Book Banning in 21st-Century America

Based on 25 contemporary book challenge cases in schools and public libraries across the United States, this book argues that understanding contemporary reading practices, especially interpretive strategies, is vital to understanding why people attempt to censor books in public institutions.

Emily Knox is an associate professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include information access, intellectual freedom and censorship, information ethics and policy, and the intersection of print culture and reading practices. She is also a member of the Mapping Information Access research team.

Her book, Book Banning in 21st Century America (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) is the first monograph in the Beta Phi Mu Scholars' Series. Her most recent book Foundations of Intellectual Freedom won the 2023 Eli M. Oboler Prize for best published work in the area of intellectual freedom. Emily's articles have been published in the Library Quarterly, Library and Information Science Research, and Open Information Science. Emily serves on the board of National Coalition Against Censorship and is the editor of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy.