Libraries can and should be advocating on their own behalf. Libraries are not neutral, and it is not partisan to be unabashedly pro-library. No matter which party puts forth a pro-library bill, libraries should seek to have it passed. It’s something they should educate their community about and encourage their community to act upon, too. The same goes in reverse: in a half-decade of bills at the state and federal level escalating attacks on libraries and access to literature for all, libraries need to be speaking out against them. But so, too, should the groups intimately tied to libraries. Library boards and Friends groups serve different purposes, but both work in the service of the library and its constituency. Yet they aren’t showing up, and in many ways, it’s hard not to see that this is because they, too, too often believe their role is one of neutrality. But neutrality is precisely why libraries are finding themselves in the positions that they’re in–neutrality is inaction. It’s the status quo. It’s sitting back, rather than stepping …

This spring marks five years of escalating attacks on books and libraries in America. Throughout 2026, organizations across the spectrum will be marking this anniversary, both to emphasize how long and complex this battle has been and to champion and celebrate the work being done to protect equitable access to books and libraries. Let’s begin, though, with what we can count and track most easily: banned books from between 2021 and 2026. There are currently four authoritative lists of banned book titles. These are books we know have been banned based on reported and/or published data, as well as because they’re on a state-sponsored list of banned titles. Most of the books banned in America go undocumented, so what we know from these lists represents but a fraction of how widespread the practice of literary censorship is. PEN America reports that since the 2021 school year, about 23,000 books have been banned based on documentation. Reality is that this number is multiples higher, knowing what we do about quiet censorship, the deceleration of book purchases …