Censorship

Florida education commissioner sends letter to schools warning them against using Beanstack; PEN America files new brief in Iowa book ban case; the National Park Service may remove some history books from stores; and more in Censorship News.

Censorship, AI, and federal funding top the list of concerns for school librarians heading into the 2025-26 school year.

Educational materials deemed "racially or sexually divisive" would be removed from public schools in 17 southern and midwestern states, plus the latest from Florida, the full list of titles removed at Department of Defense schools, and more.

Readers clap back on censorship and more.

The nine picture books cited in Mahmoud v. Taylor are not pornography. Nor are they obscene. What is obscene is a Supreme Court decision that denies the basic humanity and equality of LGBTQIA+ people.

Lavonnia Moore lost her job after including the Kyle Lukoff book in a summer reading display at the request of a young patron; new law gives school boards in Texas authority over collection development; Ohio governor vetoed bill that would have restricted public library access to titles "related to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression."

Eager attendees packed a much anticipated screening at the American Library Association Annual conference in Philadelphia. With the filmmakers and titular subjects on hand, it was an emotional experience of The Librarians, which examines the national crisis of censorship and the heroic professionals on the front lines of defending intellectual freedom.

Freedom to read advocates ask Florida legislators to probe books removed without review in Florida; an audit finds Utah school librarians preemptively removed titles in fear; and more of the latest in censorship news.

Even a so-called "narrow" ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor would undermine the First Amendment and access to diverse viewpoints in public education and lay the groundwork for even more serious ramifications, a Georgetown law professor explains.