Launched in 2022 by the Brooklyn Public Library, the Books Unbanned initiative gives young people free digital access to books that may be restricted in their communities. The Seattle Public Library joined in 2023, and the program has since expanded to six library systems across the country.

For this year’s Banned Books Week (ending October 11), SPL reported that Books Unbanned has issued more than 51,000 digital library cards to readers in all 50 states and every U.S. territory. Participants have checked out over 1 million e-books since the program began.

Books Unbanned emerged amid a sharp rise in book challenges. The American Library Association has tracked record-breaking censorship attempts since 2020, and a PEN America report found nearly 23,000 book bans in public schools across 45 states since 2021.

Each partner library runs its own version of the program, offering free digital cards to their e-book collections. The Seattle Public Library’s program, for example, lets readers ages 13 to 26 nationwide access nearly one million e-books and audiobooks through spl.org/BooksUnbanned. Renewing cardholders report, in many different ways, that Books Unbanned offers them multiple access points for books, limiting the impact of censorship and expanding access to the joy and learning that books can provide.

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