Long Beach Joins Books Unbanned

Natalie Canalis of the Long Beach Post News notes in this piece that “Free digital Long Beach Public Library cards will soon be available to teens across the nation in an effort to offset bookbanning in other parts of the country, thanks to a new partnership between Long Beach and the Brooklyn Public Library.”

RF has posted about Books Unbanned before. Brooklyn Public started the initiative and has been joined by Seattle, Boston Public, Los Angeles County, San Diego, and now Long Beach.

These libraries are able to provide access without public funds through generous donations. Even if carping critics in these areas want to object that their tax dollars are funding immortality, they can’t make a case.

Thanks to Long Beach for joining the cause. As noted by Fritzi Bodenheimer of Brooklyn Public Library in the article, there is need for even more library participation, awareness, and advocacy: “Since we launched in April of 2022, we’ve had about almost 10,000 young people sign up for a card, and they’re from all 50 states, and they’ve checked out … close to or maybe over 300,000 books. It’s incredibly exciting and heartwarming, and it’s also incredibly heartbreaking because it means there’s a need.”

RF encourages libraries—or at least those libraries that won’t punished politically for standing for the freedom to read—to join in or at least spread the news about Books Unbanned and the Palace Project’s Banned Book Club.

If you haven’t yet read the heartfelt testimonies from teens using Books Unbanned, you may read Brooklyn’s document here. RF commends brave librarians everywhere fighting for the freedom to read in time when narrow-minded, manacle souled, and authoritarian elements threaten not just books but our very democracy.