Ensuring access with The Banned Book Club

The past week has been especially exciting and meaningful for all of us at DPLA. Last Thursday, we announced the launch of The Banned Book Club, an effort to ensure that all readers have access to the books they want to read, and soon after, the project was promoted by Barack Obama as part of a series of social media pushes calling attention to the critical importance of intellectual freedom. 

Our mission–maximizing access to knowledge for all–has never felt more vital, or more imperiled, than right now. We hope that you will share news about The Banned Book Club (as well as the like-minded Books Ubanned from Brooklyn Public Library and Seattle Public Library) with your friends and colleagues in areas where books are being banned to help us ensure no American is denied access to what they want to read. 

We also invite you to join us on Tuesday, August 8, at 1pm ET for the first in a series of virtual events to find out more about The Banned Book Club, hear from our colleagues at PEN America and EveryLibrary about which books are being banned, and from librarians about why this work is so important. Find out more and register here.

We extend our thanks to our partners at The Palace Project, Lyrasis, and Demarque, without whom this project would not be possible, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for their ongoing support of our ebooks work. 

Thank you for all you do to ensure free access to knowledge.

John Bracken

Executive Director, Digital Public Library of America

Text was updated on July 28, 2023, for a slight revision to he virtual event description.