Books and youth services disappear in public libraries: Book Censorship News, February 20, 2026

Horry County was not alone in this matter, nor is it. Lancaster County, South Carolina, also dismantled the young adult sections of its libraries. At a heated library board meeting last summer, a board member called out the library director over her insistence on removing books from the youth collection and moving them to the adult collection. The board member explained that young adult books are books for teens, not adults, and that the naming convention has been that way for a long time (you can watch the video of that portion of the board meeting here). The director did not think this was the case, and neither did some of the board members.

At the regular September County Board meeting — the County Board, not the Library Board — a board member who took the time to explain what young adult books were and were not was dismissed from her position on the library board.

At the very least, she had the opportunity to present her expertise and research in an email to the library director and board following the July meeting. The following comes from a Freedom of Information Act submission to the county (email addresses have been blacked out):

But even before its annexation of young adult literature in July or its subsequent expulsion in September, young adult books had already begun to disappear from adult collections.

Through a budget provision passed years ago, some public libraries in South Carolina have dismantled their teen collections; Others are actively working on it. Compliance is not mandated because there are inappropriate books in the collections. There is no such thing as child porn, and there is no obscene material available to teen readers. It would be against the law to publish, let alone purchase a library. But rulings like these have encouraged libraries to become watchdogs and remove any and everything that could be a problem. Actual experience was thrown out the window, and youth advocacy was thrown with it. Even this month, York County, South Carolina — whose library board banned “gender identity” books from the library for anyone under 18 and implemented the use of classified books for collection orientation — saw the GOP pass an ad that they were fighting against the American Library Association as the certifying body for professional library workers.

It’s not just South Carolina. Wyoming lawmakers have on their agenda this session a bill that would effectively dismantle YA departments in public libraries. It follows the same patterns seen in South Carolina. House Bill 10 would require public and school libraries to certify that collections accessible to those under 18 do not contain “sexually explicit” material. Libraries found in violation will face a fine for each violation, and anyone can file a complaint against the library when they feel that materials are not compliant. “Explicit sex” is not a legal classification but a designation dreamed up by the legislature. This bill would do exactly what was done with the South Carolina provision: encourage rampant censorship and remove books from teen sections. These books can be disposed of entirely, or transferred to adult collections, as is the case in public libraries in South Carolina.

“What’s the big deal?” Some might wonder, especially if the books themselves haven’t actually been removed from libraries. The answer is that there are many things wrong here, all of which illustrate the slippery slope of giving up our rights as citizens.

First, this is still censorship. It’s a process of transfer, which means that books written and published for teens are now being pulled out of teen collections and placed into adult collections. In some cases, libraries may also impose restrictions on these titles, requiring youth to obtain parental permission to access young adult books now on shelves in adult sections. This is already happening in public libraries throughout Idaho, Tennessee, and perhaps soon in Iowa.

Equally important, the targeting of teen literature—commonly referred to as young adult literature—coincides with a continuing decline in services and spaces dedicated to and serving teens. Much digital and print ink has been spilled in recent years on why young people are “different” post-coronavirus. About teenagers not having the ambition or curiosity they once had. Teenagers today are nothing more than anxious creatures who are constantly on their phones and not hanging out with each other. About how teens today don’t know how to read a book.

These fear-mongering articles rarely stop to think about where or how teens are allowed to be teens anymore. There are no third spaces for teens in America. Adolescents are increasingly presented as property rather than independent beings, whether to their parents under the guise of “parental rights” or to the state, also under the guise of “parental rights”.

Shopping malls are mostly off-limits to young people, if they are accessible at all (and to be clear, malls are not actually third places – they are places of expected consumption, and young people don’t have the disposable income they once might have). There are no teen centers in most communities, and in the communities where they do exist, many are faith-based. PARK DISTRICT PROGRAMS FOR TEENS LIMITED. There are also fewer and fewer entertainment options for teens. The teen movies that have enriched the lives of many 30- to 60-year-olds today don’t exist anymore, and teen entertainment outside of the home is either expensive or complicated to access. A teenager who goes to a cafe with his friends is not in third place either. They’re in a job that requires them to buy something to be there, and they’re in a job where customers or other employees will likely complain about them being loud or goofy. Being teenagers.

