Glossary of Banned Books

B

Banned Book/Banning - Book bans are a form of censorship that occur after a book or other material has been challenged (see definition for Challenged Book/Challenge below). A material is considered banned when it is removed from a library collection, summer reading list or bookstore shelf.  (American Library Association)

C

Censorship - "Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons—individuals, groups or government officials—find objectionable or dangerous." Art, music, websites, printed materials, television shows, and movies are just a few examples of materials that can fall victim to censorship. (American Library Association) 

Challenged Book/Challenge - "A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group." (American Library Association)

Critical Race Theory - "Critical Race Theory, or CRT, is an academic and legal framework that denotes that systemic racism is part of American society — from education and housing to employment and healthcare." (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense and Educational Fund) In recent years, CRT has been misconstrued from it's original meaning and is wrongly being used as a catch-all phrase that refers to anything that connects the topics of race or gender to conversations of systemic oppression in classrooms (Schwartz, 2022).  

Culture war - "A conflict or struggle for dominance between groups within a society or between societies, arising from their differing beliefs, practices, etc." (Dictionary.com)

Curriculum history - "Curriculum history considers what societies value enough to pass on to younger generations through its schools." (Garrett, 1994)

I

Intellectual Freedom - "The rights of library users to read, seek information, and speak freely as guaranteed by the First Amendment." (American Library Association)