Let Books Be. Protect the Freedom to Read.

Banned Books Week 2026—Oct. 4-10

A letter from Julianne Smith, Assistant Director

In October, we need you to mosey into our annual Banned Books exhibit at YDL-Whittaker. This year, you’ll find The Banned Books Saloon, where “Most Wanted” posters featuring challenged authors will hang alongside the whiskey barrels, cattle feed, and batwing doors that evoke  iconic frontier gathering places. 

Hitch up your horse, linger in the saloon, and discover why these books have been challenged over the years. Every outlaw has a story, and so does every challenged book. Unlike the outlaws of the Old West, these fugitives are best encountered on the page. But be warned: The only law  upheld here is the freedom to read.

Since 1982, the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom has maintained an annual list of the most frequently challenged  books. While these “Most Wanted” titles aren’t causing the same kind of mayhem as the raids, shootouts, saloon brawls, and border wars  associated with Western frontier towns, they do represent organized efforts to portray these books—much like the notorious fugitives of the  American West—as threats to civil order.

Because the American West was often a legal and jurisdictional nightmare, vigilantes cropped up in boomtowns like Tombstone and Dodge City, taking the law into their own hands in an attempt to rein in the stagecoach bandits, bank robbers, gamblers, gunslingers, and horse thieves of the day. Spend some time as a Banned Book vigilante this October.

The Banned Books exhibit will be on display during regular library hours in the Community Room at YDL-Whittaker from October 1-30.