There are only two true third places for teens in America — places where they can be themselves without the expectation of exchanging money. These places are community parks (see above) and public libraries (…see above).

Just as public spaces have been filtered out for teens, so have professional opportunities for people who… Enjoy Working with teenagers who have expertise and experience in doing this. The profession of teen librarianship—which also carries the title of youth librarian or youth services librarian (usually distinguished from children’s librarians by serving the full range of youth, from birth to 18 years of age)—has been a growing field within librarianship. However, the Public Library Association’s annual survey of public libraries shows that this service area is shrinking. Whereas 2021 data showed that 81% of libraries had a librarian role for teens, whether full or part-time, this number decreased to 75% in 2025.

While teen programming and services still exist in libraries, they are added to the workloads of already overworked librarians. Today, along with the disappearance of young adult literature from bookstore shelves, these professionals have also disappeared. Years of budget cuts at libraries have made their roles among the first to be reduced or reshaped, and their impact is still being felt. The American Library Association’s Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)—a dedicated portion of the professional organization for adolescent services—is also folding into the portion dedicated to children’s services, further screening this area of ​​expertise as strong and distinct from others, including services for younger children. The decision is partly due to a sharp decline in YALSA membership, indicating that there are fewer teen librarians and fewer organizations with the funding necessary to maintain the professional affiliation of teen librarians.

Teen librarians also reported the steepest declines in job satisfaction, likely due to tightening budgets, increased scrutiny, and lack of support for a demographic that requires more time, effort, and money than any institution is willing to provide. From Liblime’s 2025 Satisfaction Report:

It is worth noting that there was a significant decrease in satisfaction among those working with adolescents in public libraries. The most significant decline was among those who work with adolescents in public libraries, from 81% to 49% (1). This 32 percentage point decline represents one of the steepest declines in satisfaction within any library specialty area, which may indicate unique stressors affecting librarians in youth services.

That experience in youth services, which often coincided with experience in the youth field Literaturein and of itself came to be seen as unimportant. Which is exactly why a real YA expert on a public library board was not only not given serious consideration when explaining what young adult literature was, but was also fired for daring to talk about something she already knew. Even the research and professional writing conducted about adolescent services in public libraries has declined over the past ten years.

None of this touches on the reality of school librarians. We know that oversight of school libraries has been astronomical since 2021. Part of that is because there are fewer school librarians in schools, too. Who is viewed as an expert not only in literacy, but also in adolescent development? In more schools, the answer is no one in the library. Less than 30% of American schools employ a school librarian.

Book censorship has a generational impact, and teenagers realize that their education, entertainment and future opportunities are under attack by banning books. So what is at stake when the professional library field, with expertise and passion for teen services, collides with legislative priorities that exclude books and materials written for teen audiences? The lack of opportunities and the constant attitude of adults who can’t figure out what’s wrong with teens and why teens never seem to get off their phones. Teenagers have nowhere else to go, and more and more, they find themselves with fewer safe places in their community with advocates who care about their current lives and the future being dismantled before them. And when teens do what lawmakers ask of them — get a job — they find the same legislators telling teens that their work isn’t worth the minimum wage either.

Legislating YA zones in libraries is legislating away from teen services. Combined with ongoing budget cuts and threats against public libraries, this is shrinking spaces and places where teens can be themselves, wherever they are. It is the erasure of young people from society that is occurring in parallel with the revelation of how many powerful people – and their political sycophants – have exploited young people in their most vulnerable years. It’s further erasure of a demographic of people, who then face a constant media barrage about how lazy, entitled, and stupid their generation is, as if the system wasn’t designed to set them up for failure or dependency.

But these same teens are major political pawns, especially for those in the “parental rights” camp. These teens are theirs and they tell them what to do. These teenagers are not human. They are property.

It becomes clearer not only when we see young adult books being moved into children’s areas or adult areas. It is also evidenced by state and local laws that have prohibited teens from entering adult collections at a public library – see Idaho Falls, Idaho, and the state’s HB 710, or Sumner County, Tennessee, and their policy. These teens can’t borrow The Handmaid’s Tale or Blue eye Because these books are shelved in the adult collection, even though these same teens can legally drive themselves to the library and can be drafted by the armed forces during lunch hours without mom or dad’s permission.

