There's a new curated digital collection that acknowledges the issue of banned and challenged book from around the world on political, sexual and social grounds. Relda Matthews shares her Masters in Information Studies (MIS) project that inspired the collection.
When Relda began looking at the issue of banned and challenged books in 2024, most of the available information was coming from the United States, and there was plenty of cause for concern. Data from the American Library Association showed the number of recorded challenges had more than trebled in the space of just three years, and the number of individual titles being challenged was increasing at an even more rapid rate. Challenges tended to disproportionately target literature by or about already marginalised groups, such as racial or cultural minorities or members of the rainbow community.
Consolidated data from other parts of the world wasn’t so readily available but there were still plenty of examples of challenges and censorship activities in other countries, and there was clearly professional concern that they were becoming more frequent occurrences both here and overseas. The Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) had just published the Freedom to Read toolkit and the School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (SLANZA) had also recently compiled resources to assist school library staff to handle challenges and complaints.
Relda chose to focus on secondary school libraries mainly because literature for children and young people often features heavily on lists of banned and challenged books. She created an anonymous online survey to collect data from the previous five years. Of the 63 schools that completed the survey, 18 said they’d experienced at least one book challenge in that time. A few said they’d experienced more than one but not all were specific about how many. The total number of challenges in that five-year period was at least 31. Are there likely to have been more? Absolutely!
Relda recalls:
There were a few things that stood out. As has been the case in other studies here and overseas, the most common reason given for a challenge was that the book is ‘sexually explicit’. Parents were the single biggest initiators of challenges, closely followed by students themselves. Most of the challenges resulted in the book being retained, though in about half the cases it resulted in some restriction being placed on it – where it was kept, who was allowed to borrow it, etc. Over 80% of the schools said they have a collection development policy and nearly 70% have a documented policy or guidelines for handling challenges. Not just having a policy but following it seemed to make a difference during a challenge, with books more likely to be retained when this happened.
The data was interesting but the real gold came from the comments and feedback that librarians were willing to share. Whilst some mentioned understandable negative effects of experiencing a challenge – loss of confidence, decisions about acquisitions or access being influenced by the fear of future challenges – I was surprised at how many positive comments there were. Some schools had used it as an opportunity to create or update policies. Other librarians saw it as an opportunity for education, for example letting students know it’s OK to have diverse perspectives but it’s still important to be respectful, or to engage directly with students when issuing books with challenging themes.
What came through clearly in the comments was that our school librarians are strongly committed to upholding the principle of freedom to read. However, sometimes it’s a fine line between supporting students to choose books appropriate to their individual needs and interests, and ensuring they don’t access material that they might not be ready for.
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This research project has already been superseded with the launch of the LIANZA Library Challenges Register. We can’t prevent challenges and nor do we want to – people have the right to express an opinion and to have their voice heard – but we do need to be prepared in how we respond. Make use of the great resources available, particularly the Freedom to Read toolkit, and if you do receive a challenge, report it.
We are always updating our collection, and therefore these curated digital collections too. Get in touch if you discover one in our collection that could be added to the Banned Books digital collection.