It’s Banned Books Week! Check out some ways you can participate using GSU Library resources.
October 4-10, 2026, is Banned Books Week.
Banned Books Week “highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community — librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas.” [quoted from ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom / Banned Books Week Coalition]. This year’s theme:
Let Books Be — Protect the Freedom to Read.
Looking for ways to participate in Banned Books Week?
Book lover? Read a challenged/banned book:
The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles lists of challenged books — find a title then search the GSU University Library’s catalog or your local public library’s catalog to check it out:
- GSU University Library catalog
- Fulton County Library System catalog
- DeKalb County Public Library catalog
- Newton County Library System catalog
- Cobb County Public Library Catalog
- Gwinnett County Public Library catalog
- Clayton County Public Library catalog
Film enthusiast? Watch the Emmy-awarded documentary, “The Librarians”:
“The Librarians” documentary film (linked here) is freely available to GSU affiliates for streaming through the GSU Library’s Academic Video Online (AVON) database.
Data nerd? Explore public opinion poll data about book banning:
The GSU Library subscribes to two databases where you can find opinion poll data on diverse topics: Polling the Nations and Roper iPoll. Below are some questions from recent polls — follow the linked text to see the results:
- QUESTION [2023 poll; US sample]: “As you may know, efforts to ban certain books in schools and libraries are spreading in the United States. Do you think these efforts are more about the content of the books or more about politics?” See results here – broken down by age groups.
- QUESTION [2024 poll; New York sample]: “Do you support/oppose… Allowing parent groups to override educators’ decisions on what books should be available to students.” See results here – broken down by political party affiliation.
- QUESTION [2023 poll; US sample]: “Do you support/oppose… State governments passing laws that ban certain books from school classrooms and libraries.” See results here – use Demographic Crosstabs to break down by age, education, gender, income, political party, geographic region, and race/ethnicity.
Download entire “Poll on Wokeness” dataset here to do further explorations and statistical analysis on the poll questions; 797 qualitative de-identified verbatim responses to open-ended question re: what it means to be “woke” also available for download.