Another week, another roundup of censorship and legislation updates for libraries. As I write this post, I’ve realized a lot of these updates are about waiting: waiting for the House to reconvene, waiting on lawsuit rulings, waiting to see if federal library funding will come through…so while we wait, let’s stay updated.

Censorship Updates

• Important: the early closure of the House has left the future of the IMLS hanging – what this means and what we can do.
• EveryLibrary has released a new report on the state-by-state legislative landscape for libraries in 2025.
• Related: Kelly Jensen has a write up on the anti-book ban laws passed in 2025 and what they mean.
• Reading banned books isn’t enough: you need to take action too.
• 9 artists talk about what happened when their art was banned.
• North Texas school boards have begun forming councils to recommend which books stay in libraries.
• Escambia County (FL) has the dubious distinction of being the county with the most books banned by board vote.
• Religious leaders clashed with the Baton Rouge (LA) library board over their firing of an employee who refused to use a coworker’s correct pronouns. The religious leaders say that the firing violated the staff member’s freedom of religion, and I’m sorry, but that’s not how any of this works.
• After Ohio governor Mike DeWine vetoed a measure requiring public libraries to limit access to books related to sexual orientation or gender identity, GOP legislators are pursuing a potential override of the veto.
• The Michigan Library Association has launched a petition to protect the freedom to read.
• The Michigan Library Association has also published the results of a statewide poll on the public’s opinion of public libraries and book banning.
• “Ten publishing and freedom to read organizations jointly filed an amicus brief on July 24 supporting the plaintiffs in Penguin Random House v. Robbins, the lawsuit challenging a 2023 Iowa state law that has enabled the removal of hundreds of books from Iowa K–12 public school libraries.”
• The regional consortium between libraries in northern Idaho and eastern Washington will dissolve after more than 40 years. The reason? Some of the member libraries (including the Community Library Network) were concerned about minors being able to check out adult books from other libraries in the consortium, while the other member libraries warned against possible litigation if they were to restrict their services.

Trump vs. Publishing & Libraries

• Iowa’s interlibrary loan program was put on hold in late July through August, and it will be scaled back due to impending federal funding cuts.
• Trump’s recent comments about AI undermine the White House’s newly-released AI Action Plan, as well as copyright laws.
• Related: American publishers and the White House AI action plan.
• A judge has dismissed Trump’s copyright lawsuit against Bob Woodward and Simon & Schuster for the Trump Tapes.
• National park gift shops may remove books pertaining to slavery, Native Americans, and the Civil War in response to federal pressure.
• More tariff rates and deadlines that will undoubtedly change in the future.
• Panelists at San Diego Comic Con talked about the effects of tariffs on the comics industry.
• The FCC wants to reshape media. Publishers should be worried.

You can stay tapped into the latest in book censorship news by subscribing to the Literary Activism newsletter. Need a short break from the news? Then build up your TBR or stock your library’s book display with some of the best books of 2025 so far.