The Brooklyn Public Library in New York is sponsoring a program called Books Unbanned to help teens have access to a wide range of books so they can read freely and form their own opinions. As part of the program, the library is, for a limited time, offering free E-cards for teens across the country. Card holders can have access to roughly half a million e-books and audiobooks and some streaming video, as well as more than 100 databases for research. In less than two weeks, the library has had 1500 inquiries to the program from all over the country.
Amy Mikel is the director of customer experience for the Brooklyn Public Library.
“The Books UnBanned Initiative was something that the library conceived to combat increased reports of censorship across the country. So the Books Unbanned Initiative was developed in response to the fact that over and over again we see that books that are most frequently challenged are for a teen audience. And we wanted to create a support system for teens. So the e-card is the one eminently simple way we could do that, by granting access to our collection,” she said.
An out of state library card is already available for $50 for anyone living outside NY state. But the teen e-card initiative is available at no cost. Amy Mikel again:
"The Teen e-card is for young adults ages 13-21–and specifically we’re looking for young adults to contact us who are experiencing censorship challenges and/or access challenges to books in their areas,” she said.
Interested teens can either email BooksUnbanned@bklynlibrary.org or reach out through the teen-run Instagram account @bklynfuture. The free e-card program is for a limited time but teens can continue to reach out at those addresses ongoing for help and support around reading and censorship. For more information, including about an Intellectual Freedom Teen Council, go to the BooksUnbanned page.
Adults who would like to support the program can go to the Books Unbanned page at bklynlibrary.org.
