Academic libraries may be less likely to face challenges to materials than public or school libraries, but that doesn’t mean academic librarians should become complacent. “The number of challenges in academic libraries is not zero,” said Blair Solon, collection analysis librarian and assistant professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Recent examples include the removal of books at the US Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library and other military academies this year, and at the New College of Florida last year.
A panel of academic librarians, moderated by Zara T. Wilkinson, reference and instruction librarian at Rutgers (N.J.) University Libraries, discussed the direct and indirect threats that book bans and challenges pose to academic librarians in “Can It Happen Here? Book Challenges, Censorship, and Academic Freedom in Academic Libraries,” a June 29 session at the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia.
Sara Beth Coffman, lead librarian for information literacy and instruction at Chattanooga (Tenn.) State Community College, noted that her school has more than 2,000 dual-enrolled students who take college classes while still in high school. Statewide that number is nearly 38,000 and growing. Tennessee’s Age Appropriate Materials Act of 2022 has significantly increased the number of books removed or restricted in state libraries. “It isn’t a great leap to think that the state might turn its attention to our collection next,” Coffman observed.
But even when academic library collections are not the subject of censorship efforts, academic library operations can still be affected. Melissa E. Johnson, director of Reese Library at Augusta (Ga.) University, spoke about Georgia’s SB390, which failed to pass during the 2023–24 legislative session. The bill would have removed certification and continuing education requirements for public librarians, and forbidden the use of state funds on ALA or its affiliates. Johnson’s library wouldn’t have been able to purchase ALA resources for teaching, or make presentations at conferences put on by ALA or its affiliates. “Those are all requirements for being promoted and to be successful as faculty members,” she said.
Keith Weimer, librarian for history and religious studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, recommended librarians keep aware of legislation affecting libraries in other states. “Something that successfully passed in one state is almost certainly going to be copied,” he said.
Weimer also commented on the value of state associations and partner organizations, even across library types, to oppose harmful legislation. “Don’t see the struggles of public and school libraries as distant,” he suggested. In his state, he said the Virginia Library Association largely represents public and academic libraries, while the Virginia Association of School Librarians is a separate organization. But the organizations have allied to resist legislation such as 2023’s HB1708, which would have prohibited higher educational institutions from displaying or hosting materials containing “sexually explicit content” if minors were present—a category that could easily include some first year students.
Solon echoed ALA’s recommendation that all libraries have material reconsideration policies grounded in values statements like the Library Bill of Rights and the Freedom to Read statement. She acknowledged that such policies may not be effective against statewide legislation. In more local matters, she said, a policy can help prevent “an interpersonal situation and can provide an offramp for a tricky situation.”
