AASL Chapters Forum

Posted on behalf of Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Director, ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom

As we near the end of Banned Books Week we ask that you continue to raise awareness about the unprecedented assault on the freedom to read that's escalated in the last year. Book challenges are on the rise and it's imperative that we unite and mobilize at the state and local level to resist these censorship efforts. This work extends beyond this week in September and needs to be part of our everyday activities in our libraries.

Here are four things you can continue to do:

• Encourage your colleagues, friends and neighbors to join Unite Against Book Bans and use the resources in the Action Toolkit to fight censorship in our local communities. Unite Against Book Bans, an initiative of ALA in partnership with organizations and individuals from across the country, is intended to inform and empower members of the public to take action in their communities and in their state.
• Share (and use) ALA's Fight Censorship page  that collects resources from across the association that are proven means of addressing censorship and protecting the right to read.
• If you're able, donate to The Merritt Fund which directly provides financial support to librarians who have been denied employment because of their defense of intellectual freedom.
• Consider joining the Freedom to Read Foundation to support litigation defending the right to read and our First Amendment freedoms.

Yours,

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Director, ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom