Books Unbanned Announces Milestone During Banned Books Week
release date: October 9, 2025
Books Unbanned, the initiative started by Brooklyn Public Library in 2022 to provide access to books to young adults impacted by censorship, marked a new milestone today. The coalition of six libraries has provided over 51,000 digital library cards to teens and young adults in all 50 states and every U.S. territory. Books Unbanned library cardholders have checked out over 1 million books.
The Books Unbanned coalition includes Brooklyn Public Library, The Seattle Public Library (the second library to join the program), Boston Public Library, LA County Library, San Diego Public Library and the newest partner Long Beach Public Library.
“The very mission of a public library is to support the right of every individual to seek information from all points of view without restriction. Limiting access is a threat to democracy itself,” said Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO, Brooklyn Public Library.
“We’re proud that Seattle, a City of Literature, is part of an initiative that has expanded the ability to read freely for tens of thousands of young people across the nation,” said Tom Fay, Chief Librarian for The Seattle Public Library (SPL). “As this milestone demonstrates, we can work together to fight censorship and support a new generation of readers.”
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 dramatic record-breaking increase in challenges to books, including Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and Art Spiegelman’s “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize winning book about the Holocaust.
A new PEN America report, released last week, 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.
Books Unbanned offers young people multiple access points for books, limiting the impact of censorship and expanding access to the joy and learning that books can provide, helping readers understand themselves and one another.
“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.
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.
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.
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