The ALA also said there had been a rise in individuals preemptively removing books without following policy, “because they are trying to (unsuccessfully) avoid controversy”. In February this year, more than 300 people signed a petition in Orange City, Iowa, to ban or segregate library books with LGBT content. Topping the ALA’s list of the most challenged books in 2017 is Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why, a young adult novel that was recently adapted into a Netflix series. It was challenged and banned on occasion as it was deemed “pervasively vulgar” and because of drug use, profanity and offensive language. The libraries association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has also begun to record incidents of hate crimes in libraries.

Source: The Guardian April 11, 2018 07:18 UTC