EveryLibrary Celebrates Massachusetts Freedom to Read Law and Calls for the Work to Continue
EveryLibrary celebrates Governor Maura Healey’s signing of Massachusetts’ new Freedom to Read law, "An Act Regarding Free Expression", an important new public law for readers, students, families, librarians, and educators who believe that decisions about library collections should be guided by professional standards rather than political pressure.
This law is the product of years of sustained advocacy by library leaders, legislators, civil-liberties organizations, readers, educators, and community members across the Commonwealth. We especially congratulate our colleagues at the Massachusetts Library Association and the Massachusetts School Library Association for their consistent, diligent, and reader-centered leadership throughout this legislative effort. We were proud to be their partner during meetings with legislators on Beacon Hill, as well as powering their public engagement and calls to action across the state. Their members kept the conversation focused where it belongs: on people's ability to use their libraries, encounter ideas, find books that matter to them, and make their own choices about what to read.
The new Massachusetts law, S.3241 (2026), creates meaningful statewide protections for both public and school libraries. It establishes clearer standards for collection development and reconsideration, protects librarians and educators acting in good faith, reinforces professional decision-making, and makes it harder for an individual political or ideological objection to determine what everyone else is allowed to read. The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is tasked with tracking challenges moving forward.
That is substantial progress, and it deserves to be celebrated. But in Massachusetts, we believe there is important unfinished business.
Earlier in the session, a proposed amendment to the Freedom to Read legislation called for stronger civil rights and public accommodations protections that would have more directly addressed the rights of people from historically marginalized communities to be fully served by their libraries. Those provisions would have more explicitly connected collection development, programs, and library services to Massachusetts’ longstanding protections against discrimination on the basis of characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation.
Unfortunately, that opportunity was not advanced.
“A strong challenge policy helps prevent censorship. A strong civil-rights framework helps ensure that books and programs by, for, and of minority perspectives are brought into the library in the first place. Stakeholders should recognize that the culture of reading and the creative economy are strengthened by this approach to public accommodation and inclusion,” says John Chrastka, Executive Director, EveryLibrary.
“EveryLibrary congratulates the Massachusetts library community and its partners on this significant achievement,” adds Chrastka. But it is Massachusetts’ deep and well-established commitment to civil rights and protections against discrimination that inspires us to call on the next Legislature to make it clear that those principles apply to how libraries develop collections, design programs, and serve their communities.”
The freedom to read is not only supported by the First Amendment guarantee to retain lawful material in libraries. It is also about ensuring a reader's freedom to walk into a public institution and reasonably expect that their life, history, community, faith, family, or identity is available on the shelves, in programs, and through services offered there.
As we celebrate this important step forward, we recognize that the fight for equitable access and representation in libraries is ongoing. EveryLibrary remains committed to working with our partners and communities to ensure that every reader can see themselves reflected in their libraries. Together, we can continue to advance the freedom to read and uphold these values for all.