SOS: Serious Overload of Series discussion

NYC libraries are offering free digital library cards to people across the U.S.: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/...

New York's libraries are taking a stand against recent book bans by giving readers across the U.S. access to their e-books for a limited time.

The NYPL is opening access to a selection of commonly banned books (including Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger via its free e-reading app, SimplyE, now through May.

The "unbanned books" can be browsed, borrowed, and read on any iOS or Android device via SimplyE, the free e-reader app, for those 13 and older. There's a specific "Books For All" collection that has hundreds of out-of-copyright/public domain books available to anyone in the country, with or without a library card. The “unbanned books” will be in that collection, with the added bonus of no wait times to read them.

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Thanks for posting Steph.

I'm glad to see this happening, it gives me hope for you all across the pond that all is not lost.

I'm from the UK, and whilst we are not perfect (faaaaar from it!!!), the disgusting disease of widescale and normalised book banning, which is akin to knowledge censorship, just doesn't happen here.

READ BANNED BOOKS.

Widescale book banning doesn't happen in Australia either :)

Sure some books are banned, but I don't even remember the last time it happened.

I live in a state (Idaho) whose House GOP legislature proposed HB 666 (very appropriately named IMO) that would have criminalized librarians (with jail and penalties) allowing minors to check out "harmful" books (mostly LGTBQ+). Luckily it failed in the Senate, but the library budget was still slashed by 3.5 million in federal funding.
These are the books that were called out as harmful:
Identical
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
All Boys Aren't Blue
It's Perfectly Normal: A Book about Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health
Dreaming in Cuban
Gender Queer
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
And they are shelved appropriately (young adult in YA, adult in adult)

That's really sad Rachel, I know libraries & librarians are always low down on the totem pole when it comes to funding, but losing M$3.5 is terrible.

Rachel- Goodbye Borders wrote: "I live in a state (Idaho) whose House GOP legislature proposed HB 666 (very appropriately named IMO) that would have criminalized librarians (with jail and penalties) allowing minors to check out "..."

It just gets scarier and scarier. I haven't read it (yet, I think I need to correct that), but it seems like these people are taking a leaf out of Farenheight 55. I even heard about a community book burning (in Texas I think) some weeks ago...

And I hate to bring this subject up, but it seems like in certain parts of the US, it's easier for many teenagers to get their hands on guns than it is for certain books.

I'll also add, something I've heard people on youtube discussing; that these bans disproportionately affect kids from lower-income and struggling families much more than the general population. After all, kids who have access to the internet at home, or disposable income from parents etc will always find a way to get things their parents don't want them to have, whereas others simply do not have the resources and of course, that includes many of the marginalised kids that primarily NEED these books.



Sandra wrote: "That's really sad Rachel, I know libraries & librarians are always low down on the totem pole when it comes to funding, but losing M$3.5 is terrible."

Totally agree.

Rachel- Goodbye Borders wrote: "I live in a state (Idaho) whose House GOP legislature proposed HB 666 (very appropriately named IMO) that would have criminalized librarians (with jail and penalties) allowing minors to check out "..."

Damn! People are crazy (esp in the US and esp over the past handful of years+). I've never understood - and will never understand - the panic some people have over information, broadening horizons, expanding your knowledge and understanding about those who are different, etc. Pitiful.

It's reassuring knowing the world as a whole isn't so closed-minded and oppressive.