Saddleback librarian Alicia Zach reflects on book censorship

Alicia Zach. Lila Mukasa/ Lariat

At least 414 attempts to censor library books have taken place in 2024 – this is a practice Alicia Zach is vehemently against. 

“I believe in the freedom to read,” she says. “I believe that we should have something for everyone and that banning books does the opposite of that.”

There has been a documented increase in the number of books banned in recent years. The ALA documented 4,240 censorship attempts on books in 2023, which was a 65% increase from 2022 numbers.

Zach attributes the recent rise in attempts to censor books to the rise of political polarization. 

Banned books week took place Sept. 22 through Sept. 28. The Saddleback College Library’s display on the topic aimed to bring awareness to the issue of books being banned, Zach says.

Fifty-four percent of censorship attempts take place in public libraries, 39% in school libraries and 2% in higher education or other institutions, according to the American Library Association.

The main reasons for censorship attempts are being sexually explicit, mentions of LGBTQ topics, use of profanity, concerns about indoctrination, pornography and critical race theory, Zach says.

The Saddleback College website lists the top Challenged books from 2020 through 2023 on its website. Among the titles are “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You.” The books in this list have mainly been challenged due to LGBTQ and racial topics, says Zach.

Zach’s personal favorite banned book is “Maus,” which is a graphic novel about the Holocaust. It was banned because of language and nudity.

She says that although language and nudity are included in the novel, they are not what the book is about. She says that book bans often take things out of context.

The Holocaust is an important historical event, and a graphic novel like Maus is a valuable way to explore such a difficult topic, she says. To her, the banning of Maus is “the perfect example of why something shouldn’t be banned, because it’s something that we should all be able to read and reflect on.”

Zach expresses surprise at the amount of book censorship attempts happening in California, as she views an American Library Association map that shows the number of censorships attempts in each state. In 2023, there were 52 attempts to restrict access to books in California.

“Locally, I think in Huntington Beach, there’s a group of private citizens that want to have a say in what books go on or off the shelves in the Huntington Beach Public Library,” Zach said. “And that’s something that we are very much against because we don’t feel like there should be that censorship.”

Florida and Texas also had high numbers of censorship attempts in 2023. Florida had 33 attempts and Texas had 49.

“It feels amongst the library community that more and more censorship is taking place, and more and more people want to have a say in what should or should not be in libraries, and that’s very concerning for us,” said Zach. “We feel that there should be a diverse representation on the shelves.”

Diversity is important to Zach. As a Saddleback librarian, it’s one of the things she enjoys most about her job. She likes the community college environment because of the diversity in the student body, she says.

She points out that she gets the opportunity to work with students who may be fresh out of high school, as well as students who may be new to the country.

She believes the library should be a place where all voices and backgrounds feel represented. She adds that she believes many people “don’t realize that the library is a space for everyone.”

Everyone in the library has the right to read about things that are important to them, Zach says. “We would truly want the library to be a place where all perspectives can kind of share a space on the shelf but also amongst students,” she says. “And I think censorship just takes that opportunity away, for engagement, for discussion, for learning and for growth, so I would hate for that to ever happen.”

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