At the 2025 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, more than 200 attendees visited the Sage-sponsored “Banned Books from the Big Chair” booth to denounce book challenges, share advice for combatting censorship locally, and read aloud from banned titles. The exhibit highlighted the number of books challenged and the 10 most-challenged titles in the US in 2024.
Guests in the Big Chair included award-winning authors of frequently challenged books including Laurie Halse Anderson, A.S. King, Sarah and Ian Hoffman, Judah Freed, and more. Recordings of attendees and authors will be released during Banned Books Week, October 5-11, on the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom Banned Books Week YouTube channel(opens in a new tab).
Sage has proudly co-hosted this exhibit for more than a decade in partnership with ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, Unite Against Book Bans, and the Banned Books Week Coalition, as part of its larger effort to champion academic freedom.
Sage also co-sponsors the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award(opens in a new tab) and celebrated the 2024 recipient, Dr Shannon M. Oltmann(opens in a new tab), at the conference. An associate professor at the University of Kentucky’s School of Information Science, Oltmann received the award for translating her research on censorship and intellectual freedom into practical guidance for library professionals.
Sage’s independence means the company is free to advocate for intellectual freedom and a more equitable academic future. Sage publishes Index on Censorship(opens in a new tab), which promotes censored writers and artists, fosters debate, and monitors threats to freedom of speech. Find out more about Sage’s initiatives to combat censorship on the company’s Academic Freedom webpage.