Last year a new Youth (Birth-17) Library Card was created and implemented that requires parent/guardian approval and allows parents/guardians to limit, observe and monitor the use of their child’s or minor’s card. A new project began in December to relocate Young Adult (YA) books from the Teen section into a section specifically designated for YA. The newly adopted Collection Development Policy changes and designates specific age ranges for books and sections from Teen ages 13-16 to Teen ages 13-17 and from YA 16+ to YA 18-25. Juvenile age remains Infancy-12 years old. More safeguards have been put in place so there is no need to spend $15,000-$25,000 or more to implement new restricted Juvenile and Teen Library Cards, especially since our public libraries are chronically underfunded and there is no pornography in the library!  

The St. Francis Area Schools Board of Education must end its mandate that the library use BookLooks.org, an anonymous website designed to target books with diverse viewpoints. Parents, students, and teachers deserve to have materials on the shelves that have been transparently vetted and reviewed by credible resources and publications, not shady websites with thinly-veiled political goals. Library collection policies should require that professional librarians use credible review sources to build strong collections materials that support the learning and growth of all students. BookLooks, by contrast, requires no credentials, is not transparent in naming reviewers, and has no editorial standards. Its anonymous members regularly rate important and valuable literary works as controversial or objectionable based on their discriminatory viewpoint. Sign the petition and tell the St. Francis Area Schools Board of Education to stop mandating the use of BookLooks in their libraries!

If HB473 passes it will lead to more widespread censorship in our schools, the possible cancellation of contracts for vendors of research databases, and it will leave Utah's students without high quality reliable resources to support their academic success. RESEARCH DATABASES ARE SAFE - MUCH SAFER THAN THE OPEN WEB The bill is being advanced on the false premise that curated, grade-level appropriate databases are not safe for students.  This was proven untrue in 2018, when allegations were brought before the Utah Education Network (UEN), and they were unable to replicate any problematic results. UEN continued to monitor and report on appropriate use of research databases by students from 2018-2023, issuing 28 separate reports. WE HAVE STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS ALREADY IN PLACE TO THAT ADDRESS DATABASE SAFETY Students are protected by the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), a federal law that requires schools to block anything that meets the legal definition of “harmful to minors”. Likewise, in 2021, Utah passed HB38 School Technology Amendments which requires digital resources used by students to have safety policies and technology protection measures that prohibit and prevent the sending, receiving, viewing, or downloading obscene or pornographic material. Please sign this petition and then send an email to your state senator (look up your legislator here) asking them not to pass unnecessary regulations that will harm our students, and create another tangled bureaucracy. For key points, see FAQ on HB473

The Warren County Library Commission must end its promotion of BookLooks.org, an anonymous website designed to target books with diverse viewpoints, and any sites like it. Parents deserve credible resources from trained professionals, not unvetted sources. Endorsing BookLooks and similar websites compromises our library's integrity and parents' right to reliable information about books for their children. Our libraries already provide credible reviews through databases like NoveList and resources like Kirkus Reviews. Sites like BookLooks require no professional credentials, have no named reviewers, and follow no editorial standard. Its anonymous members routinely flag important literary works, especially those covering topics of sexuality, race, religion, or history, as controversial or objectionable. At multiple public meetings, dozens of community members objected to BookLooks and similar sites, but the Library Commission ignored concerned taxpayers and pushed forward despite overwhelming opposition. Sign this petition if you believe Warren County Public Libraries should remove BookLooks.org from its list of endorsed resources for patrons and recommend only vetted, transparent book review websites.

On Thursday, February 27th, despite full support of the greater community and everyone of the 600+ in the room, the Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) School Board was tone deaf to the pleas of our students, ignored them, talked over them, and voted to eliminate ALL Teacher Librarians. Their baseless justifications are for budgetary reasons, but see the facts for yourself at Grossmont Education Association. Impacted sites include:  Grossmont, El Cajon Valley, Mount Miguel, El Capitan, Granite Hills, Monte Vista, Santana, Valhalla, and West Hills. Teacher Librarians provide essential services to students and staff that are irreplaceable. Cutting these positions will hurt our students, the quality of their learning experiences, and the thriving communities that our properly staffed school libraries support. We urge our school board members to genuinely listen to their constituents and reverse their cuts to Teacher Librarian positions. Sign and share this petition now to protect our librarians and ensure students continue to receive the resources and support they need!

