Datasets

PEN America

I used PEN America’s 2021-22 and 2022-23 Index of School Book Bans data to build the interactive tools on the U.S. Trends page. I also used their list to learn who was behind the challenges. PEN America counts a school book ban instance when its access to students in a school classroom or school library is restricted for either a limited, indefinite, or permanent length of time. The organization tracks book bans only in schools across the country, while the American Library Association examines challenges filed against books in all libraries (public and school libraries).

The organization states:

• “Instances of book bans are recorded based on publicly reported data, primarily sourced from local journalists, school district websites, and school board minutes, as well as organizational partners. Local efforts from district employees and advocacy partners supplement our data collection efforts. “

• “The true magnitude of book banning … is unquestionably much higher. PEN America’s researchers continue to discover books banned in the previous year, thus our reporting may not be comprehensive of all books removed from access during the six-month reporting period. Books are often removed silently and not reported publicly or validated through Public Records Requests.”

For full documentation of their methodology, visit their Frequently Asked Questions.

American Library Association (ALA)

The ALA compiles data on each book ban attempt in public libraries across the United States. Their data is sourced from public librarians that submit instances to the ALA itself and also from published news stories that share when a challenge is impacting a local library. Similar to PEN America, the ALA is clear that the true number of book ban attempts and outright removals is uncounted in their numbers as many attempts go unreported.

This project shares the same definitions of a challenge and a book ban. The ALA’s definitions are the following:

• “A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict access to materials or services based upon the objections of a person or group. A challenge to a title may result in access to it being retained, restricted, or withdrawn entirely. Restrictions on access may include relocating the book to a section of the library intended for an older age group than the book is intended for, labeling it with a prejudicial content warning or rating, taking it out of the online catalog so it has to be requested from a staff member, removing it from open and freely browsable stacks, or requiring parental permission to check it out.”

• “A book is banned when it is entirely removed from a collection in response to a formal or informal challenge.”

• “Any reduction in access to library materials based on an individual or group's believe that they are harmful or offensive is an act of censorship.”

It’s important to note that the ALA does not consider the temporary reduction of access to a material a ban. For example, if a district chooses to remove a title from the shelves while a decision is pending and that decision ultimately results in the title remaining on shelves, then that instance is not counted in their dataset.

Read the ALA’s full methodology on their website.

Notes on PEN America and the ALA

Because the intent of this project is to publish data in a non-biased way, it’s important to note that both PEN American and the ALA consider book bans to be harmful. This attitude could have an influence on how they collect book ban data along with their reported numbers. While their sole purposes are not to only cover book bans, the organizations report extensively on the counts and trends at the U.S. level.

The data pulled from these two sources and published within this website are reflective of a moment in time. Bans that were later successful after initially being counted as an attempt in this data are not reflected here. Given how dynamic the current book banning trends are, it’s important to acknowledge what sources are intended to be a snapshot in time and which are continuously updated.

Florida’s Data

The Florida data in the visualizations on the Comparing Florida & Maine page is sourced from two places:

• The Florida Department of Education’s own published list of book ban removals across its state school districts. Luckily for this project, a new state law requires the Department of Education to publish the count and title name of each book banned in each of its school districts. “Pursuant to Section 1006.28(2)(e), Florida Statutes (2023), the Florida Department of Education is required to compile the information listed below and provide the report to school districts for their consideration when selecting materials for student use.” Florida is unique as I struggled to find another state showing the same transparency coming from their Department of Education as part of my comparison work. For a state with one of the highest levels of book ban attempts and removals, it’s interesting to discover a state law that requires them to be so forthcoming with the data.

• The Florida Freedom to Read Project. This nonprofit organization is a collection of parent-led groups across the state who are concerned with the recent increase of book banning attempts in their school district. They post weekly updates to a shared Google doc that track the origin, status, and count of all previous and current book ban attempts that are reported upon publicly. “We create and manage this list based on public records, what is posted on district sites, and verified statements made by district officials. Some restrictions and removals are temporary or reversed through appeals and public outcry, and we do our best to keep our records up-to-date.” The organization welcomes anyone to reach out to them if their data is incorrect based on what they believe to be true.