Adolescents, in the eyes of such legislation and policies, are either children or adults, depending on who benefits them. They are not a psychologically, physiologically, culturally or socially unique demographic and have needs that are met by those with the unique training, skills, passion and compassion to meet them exactly where they are. They don’t deserve their own collection of literature that explores the highs, lows, difficulties, joys, and experiences unique to this demographic.

Concern about banning, moving, restricting, and removing books written for teens is important, but not just because it is censorship. It’s important because it represents the not-so-slow shrinking of the rights and responsibilities that teens in America have — and the not-so-slowly shrinking of what we as adults owe to young people as they grow up.

Again and again, it’s worth repeating: Young people are the hardest hit during this ongoing period of book censorship, and more and more, it’s becoming clear that it’s not just people of color and LGBT people who want to legislate them out of existence. It’s adolescence.

As it stands, we’re left with a lot of empty promises and cruelty enacted by a handful of predatory, conspiracy-mongering, genital-obsessed adults.

Not to mention a lot of empty shelves.

• So, speaking of a Wyoming bill that would eliminate teen sections in libraries, it passed its first hurdle in the Legislature this week.
• Below is a list of books marked for removal in Lapeer Community Schools (MI). You’ll be shocked to know that these books were found via Take Back the Classroom.
• Speaking of Michigan and Reclaiming the Classroom, here are the books the out-of-state group believes are inappropriate in Ann Arbor schools. 2026 is the year TBTC digs its tentacles into Michigan communities, it seems.
• Iowa Republicans are going all out when it comes to attacking libraries this year. Another bill passed in the Iowa House: “Under the bill (HF 2309), children and teens would need parental consent annually to check out public library materials deemed ‘harmful to minors.’ This would include books and other content that depict a wide range of sexual acts that could be considered offensive, and that in the aggregate lack ‘literary, artistic, political, or scientific value to minors.’” Library workers — including volunteers — could be criminally charged with allowing a minor to access restricted content if They learn that a parent has not given consent or they attempt to circumvent the consent requirements Additionally, the bill allows parents to sue the library, the public library board of trustees, or library employees who violate the restrictions within two years of the alleged violation and is intended to make access to libraries so difficult and burdensome that the average person decides not to bother.
• Arizona wants to similarly punish librarians for not knowing what books fall under the far-right’s vague target of “including anything that depicts ‘sexual conduct, sexual arousal, or sexually explicit acts.'” This applies to public and school librarians. Check out the quote from the legislature that blames today’s world for…. Judy Blume.
• Elizabethtown School District (PA) students are denied three contemporary novels as part of their English class studies because the board doesn’t like them. The district’s board has been overrun by a far-right group, which you can learn more about in this documentary.
• After complaints about the use of the novel In the French classroom, the Palmyra School District (PA) will not remove it from use.
• In one of the strangest “articles” trying to figure out what the Jackson-Madison (TN) County Library would do about the 50 Book Challenges, the decision was not to ban them but that “some” might be moved for “age appropriateness.” To move a book from its place to a place where it does not belong, say, move All boys are not blue Moving a YA section to adult or moving a picture book about pronouns to a “Parenting” section – it’s still censored. Since the books in this case are not titled, we do not yet know what kind of censorship might prevail here.
• Speaking of censorship, that’s what the Livingston Parish (Los Angeles) Library did. This summer. After complaints, he was transferred from the teenage ward to the adult ward.
• The Redlands Unified School District (CA) wants to put school administrators responsible for approving the district’s library books. Remember, California has an anti-book ban law, but it hasn’t stopped the board from implementing a lot of bans and restrictions.
• The Redington School District (New Jersey) has adapted a library policy that now has librarians flag “sensitive materials” for review by administration. This runs counter to the state’s book ban bill, which aims to turn librarians into book banners — and in this case, these librarians pointed all this out, but the far-right board members didn’t care.
• A Massachusetts father who tried to exclude his child from a classroom lesson on gender stereotypes knew he couldn’t do it, a court has found.
• The Rutherford County (TN) Libraries Alliance is organizing in response to the potential ban of nearly 200 books based on Secretary of State demands. Here’s what you should know if you’re local (and if you’re not, what you can borrow when this happens in your community).
