by individuals or groups in 2019. Major cited justification for challenging books include LGBTQ and sexually explicit content

Reasons for Challenges, 2018

For the time that ALA has been creating word clouds of the reasons, 2014 to current, we can see visually that reasons change over time. Book challenges are a snap-shot of our current cultural, social, and political fears.

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top three reasons for challenges in order, LGBTQIA+, Political viewpoint, and Sexually explicit

Reasons for Challenges, 2017

For the time that ALA has been creating word clouds of the reasons, we can see visually that reasons change over time. Book challenges are a snap-shot of our current cultural, social, and political fears.

(click on image to enlarge)

Here in this word cloud top three reasons for book challenges are LGBT, Sexually explicit, and Profanity, followed closely by Violence

Reasons for Challenges, 2016

For the time that ALA has been creating word clouds of the reasons, we can see visually that reasons change over time. Book challenges are a snap-shot of our current cultural, social, and political fears.

(click on image to enlarge)

Word cloud shows top three reasons for challenges are Sexually explicit, offensive language, violence, followed closely by LGBT and religious viewpoint

Reasons for Challenges, 2015

For the time that ALA has been creating word clouds of the reasons, we can see visually that reasons change over time. Book challenges are a snap-shot of our current cultural, social, and political fears.

(click on image to enlarge)

Word cloud showing the top three reasons for challenges are Unsuited for age group, sexually explicit, homosexuality, followed closely by religious viewpoint

Reasons for Challenges, 2014

For the time that ALA has been creating word clouds of the reasons, we can see visually that reasons change over time. Book challenges are a snap-shot of our current cultural, social, and political fears.

(Click on image to enlarge)

word cloud shows top three challenge reasons are sexually explicit, offensive language, nudity, followed closely by cultural insensitivity and anti-ethnic

Top 10 challenges of 2020 graphic

Top 10 challenges of 2020 graphic

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ALA poster showing top 13 most challenged books from 2022 including :Gender Queer" and "A Court of Mist and Fury"

"The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie has been a frequent presence on the "Top 10" (or 13) most challenged book since its publication in 2007. The primary reason cited is profanity and sexually explicit content. These reasons are nothing new across decades of book challenges. What we are seeing more frequently in the past years are objections to the presence of LGBTQ+ content and characters, and EDI (equity diversity inclusion) content.

Rise of the book challenge

Over the last 2-3 years we have seen a large increase in the number of individual titles that have faced challenges, and in some cases, bans.

ALA poster of rising trend of challenges over years. 2020 saw 253 individual titles being challenged, to 2022's 2,573

Who challenges books and other materials most?

ALA poster of who challenges books, with parents being 30% of challengers, library patrons being 28%, and political or religious groups being 17%

Sources used on this page:

All Images on this page courtesy of ALA

"Free Downloads", American Library Association 2020

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/bannedbooksweek/ideasandresources/freedownloads (Accessed March 2022)

Document ID: 77f7362e-06b8-4b20-8262-b870e3fb52ea

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