Public Libraries

Rochester (MN) Pride cited unspecified safety concerns for canceling the visit by The Rainbow Parade author Emily Neilson; federal judge says lawsuit over removal of school library books in Florida can continue; districts in South Carolina and Texas keep The Hunger Games and Bathe the Cat on the shelves, respectively, while a Pennsylvania high school removes three LGBTQIA+ graphic novels.

A bill to remove legal protections from school and public librarians advances in South Dakota; Livingston Parish, LA, has emptied the YA shelves in five branches and told librarians to read every title in search of sexually explicit material; and so much happening in Arkansas in the latest Censorship News.

Schools for military families must pull several lessons tied to immigration, gender, and sexuality and remove books that could "potentially" cover those topics; Tennessee county removes 32 books from school libraries; and Utah pulls 16th book from state's schools.

Topics that drew reader attention in an eventful first week of February 2025. 

The executive order saying the United States will only recognize "two sexes" will have a ripple effect that "will undoubtedly affect public schools, public libraries, and the literature that is shelved in both," according to the statement signed by more than 50 organizations.

In the latest lawsuit battling censorship, Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks have filed a lawsuit challenging an Idaho law that restricts books in both public and school libraries. 

The American Library Association issued a strong statement in response to the actions of the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, saying, in part: "In their cruel and headlong effort to terminate protections from discrimination for LGBTQIA+ students and students of color, the Department of Education advances the demonstrably false claim that book bans are not real. Book bans are real."

PEN America and EveryLibrary respond to the action taken by the Trump administration, which called the book bans "a hoax" and also voided a resolution agreement with Forsyth County (GA) Public Schools.

The Supreme Court will hear the case of Maryland parents who want their kids to be able to leave the classroom when materials with LGBTQIA+ characters are used by educators, an Idaho public library system creates "adult only" room and ends the ability for children to access other branches in the system, and more in censorship news.