I used both of these sources to compile a thorough dataset to understand why and where these counts are happening across the state. I used the formal counts from the Florida Department of Education, however I pulled context around status and complainant from the Florida Freedom to Read Project’s weekly Google doc.

Maine’s Data

The Maine data on the Comparing Florida & Maine page is from an analysis by The Maine Monitor in August 2023. They compiled their research straight from individual school districts across the state. Their team of reporters interviewed local residents as they tried to understand what’s behind the recent book banning attempts their state is seeing. In their reporting, they also draw on the numbers published by the American Library Association to see what school libraries in Maine have been impacted. If the Maine Department of Education publishes their own annual data like Florida, I could not locate it. I’ve discovered in my research that most states rely on organizations like the ALA, PEN America, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the National Coalition Against Censorship to report on trends across their districts rather than publish the figures themselves. I’m making the assumption that this is because the state doesn’t have the dedicated resources to track each instance, especially now that numbers are increasing. It could also be that states would rather not take on the liability or attention that comes with publishing the list of data. However, The Maine Monitor’s report was published after PEN America published their 2022-23 school year data (referenced on the U.S. Book Banning Trends page). PEN America indicated in their report that most challenges were pending. Because The Maine Monitor’s report was published at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year and records only one successful ban, PEN America’s numbers are out of date. This reflects the ongoing challenge with attempting to constantly track this data and maintain an up to date record. Something that this project does not claim to do.

Timeline Data

I created the timeline of Notable Instances of Banned Books in the 20th Century using Robert P. Doyle’s book, Banned Books: Defending Our Freedom to Read. He has compiled comprehensive data on actual or attempted worldwide book bans across centuries. While this true number of titles would be impossible to publish in one place, he places emphasis on recent occurrences in the U.S. involving popular titles.

Additionally, Doyle has compiled a list of First Amendment milestones. These are Supreme Court rulings that have to do with people or organizations fighting against censorship throughout U.S. history. Again, this list is not complete, but I researched cases that he mentions in the list to add to this project’s timeline.

A Note on Data Limitations

As stated under each of the above listed organizations from where I pulled the datasets, there are limitations to the figures presented here. It cannot be stated more clearly: the numbers of book ban attempts and removals published here and by the organizations cited here are undercounted. The true number of attempted and successful book bans is impossible to accurately capture. It’s not unheard of for schools or libraries to quietly remove or restrict access to material(s) without documenting or requesting approval from the state or district level. This is also referred to as shadow banning, and it could be as subtle as removing a book from a school library shelf and placing it on a shelf behind the librarian’s desk or in a separate room with a door blocking free access. Again, the numbers published in this project cannot possibly be the full scope of attempted book bans.

Conversely, successful bans may not limit access to specific titles as completely as the original complainant would like. For example, the numbers reported in this project do not indicate whether students can still find books that were successfully banned from a school classroom’s curriculum, but are still available at the school or public library. Still, these realities don't mitigate the impact of the bans and attempted bans, which effectively create an atmosphere of fear and suspicion.

James LaRue states it best in his book, On Censorship. “Censorship is most effective when nobody talks about it. So the Top Ten Most Challenged Items list, and the number of challenges generally, isn’t a comprehensive public research database. I think library challenge reports are more like smoke in the forest. [The ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF)] is a fire spotter, watching the trends, the visible signs of censorship that may augur future conflagration.”

Dataviz Decisions

Using the data storytelling software, Flourish, I was able to upload my data into a template of my choice and create the interactive features you see on earlier pages. I acknowledge that I do not have a background in psychometrics, therefore I am not an expert in selecting visual templates to convey messaging. Thanks to previous coursework at the CUNY Graduate Center, I felt equipped enough to explore and make decisions based on what how I wanted the data to be explored by a visitor to this site. I consulted the book, Data Feminism, by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein to learn how to care for the information I’m presenting through data visualization choices. Ultimately, my goal with the templates I chose is to allow users to approach the data without any biases so that they can interact with the provided features to inform their own opinions.

Flourish is a company owned by Canva and is based in London, UK. They use Amazon Web Services (AWS) as their cloud service provider and is ISO27001-certified by the British Standards Institute, meaning they take care to ensure their staff and infrastructure are equipped to handle the highest levels of security. All projects created using Flourish (therefore the ones within this project) are stored in the European Economic Area (EEA).