Banned Books Week: Your Voice Matters, Especially as Censorship Increases

Oct 5, 2023 @ 6:00 PM Pacific Time

Zoom: https://multco-us.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pAb5TLrYRm68KFGF5aHpUw#/registration

As censorship continues to grow and evolve across the United States, what should we, the people, know? What can we do to ensure that our public resources, including libraries, remain places of intellectual freedom?

We'll talk about perceptions of the public library, book bans, and the movement to push back. Join noted experts Kelly Jensen from Book Riot and John Chrastka from EveryLibrary to hear stories from across the country of libraries defending the First Amendment and the rights of everyone to have their voices heard.

SPEAKERS:

Kelly Jensen is an editor at Book Riot (bookriot.com), and covers all things young adult literature. She has written about censorship for nearly ten years and earned a commendation from the American Association of School Librarians for her coverage of the topic. She is an author of award-winning anthologies for young adults and has worked as a public librarian for children, teens, and adults. Website: https://kellybjensen.com/

John Chrastka is the founder of EveryLibrary (https://www.everylibrary.org/), a group that builds voter support for public, college and school libraries. He has served on library boards and in many other advocacy roles. He’s a former president of the Reaching Across Illinois Libraries System (RAILS) multi-type library system. He was named a 2014 Mover & Shaker by Library Journal.

BANNED BOOKS WEEK COALITION

https://bannedbooksweek.org

The Banned Books Week Coalition is an international alliance of diverse organizations joined by a commitment to increase awareness of the annual celebration of the freedom to read. The Coalition seeks to engage various communities and inspire participation in Banned Books Week through education, advocacy, and the creation of programming about the problem of book censorship.

https://bannedbooksweek.org/