Statement in Support of the Resolution Commemorating Banned Books Week.

EveryLibrary strongly supports the resolution introduced by Representative Jamie Raskin and Senator Brian Schatz defending the freedom to read, write, learn, and access information without government censorship.

The freedom to read is a fundamental American freedom.

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Libraries, schools, museums, and other public institutions must remain places where people can encounter ideas, explore our history, ask difficult questions, and make their own decisions about what they read and believe.

Government officials should not be deciding which ideas Americans are allowed to encounter or which stories are permitted to remain on our shelves.

Across the country, we have seen an alarming escalation in efforts to remove books, restrict access to information, interfere with the professional judgment of librarians and educators, and use government power to suppress viewpoints and histories that some politicians find objectionable.

These attacks do not stop at the library door.

Censorship in schools, museums, federal institutions, and the free press represents a broader threat to the First Amendment and to the ability of Americans to participate fully in our democracy.

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"EveryLibrary applauds Representative Raskin and Senator Schatz for recognizing that these fights are connected and for standing up for the constitutional rights of readers, students, educators, librarians, journalists, authors, and every American who believes that the government should not control what we are allowed to read, learn, or think," says John Chrastka, EveryLibrary's Executive Director.

"Parents have every right to make decisions about what their own children read. They should not have the power to make those decisions for every other family in their community, and politicians should not have the power to impose ideological reading lists on an entire country."

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Libraries exist because democracy depends on access to information. The answer to ideas we disagree with is more speech, more reading, more discussion, and more opportunities to learn, not censorship.

EveryLibrary is proud to stand with Representative Raskin, Senator Schatz, and the broad coalition of organizations supporting this resolution. We urge every member of Congress to stand with readers, librarians, educators, journalists, and families by rejecting government censorship and defending the freedom to read.

The First Amendment belongs to all of us. We intend to fight for it.