In 2022, Brooklyn Public Library launched Books Unbanned to provide access to digital books for young people impacted by censorship. The Seattle Public Library joined in 2023, with our foundation generously funding the program. Three and a half years after Brooklyn’s big idea, The Books Unbanned coalition has grown to six libraries.
For Banned Books Week, we worked with Books Unbanned partner libraries to tally the reach of the program. We are thrilled to announce today that the coalition has collectively provided over 51,000 digital library cards to teens and young adults in all 50 states and every U.S. territory. More than 1 million e-books have been checked out through Books Unbanned programs.
Books Unbanned was conceived in response to an increasingly coordinated political effort to remove books from library shelves around the country. Starting in 2020, the American Library Association reported a record-breaking increase in challenges to books. The ALA’s report on the most challenged books of 2024 including Toni Morrison’s classic “The Bluest Eye” and and Patricia McCormick’s “Sold,” which was a National Book Award finalist.
A new PEN America report finds “disturbing normalization” of book bans in public schools, with nearly 23,000 cases of book bans across 45 states and 451 school districts since 2021.
Each Books Unbanned partner library manages its own program, providing free digital library cards to their e-book collections. The Seattle Public Library’s Books Unbanned program (www.spl.org/BooksUnbanned) allows people ages 13 to 26 across the U.S. to access the Library’s collection of nearly 1 million e-books and e-audiobooks.
Since SPL launched its Books Unbanned program in 2023, 19,000 teens and young people have signed up for an SPL Books Unbanned card and checked out more than 571,000 e-books and e-audiobooks.
Why do these young people sign up, and how does this access make a difference?
Books Unbanned cardholders have shared thousands of stories and comments with us since 2023, describing the daily impact of censorship, both outright and hidden, on their ability to read what they want. They have also highlighted other factors, such as limited collections, transportation and distance issues, lack of accessibility, and sometimes lack of any library at all.
Renewing cardholders have told us, in many different ways, that Books Unbanned offers them multiple access points for books, limiting the impact of censorship and expanding access to the joy and learning that books can provide.
“I’ve been able to read books that are about experiences that make me feel like it’s OK to be who I am,” said a 16-year-old Books Unbanned cardholder from Georgia who renewed their SPL Books Unbanned card this year.
We should all be proud that Seattle, a City of Literature, is making a difference in the reading lives of young people around the country through Books Unbanned.
To learn more about the program, or to sign up for a Books Unbanned Library card from The Seattle Public Library or any of the participating libraries, visit www.booksunbanned.com.
Banned Books Week (Oct. 5 to 11, 2025), launched in 1982 by the American Library Association, highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community in shared support of the freedom to seek out, access and express ideas.
About Books Unbanned
Inspired by the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement and the Library Bill of Rights, Brooklyn Public Library founded Books Unbanned in 2022 to support the rights of teens and young adults nationwide to read what they like, form their own opinions, and work together with peers across the nation to defend and expand the freedom to read.
The Seattle Public Library’s Books Unbanned program, launched in 2023, is generously supported by The Seattle Public Library Foundation. People interested in supporting the Books Unbanned initiative can contribute through the Foundation’s Equity & Access Fund.
Other Books Unbanned partners include Boston Public Library, LA County Library, San Diego Public Library and Long Beach Public Library, the newest partner.