With the end of the year approaching, the Office for Intellectual Freedom will be compiling our yearly list of most frequently challenged books. We collect information for our challenge database from newspapers and reports submitted by individuals and, while we know that many challenges are never reported, we strive to be as comprehensive as possible in our records. We would greatly appreciate if you could send us any information on challenges in your library or school from 2008.

Challenges reported to ALA by individuals are kept confidential. When requests come from the media or others regarding the details of challenges to particular materials, we report only the state, type of institution and reason for the challenge. (Check out the OIF site for more about what constitutes a challenge or ban and ALA’s role in tracking challenges.)

To report a challenge, you may fill out the online challenge database form, or email the information to Angela Maycock at amaycock@ala.org or call (800) 545-2433 x4221. To ensure that we don’t double count a challenge, we will cross-check your report with existing entries in the database.

If you have any questions at all, please be sure to contact us. Many thanks!

Click here or the image above for the list of books banned or challenged in 2007-2008 (pdf).