Let Books Be: Protecting Your Freedom to Read

Monday, Oct. 5 kicked off Banned Books Week 2026 at the BSC Library. Banned Books week is an event celebrated every Fall to bring attention and give voice to banned and challenged books. Now, to clarify, banned books are those titles that are actively taken out of circulation. Challenged books are those titles that have been requested to be removed for one reason or another.

Most book challenges happen at public and school libraries. To see the list of titles, reasons for challenges, and startling statistics, visit www.ala.org/bbooks. Libraries around the world have fought against censorship and for a person’s freedom to read ever since the first printed book – the Bible. In North Dakota, a local librarian leads a nonpartisan organization called Right to Read ND, whose dedication and advocacy to protect those freedoms has helped defeat legislation aimed at censoring libraries unfairly.

This year’s theme for Banned Books Week, chosen by the American Library Association, was Let Books Be. This felt like a phrase unfinished, so the BSC Library challenged the rest of campus to reveal their ending(s). Kim Kohler’s classes showed their answers on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the Exploration event. Campus Security used their answers to help create the escape room on Friday, Oct. 9.

If you did not get a chance to see or go through one of these amazing events, stop by the library and add your answer(s) to the Memory Wall. The wall was first put up on Monday, October 5, and will remain up until the end of October.

I hope everyone had a wonderful time celebrating Banned Books Week with us, because the BSC Library sure had fun. We loved seeing you all ask questions and share your thoughts on banned and challenged books. It is a battle that libraries can only win when people like you say something.