We support reading freedom in New Mexico. We oppose book bans. Everyone deserves to share their culture through books. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to read. Book bans limit reading choice by removing or hiding books. A few people shouldn't decide what everyone else can read. Book bans are often prejudiced too. Schools and libraries are for learning. Our world is both great and difficult. We can all learn so much about it through the safety of the pages of a book.

Legislators have continued a power grab, forcing locally elected school board members, elected by their neighbors to set educational policies, to ban hundreds of books regardless of long-standing first amendment law. Now the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) has taken it a step further. The USBE has issued guidance to schools that not only are books banned from libraries -- students are banned from bringing personal copies of books to school. A high school student in Utah with copy of Slaughterhouse Five, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Beloved, The Handmaid's Tale, The Bluest Eye, The Kite Runner, Brave New World, or Out of Darkness are now in danger of being disciplined for being in possession of -- not drugs, not weapons, not pornography -- but mainstream, well-reviewed, and even CLASSIC books. Sign and share If you agree that we need a return to common sense laws that don't punish students for reading.

The South Carolina State Board of Education (BOE) recently banned seven books from all public schools in the state.  Because the State Department of Education passed an overly broad book banning regulation in July (43-170), State BOE members were not required to read the books before voting to ban them. Sign and Share this petition and tell the State to fix the regulation so that books can’t be banned based on excerpts taken out of context, and without the common sense consideration of a book's overall literary value. Data and Privacy: By signing this petition I acknowledge that I may receive periodic updates from EveryLibrary and the Freedom to Read SC Coalition members, from which I can opt-out at any time.

We must protect the library that we know and love. Samuels is the place we went to growing up and now take our kids. We want it to be there for our grandkids. It has a legacy in this community. This library and the staff have stood up for our first amendment rights and it is our time to stand up for them.  We have to tell these Supervisors that this is not want Warren County voters want. 

The Elizabeth School Board is implementing policies that will block access to age appropriate books in each of Elizabeth's school libraries and in classroom libraries.  They want to ban books -- even award-winning, classic American literature -- that have been in the ESD libraries for years and used as curriculum for generations.  Please sign and share this petition to stop the Elizabeth School Board from this government overreach and infringing on the rights of ESD parents and students.

In 2022, this critically acclaimed novel disappeared from our school library shelves during a controversial book banning campaign initiated by Pennridge School Board directors. It was one of 22 titles removed without any formal challenge, community input, or transparency. This beloved novel has resonated with readers for over two decades, addressing crucial themes relevant to high school students' lives and experiences. By removing access to this book, we are denying our students valuable literary perspectives. The district's current requirement for a review committee assessment before returning the book to shelves is an unnecessary obstacle, given the improper (and arguably illegal) nature of the original removal campaign.

The Greenville County Library Board is illegally restricting access to books written for young adults and children. They have ordered the materials moved to a shelving area called the Parenting and Early Childhood collection which is off limits to anyone under 18. They then ordered that books that deal with topics that they are uncomfortable with must be moved to this restricted section. What books has the Board determined must be restricted? Books featuring children with disabilities. Books that help younger people deal with loss. Books that deal with the topic of gender. Some of the books have been deemed inappropriate for children because a crayon has the wrong wrapper or because a fictitious creature is neither a duck nor a bunny. The message is loud and clear that these children—the ones with disabilities, who don’t conform to traditional roles— are bad and wrong. The restricted area stigmatizes many families and forces them to pick their books up from a different section because they don’t conform to the Board’s idea of what a family should look like. Please sign and share this petition If you agree that political appointees should not be illegally forcing their discriminatory viewpoints on the reading choices of Greenville parents and families.