Blair Solon

Censorship Can Happen Anywhere

June 30, 2025

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 … Continue reading Censorship Can Happen Anywhere



Theresa Chmara, general counsel of the American Library Association's Freedom to Read Foundation, at LibLearnX in January 2020. Photo: Rebecca Lomax/American Libraries

The Case for Intellectual Freedom

June 29, 2025

Theresa Chmara, general counsel of ALA’s Freedom to Read Foundation, and Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, dove into some of these cases and the legal arguments underlying them at “Censorship in the Courts: Current Litigation throughout the United States,” a session of ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia. “One … Continue reading The Case for Intellectual Freedom


Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Association

Calling All Nations

November 1, 2024

Every day, library workers provide a vital public function. We are entrusted to serve our communities, and we know that the best way to serve the public good is to welcome everyone into libraries to access accurate information. To answer the call to join public service is to step into the rank of noble professionals … Continue reading Calling All Nations


Official graphic for 2024's weeklong focus on fighting book challenges

ALA Releases Preliminary Data on 2024 Book Challenges

September 23, 2024

Between January 1 and August 31, 2024, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) tracked 414 attempts to censor library materials and services. In those cases, 1,128 unique titles were challenged. In the same reporting period last year, ALA tracked 695 attempts with 1,915 unique titles challenged. Though the number of reports to date has declined … Continue reading ALA Releases Preliminary Data on 2024 Book Challenges


‘We Are the Majority’

September 19, 2024

Publishers, authors, librarians, booksellers, national organizations, and other library supporters were among those attending the summit, the third of its kind in ALA’s nearly 150-year history. The last ALA Intellectual Freedom Summit was held in 1953. That summit produced the Freedom to Read Statement, a response to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s attempts to remove reading materials … Continue reading ‘We Are the Majority’



Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Association

A Good Way for ALA

July 24, 2024

As we look ahead to meet the information needs of our membership, it is important that we stand united to remember why we work in this trusted profession. We have some big goals ahead with the hiring of the next ALA executive director, celebrating the Association’s 150th anniversary, creating a strategic plan to elevate the role … Continue reading A Good Way for ALA


Illustration of an incarcerated individual reading, with a colorful vision of home emerging from the book.

Lighting the Way

November 1, 2023

Betts founded Freedom Reads, an organization that installs 500-book Freedom Libraries in prisons and juvenile detention centers. Horton cofounded Radical Reversal, a program that creates performance and recording spaces in detention centers and correctional facilities, and conducts workshops that provide creative outlets for incarcerated people. American Library Association (ALA) Executive Director Tracie D. Hall interviewed … Continue reading Lighting the Way


A cartoon depiction of a librarian holding a stack of books with a group of protestors behind her.

How We Fight Back

September 1, 2023

All because she spoke at a public library board meeting last year. “I said, ‘Hate and fear have no place in Livingston Parish,’” says Jones. “It was an innocuous speech, a speech on censorship that any librarian would give.” The meeting, which occurred in July 2022, was intended to address general book content at Livingston … Continue reading How We Fight Back


Photo of ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall. Text says "From the Executive Director by Tracie D. Hall"

The Good Fight

September 1, 2023

By February 2020, a month before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, more than 5,500 criminal investigations had been opened in China against health care professionals and journalists accused of “fabricating and deliberately disseminating false and harmful information” about the novel coronavirus. Many were detained and charged with causing fear and hysteria, … Continue reading The Good Fight