Each year, the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) records hundreds of attempts by individuals and groups to have books removed from libraries shelves and from classrooms. The OIF tracked 347 challenges to library, school and university materials and services. Overall, 483 books were challenged or banned in 2018.
A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials.
Banned Books Week (September 22-28, 2019) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. It brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
