Looking Back on Banned Book Week(s) 2026
As October comes to a close, we can look back at another successful series of Banned Books Week (October 4 - 10) activities at the University Library.
In addition to our signature collaboration with Associated Students on the SDSU Student Read-Out, this year’s programs included an exhibit on “banned comics” in the Comics Corner in Love Library as well as an opportunity for students to “talk to a librarian about banned books” under the Library Dome. Over 100 students visited the table and learned more about current efforts to limit access to information and to remove books from library shelves while also having the opportunity to add their thoughts to an interactive display on “the harms of censorship.”
Banned Books Week 2026 comes amid some of the most challenging times for the freedom to read in recent history. According to the American Library Association, more than 4,000 unique titles were challenged in 2025, with a significant percentage of these representing “the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people and people of color.” PEN America, likewise, demonstrated the increasing range and impact of efforts to ban or limit access to books in school libraries across the United States, with 2025-26 showing “the most new titles added to the [Index of School Book Bans] in a single year . . . . [as well as] the highest number of school districts banning books in a single school year.” Pen America also highlighted the widespread efforts to ban or limit access to manga and graphic novels, including popular series such as Soul Eater, Attack on Titan, and Inuyasha (all of which are either available as part of the SDSU library collection or are the subject of scholarly work included in the collection).
In addition to our Banned Books Week programming, we also recognized Prison Banned Books Week (October 19-25) with a showing of the film “The Feminist on Cell Block Y,” which was sponsored as part of the SDSU Prison Book Project. PEN America has also documented the widespread censorship of reading materials in prisons, calling it “one of the most pervasive form[s] of censorship in the United States.”
The California State University Libraries have identified the freedom to read as “essential to the mission of the CSU.” SDSU joins its sister campus libraries across the state (as well as libraries throughout San Diego) in working to protect the freedom to read and to educate our community about the scope of current challenges and what each of us can do to protect our access to books, comics, media, and other materials currently being challenged. Working in collaboration with SDSU programs such as Valuing Incarcerated Scholars Through Academia (VISTA) and the Prison Book Project, the University Library also supports the American Library Association’s statement on Prisoners’ Right to Read.
Additional resources on efforts to ban, censor, or limit access to books and other library materials, as well as what you can do if facing a challenge in your local community, are available through advocacy groups including Unite Against Book Bans and Fight for the First.
