Watch "The Librarians" documentary next week. Free on PBS!
You're personally invited to watch The Librarians, a new documentary about censorship, libraries, and the fight for the right to read, premiering next week on Independent Lens on PBS.
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We hope you watch this film not just because it is an interesting story about censorship and discrimination in libraries and schools, but also because it is a powerful reminder of the importance of libraries and schools.
The people featured in the documentary are more than just characters in an interesting movie.
They are real librarians, parents, and educators who showed up with integrity, courage, and resolve, often at significant personal cost, to protect the right to read in their school and public libraries. Many of them are friends and colleagues.
We can vouch for the truth of what this documentary shows.
Find your local showing of The Librarians on Season 27, episode 6 of Independent Lens using TV Insider here.
Or find it streaming on the PBS app starting February 9th.
We want you to meet these people and see their dedication, integrity, and powerful work firsthand. We would like you to meet Carolyn Foote, who is now a Fellow with the EveryLibrary Institute, co-founded the Texas Freadom Fighters to counter censorship in schools; Martha Hixon, who currently serves on our board of directors and never wavers in her defense of LGBTQ students. Amanda Jones, who was maligned and attacked by political leaders in Louisiana; Laney Hawes, who co-founded the Texas Freedom to Read project (which your donations have helped fund) to support every school district like she did for her own; and Julie Miller, who fought back against the lies behind some of the most weaponized book ban campaigns in American history.
The Librarians captures the earliest days of the current censorship crisis when book challenges were being supercharged by political actors not just to discredit institutions or malign individual librarians, but to use censorship itself as a tool of discrimination and erasure. We know this because EveryLibrary was there for many of the people in the film, as partners and allies while it was happening. We know it because the story of attempts to censor books and campaigns to fight for the First Amendment continue to this day.
You can donate today to help us continue to fight against book bans across the United States.
The timing of this premiere is important. It launches at the very start of Library Lovers Week 2026, when EveryLibrary is hosting a series of author conversations that center reading, libraries, and access to books, because that is exactly what is at stake. We hope you’ll watch the film on PBS. We also hope you’ll join us for the Library Lovers Week panels, both live and on demand, and engage with this moment alongside authors, readers, and advocates from across the country.
You can learn more about our author events from February 9 to 13 and RSVP at
www.libraryloversweek.org.
Films like The Librarians and our Library Lovers Week panels are not about abstract concepts. They are about what is really happening in communities across America, and about the unique and powerful role librarians, parents, and local stakeholders can play when they stand up for what they believe.