NYC library: Youths read banned books online free (Video)

(8 Jul 2022) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4387823 ASSOCIATED PRESS New York - 7 July 2022 1. Wide of The Central Library, part of the Brooklyn Public Library system HEADLINE: NYC library: youths read banned books online free 2. Various of books banned in many schools and libraries in the U.S. ANNOTATION: The Brooklyn Public Library is now offering a free library card to anyone in the U.S. aged 13 to 21 who wants to check out and read books digitally from anywhere in the country. The program, called Books UnBanned, was created in response to the nationwide wave of book censorship and restrictions over the past year. Since April, 4,000 young people from all over the country have signed up to check out books through the program.   3. SOUNDBITE (English) Nick Higgins, Brooklyn Public Library Chief Librarian "We, along with other libraries across the country, noticed last year that there were just a lot of more reports of books being banned or challenged across the United States in school libraries, in public libraries. And the American Library Association even came out with a report that there were over 1,600 banned books reported to their office last year, which is by far the most they've ever had since the beginning of them keeping track of banned books." 4. Various of Higgins with books 5. Various of banned books and library ++PARTIALLY COVERED++ 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Nick Higgins, Brooklyn Public Library Chief Librarian: "And we wanted to do something more intentional to support young people across the country who were at the business end of these challenges and bands. So we thought that one way to do this would be to offer a free access to our over half a million e-books and audiobooks, particularly for young people ages 13 to 21, who are literally seeing their experiences, their narratives, and their voices silenced in their communities." ++PARTIALLY COVERED++ 7. SOUNDBITE (English) Nick Higgins, Brooklyn Public Library Chief Librarian: "The books that are being targeted for challenges or bans are representative of voices that are LGBTQ voices or black indigenous voices. So you have books like Gender Queer, which is the most challenged and banned book of all of last year, according to the American Library Association." ++PARTIALLY COVERED++ 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Aren Lau, 17-year-old reader: "Yeah. It's really important to see myself reflected in narratives such as just books that talk about transgenderism and LGBTQ rights and queer people in general. Just because, again, like we've been silenced for centuries. I'm a transgender man. I use he/they pronouns and it's not often that you see that in especially works of fiction." 9. Transgender youth Aren Lau holding book by Jazz Jennings 10. SOUNDBITE (English) Aren Lau, 17-year-old-reader: "I grew up in a very conservative place, a small town in Georgia. Georgia the state. I grew up around people who didn't see me as a person, didn't see me like for my race, for my identity, for my sexuality. I was ostracized for a long time until I came here. And I know what it's like to not have those resources available to you." 11. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebecca Foulen, 16-year-old-reader: STORYLINE: The Brooklyn Public Library is now offering a free library card to anyone in the U.S. aged 13 to 21 who wants to check out and read books digitally from anywhere in the country. The program, called Books UnBanned, was created by Brooklyn Public Library Chief Librarian Nick Higgins in response to the nationwide wave of book censorship and restrictions over the past year. (AP Video/Ted Shaffrey) Subscribe for more Breaking News: http://smarturl.it/AssociatedPress Website: https://apnews.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP Facebook: https://facebook.com/APNews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/eb80cac21dfb487faf9d1a8ba1f5bbb0