BOSTON — When Andrea Fiorillo became co-chair of the Massachusetts Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibilities Committee in 2019, she remembers there being fewer than 10 challenges to library materials in Massachusetts.
By 2025, there were 229 challenged titles. Fiorillo, who is also a member of the Mass Freedom to Read Coalition, noted a change around 2021, “when reports started to come in of Massachusetts libraries receiving entire lists of books to be banned, with a pattern emerging of challenges to books by and about LGBTQ people and people of color.”
“Queer-themed books started to disappear from our shelves. Multiple weaponized freedom of information requests came in. The police started to send police details to our Pride story times because the threat levels were so high. Staff were harassed by phone, in person and on social media,” she recalled of her library in the town of Reading. “In 2024, we received a bomb threat and a death threat during a children’s story time.”
Fiorillo stood at a podium at the Franklin Public Library — the nation’s first public library — on Aug. 10 to support Gov. Maura Healey’s signature on a bill (S.3241), “An Act Regarding Free Expression,” establishing a process for how library materials are able to be challenged and removed in Massachusetts, and laying out criteria for school librarians to use when determining material appropriateness. The House had enacted the legislation on July 31 on a 152-1 vote, and the Senate enacted it on a voice vote that same day.
Materials can only be removed from a library after a vote by the local school committee or charter school board of trustees following a notice, public hearing and finding by a school personnel review committee “that the material, taken as a whole, based on clear and convincing evidence, is devoid of any educational, literary, artistic, personal or social value or is not age-appropriate.” Only school employees, parents or guardians, or students enrolled in the school can lodge challenges. Students, parents and guardians are able to appeal a decision to remove materials from the library to court.
The criteria for school librarians to use when determining whether materials are appropriate for a library include whether it is age-appropriate, serves an educational purpose, and is “based on the teacher’s or employee’s professional training and not on personal, political or doctrinal view.”
The bill also includes provisions stating that in municipal libraries, the board of trustees is the governing body to review and make decisions on challenged materials. It states that materials can only be challenged by a resident of the city or town through a petition for a writ of mandamus in the supreme judicial court or superior court.
Franklin County librarians have been voicing their support for the bill as it made its way through the legislative process, and have said that while not too many material challenges occur in this region, the bill responds to nationwide trends and hopefully provides people with more education on how libraries build their collections.
“I think this bill gives some awareness to the work of collections development,” said Candace Bradbury-Carlin, director of South Deerfield’s Tilton Library. “A lot of work and decision-making goes into developing library collections. … It’s not a frivolous act.”
She explained that at Tilton Library, and most other libraries, the collection is put together using guidance from “lengthy” policies. These include looking at what genres and types of materials are popular and most frequently checked out, potential gaps in the collection, recommendations from peer-reviewed journals and library associations, and requests or suggestions from patrons.
“We try to make sure our collection appeals to different points of view. … It’s about having a balance, not just about viewpoints, but in genre,” Bradbury-Carlin said. “There’s a whole range.”
Bradbury-Carlin added that, similar to policies on adding materials to the collection, the library has a policy that pertains to removing materials. She said materials are “weeded from the collection” frequently to make room for new content, and that if they didn’t do so, it would be “a warehouse, not a library.”
Librarians consider circulation data, the book’s physical condition, whether it’s written by a local author and other factors when deciding which materials to remove.
“It’s a complex process, but it’s a well-oiled machine,” Bradbury-Carlin said.
According to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, there were 4,235 titles challenged in 2025, second to 2023 when there were 4,240 challenges. The association noted that not all book challenges are reported and that its data “represents only a snapshot of book censorship throughout the year.”
The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners said earlier this year that formal challenges to library materials, programs and services have increased by 50% since fiscal year 2023, and that public libraries (not including school libraries) in 2025 reported 33 formal challenges — representing more than seven years combined. The board said that 86 libraries reported 309 informal challenges to materials, services and programs.
“In this moment, when education and free thinking are under attack, it’s really important that there’s leadership coming from the states, and that’s what today is about,” Healey said before signing the bill last week. “We want every young person to be able to have the chance to read freely, to think critically and to develop their own understanding of the world — which also may include, from time to time, reading and learning about things that they may disagree with.”
Sponsor Sen. Julian Cyr said Massachusetts isn’t immune from national trends.
“What has struck me most throughout this process has not been the books. It’s been the people. We heard from librarians who’ve been threatened, harassed, doxed and driven from their jobs,” Cyr said. “I met a librarian in my own district in Chatham who received death threats because of a children’s story time. I invited her to the State House to tell her story. She declined — not because her story wasn’t important, but because she was afraid.”
Bradbury-Carlin said that in the eight years she has been Tilton Library’s director, there has never been a challenged material that has escalated to the point where she has needed to intervene. The library has a form that people can submit to request that materials be reconsidered, but that form has never come across her desk. Most of the time, if people have a question or concern about a material, she said they are able to have a conversation with the librarians and learn why it fits the policies and criteria for the collection.
While no challenges have occurred in South Deerfield in her memory, Bradbury-Carlin said she thinks it is good that the state has taken steps to protect librarians who defend materials that meet their policies and criteria.
The law ensures that school library employees cannot lose their license or professional certification or be “dismissed, disciplined, placed on probation, involuntarily transferred, be otherwise subjected to an adverse employment action, fined or imprisoned for the selection of library materials when the selection is made in good faith and in accordance with the policy established.”
School districts, charter schools and local education agencies must create a written policy for their school libraries, if they don’t already have one, for how materials are selected, how library materials and facilities are used, and how to respond to challenges requesting to remove or restrict the materials. The policy must be aligned with American Library Association standards and be posted on the website of the school district, charter school or local education agency. Challenged materials must remain on the shelves of the school library pending a vote of the school committee or the board of trustees of a charter school.
All of the public school districts in Franklin County have policies on library materials that outline how library and classroom instructional books and materials are selected, and several have policies outlining the process for requesting materials be reconsidered.
The Gill-Montague Regional School District policy IJL-E requests the complainant identify the name and type of material they are flagging, and share their name, address and any organization they represent. The policy also asks if the person has read the entire material, what concerns they have and what would be the result of a student reading the material.
The districts, schools and agencies also have to file an annual report with the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with information about complaints and challenges related to removing materials. The law requires a similar report be filed by the Board of Library Commissioners.
Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, and Rep. Aaron Saunders, D-Belchertown, were among the bill’s many co-sponsors, and both shared online their excitement that the bill passed the finish line.
“At a time when book challenges and censorship efforts are increasing across the country, Massachusetts is once again standing up for free expression, academic freedom and the fundamental right to read,” Saunders wrote on Facebook. “Protecting the integrity of our libraries is critical, and this legislation ensures they remain places where everyone can access a wide range of ideas and perspectives.”
Madison Schofield contributed reporting.