Banned Books Week was created in 1982 in response to a surge in book challenges in libraries, bookstores, and schools. The yearly celebration brings awareness to these bans in order to celebrate the freedom to read and promote ongoing conversations concerning censorship. Libraries have a long-standing tradition of celebrating patrons’ intellectual freedom, and Banned Books Week does just that.
Book banning has seen another surge in popularity in recent years. Between 2024 and 2025, nearly 4000 unique titles have been challenged or fully banned in US schools, public libraries, and academic libraries and the year isn’t even over yet!
This year’s theme for Banned Book Week is “Censorship is so 1984,” inspired by George Orwell’s novel 1984, which has been subject to frequent bans and challenges. You can pick up a copy of 1984 at our banned book display in the 2nd-floor rotunda. The rotunda display also includes books like Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume, and many more fantastic titles. The display also includes information about why the book was banned. For example, Nineteen Minutes was banned for violence, sexuality and bullying. Other books were banned for things like LGBTQ+ themes, sexuality, vulgar language, religious beliefs, and much more. To find a comprehensive list of banned books in the United States, check out PEN America’s list of banned books for the year, which updates frequently.
Check out the library’s collection and read a banned book today!
Post contributed by Brea Parnell.
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