Maria, could you, could you outline for folks that this really is happening and what's so extraordinary about it and why it makes this year's Banned Books Week again so significant?

Yeah.

Thank you so much, Mickey.

I think that you are framing it so well.

So Banned Books Week, what this is about, it brings together the entire book community, our workers, our booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, people like you.

You know, people who are readers of all types and who care about First Amendment rights, the right to be able for people to pick up a book and read what they want, you know, to support intellectual freedom.

And so this week was established in 1982, and this was in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores, and libraries.

What's not to like? [laughs]

Maria, could you outline for folks that this really is happening and what's so extraordinary about it and why it makes this year's Banned Books Week again so significant?

Yeah, thank you so much, Mickey.

I think that you are framing it so well.

So Banned Books Week What this is about, it brings together the entire book community, our workers, our booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, people like you, people who are readers of all types and who care about First Amendment rights, the right to be able for people to pick up a book and read what they want, to support intellectual freedom.

And so this week was established in 1982 And this was in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores, and libraries.

Most recently, there has been a lot of activity around censorship, as you mentioned.

So in 2025, ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 4,235 unique book titles, and this was the second highest ever documented.

Can you talk a little bit about the attacks just on library services, budgetary kind of attacks? I mean, things that may not be as direct as, the removal of a book from the shelf, but how these efforts really culminate to attack the library as an open institution, a representation of the First Amendment and the right to read and learn and explore.

I mean, what does that mean? Like, how is it different that these are these groups rather than individual p- parents and individual communities? Like, why does that matter? What should people know about the ramifications of that kind of effort?

Yeah.

Thank you so much, Jeff.

I think that's such an important point, and I think we're all aware that censorship is on the rise again.

So according to the American Libraries Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, recorded attempts to censor more than 4,200 unique titles took place in 2025, and that's nearly 2,000 more titles than in 2024 and only five fewer than in 2023, which was the record.

And most of these challenges, as you stated, come from large politically driven entities, so these pressure groups working across jurisdictions.

Approximately 91.7% of these titles challenged in 2025 were by targeted pressure groups and government decision makers.

Hmm.