• The Anderson County (TN) Library heard from residents at its latest board meeting about what to do about so-called “inappropriate” books available for children and teens. This ties back to the letter sent to nearly every library in the state from the Secretary of State, who believes Trump’s executive orders are the law of the land.
• Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould (Arizona) wants to make decisions on what books are allowed to be donated to the county’s public library.
• “After several years of passage of laws banning “pornographic or indecent” books in Utah schools, legislative audits, and a growing list of banned titles statewide, lawmakers continue to sponsor more bills restricting the content allowed in schools this year. However, the work to keep up with all the legal changes has been daunting for state and school officials — and some Republicans oppose any additional rules, citing fatigue.” All this focus on books in libraries raises the question of actual issues in education in Utah that are being completely ignored due to conspiracy theories and the need of some in the GOP to constantly talk about sex.
• The New Hampshire GOP’s obsession with book bans expands with proposed Senate Bill 434. “SB434 would radically expand what parents can formally challenge. Not just school library books, but almost anything in school: books, websites, artwork, plays, dances, statues, flyers, recordings, and even visiting speakers. The bill would require each district to create a complaint process for ‘materials harmful to minors,’ or “age-inappropriate,” or “otherwise offensive” without clearly defining these terms. Remember, their book ban bill last year was vetoed by the governor.
• The Arkansas State Library Board refuses to distribute state aid to libraries. Why? They don’t know their own auditing rules and want more authority to determine what libraries can and cannot do. This will hurt small libraries very quickly. This State Library Board is appointed by Governor Huckabee Sanders and reflects her interests, not the interests of citizens or libraries.
• Finally, Florida House Republicans have defined the meaning of the phrase “materials harmful to minors,” which is important as they try to ban more books in the state. It is a useless definition, of course, and is widely open to interpretation and the will of the legislator, whatever his opinion. It’s not normal the amount of time these Republican lawmakers spend defining terms so they can talk about sex, gender, and genitals.
• Higher education students in Florida – i.e Adults– They are given an introduction to a sociology textbook that has been revised by state officials. Topics removed from the book include those related to race and racism, social class, the impact of technology on people, and those related to gender.
• All non-profit libraries – unlike the vast majority of public libraries that are democratic entities – would have to stop providing passport services. This is a huge blow to patrons of these nonprofit libraries, as these nonprofit libraries often operate in rural or small areas and are likely one of the only places within a reasonable distance to obtain these passports.
• Pickens Public Library (SC) “is canceling several youth programs indefinitely in order to allow library staff to review more than 80,000 books for topics or other content deemed inappropriate by the Library Board of Trustees.”
• NPR’s Code Switch talks about where and how Mike Corato works Flamer He fell into the trap of the boom ban book.
• The Mason City Public Library (IA) will. no The transition is done Let’s talk about that or Sex is a funny word From the young adult section. This is the way it should be.
• The Jake Epp Library in Manitoba, Canada, will not remove the book Weirdly and wonderfully madewhich was challenged by one of the beneficiaries because of its address. No joke.
• Alabama is one step closer to making it easier for partisan politicians to fire library board members who don’t follow their directions.
• Last week’s roundup included a story from a man who wanted to defund the Oskaloosa (IA) Public Library because of some books he found offensive. We now know what those books are and they include… a children’s picture book. This is a perfect example of a man who was brainwashed by book signs.
• The New Castle Public Library (PA) is dealing with some people who hate the availability of LGBTQ+ books at the public library. “One of the individuals most publicly opposed to queer literature is Bill Misner, chairman of the Constitution Party of Lawrence County. McCurdy said the board agreed to ban Misner from the library for life after he was originally suspended for three months. City police escorted Misner from the library in November after taking photos and filming a Facebook Live video featuring queer reading materials in the youth services department.”
• The Jackson County (NC) Library, which voted to leave its regional library system because other libraries in the system provide access to LGBTQ+ books, lost its director “unexpectedly” in January. that it probably no unexpected.
• A positive update in the ongoing saga at Samuel Public Library (VA).