Banned Books Week is an annual event that runs from October 4–10. This year’s theme, “LET BOOKS BE,” highlights the increasing challenges and bans faced by books across the U.S. The event serves as a reminder of the ongoing need to actively protect our freedom to read and access diverse perspectives.

What is a Challenge vs. a Ban?

According to the American Library Association (ALA):

• A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict access to a book or resource.
• A ban occurs when this attempt is successful – the book is removed from shelves, restricted, or made unavailable.

The Numbers Behind Banned Books Week

There were 4,235 unique titles challenged in 2025, the second highest ever documented by ALA.. Most bans took place in school and public libraries, with books relating to race, gender identity, and sexuality being frequent targets.

Since 1990, the ALA has tracked the censorship of books across the country. The statistics have been trending higher for decades, and they remind us of the critical importance of protecting access to all ideas!

More information and data can be found here.

Let Freedom Read Day (October 10)

Here are some ways you can participate in Banned Books Week and show your support for the freedom to read:

1. Check out a banned or challenged book – whether it’s Orwell’s 1984 or one of the top 11 most challenged books of the year, it’s a great way to engage with the issue.
2. Start a conversation. Discuss with friends, in class, or on social media why certain books have been challenged and why access to them matters.
3. Support the right to read. Learn more about how censorship happens and how you can actively respond. Your voice matters in defending intellectual freedom.
   1. Don’t know how to get started? Visit bannedbooksweek.org for different action steps you can take!

Why It Matters

Books give us the chance to see the world from different perspectives and to explore ideas that might challenge our thinking. When books are banned, we limit the opportunity for understanding, empathy, and growth. Banned Books Week is an important reminder to stand up for free expression!

It’s Tolkien Week, and what better time to journey back to Middle-earth?

Whether you’re a lifelong Tolkien fan or simply curious about the world behind The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the UAA/APU Consortium Library has plenty of Tolkien materials to explore.

Why September 22?

Tolkien Week centers around September 22, also known as Hobbit Day, the shared birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

And we have much more than just the novels. Our collection includes academic works exploring Tolkien’s mythology, languages, influences, and other critical opinions/perspectives. But we have some more interesting titles to peruse such as J.R.R. Tolkien : a guide for the perplexed or perhaps A Tolkien compass : including J.R.R. Tolkien’s Guide to the names in The lord of the rings

One of my personal favorites is Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Tolkien wasn’t only a writer. He was also an artist, and this collection of his illustrations gives us a glimpse into how he envisioned the world he was creating.

It’s pretty neat to see Middle-earth through Tolkien’s own eyes, rather than through the many adaptations that came later.

Take a Look

If you’re a Tolkien fan, take a few minutes to browse the collection the next time you’re in the library. Head up to PR6039.O32 and you might find a familiar favorite, discover something completely new, or stumble across a book that answers a question you didn’t even know you had.

And unlike our hobbit-y friends, please keep your shoes on in the library.

Along with the fall semester, so too has soup season arrived. There is something about enjoying a warming bowl at home after a day of walking through the campus’ various wind tunnels that makes it all worth it. I have a few go-to soups that I make year after year, but it’s also fun to try new recipes. When looking for inspiration, I like to browse through the cookbooks at the Library. Here are a few that I pulled out – but there are lots more to look at! The cookbooks generally can be found in the Ts but if you’re looking for soups especially, you can beeline to TX757.

Vietnamese Home Cooking by Charles Phan was not actually with the other soups, but when I think of warm comforting soup, I instantly think of Vietnamese food. The book has a section about soup – including how to make pork, chicken, or beef stock yourself. A largely inactive process, you could let the pot do it’s work while you study. The Pho Gá (chicken noodle soup) and the Cháo (chicken rice porridge) looked especially comforting to me. I like that this book includes cultural context, photos, and stories about the dishes.

Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home published by the Moosewood Collective, is from its namesake restaurant in Ithaca, NY. My mom has several of their cookbooks on her bookshelf, so I associate these books with home. Also not exclusively a soup book, this one includes sections on quickbreads, dips, salads, beans, and grains as well. Many, but not all, the recipes included are vegetarian and could probably be made vegan pretty easily. I’m excited to try The Golden Cheddar Cheese Soup and the Tomato Garlic Soup with Tortellini.

I grabbed Love Soup by Anna Thomas because I saw that it won a James Beard award. I wouldn’t put all my eggs in the James Beard basket, but I was curious to see what might have elicited such praise for a book with a rather unassuming cover. The book divides up soups into fall/winter and spring/summer and also includes recipes for breads, spreads, and salads to make a complete meal (though I’m a big advocate of soup as complete meal!). Browsing through the recipes, I see a lot of intriguing flavor combinations – like Persimmon Soup, Asparagus Bisque with Fresh Dill, and Tomato and Fennel Soup with Blood Orange. I’m particularly interested in trying The Sopa de Ajo and the Farro with Stewed and Roasted Winter Vegetables. I’d also love to try making the Parmesan and Fennel Biscotti – a savory biscotti for soup sounds so fun!

The last book I chose was Soups Stews & Chilis from the editors of Cook’s Illustrated. I typically find Cook’s Illustrated recipes to be quite reliable and I like that the book includes from general tips and tricks at the beginning to help you succeed in making a soup you’re happy with. I’d like to try their French Onion Soup (I have a real weakness for French Onion), Black Bean Soup, and Brazilian Fish Stew with Coconut Milk. The book includes a chapter on curry which I wouldn’t necessarily put in the same category with soup and stew, but maybe we can just consider that a bonus.

I hope you feel inspired to make some soup this fall! You can browse through our cookbooks (which include much more than just soup of course) or, as always, ask us if you’d like help finding something specific.

Interested in how the United States’ government works? Unsure what is available to you for free? A great resource at the UAA/APU Consortium Library is the Government information LibGuide available through the library website found here: https://libguides.consortiumlibrary.org/government_inform 

The LibGuide offers great resources to get started exploring government information, two examples of such resources are: GovInfo.gov and USA.gov.

What is GovInfo.gov? 

GovInfo is a service that is provided by the Government Publishing Office (GPO) that allows for free public access to official government publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. 

GovInfo gives you options to browse alphabetically, by specific collections, within a specific timeframe, by issuing committee or by a specific government author. Basic Keyword searching is also available, as well as Advanced Search and Citation Search. 

The GPO prides itself on providing authentic documents to ensure their integrity and digitally preserves their content for future generations.

For tutorials on how to search GovInfo, check out the following links to explore the variety of videos offered:

• FDLP Tutorials
• GovInfo Tutorials

What is USA.gov?

USA.gov’s mission is to “make it easier for people to find and understand the government services and information they need-anytime, anywhere, any way they want” (USAGov, 2026, USAGov’s mission section).

They also have  a Spanish language counterpart at https://www.usa.gov/es/.

Services range from finding resources on voting/elections, government benefits, disability services, housing help and identifying scams. For a complete list of topics and services that USA.gov provides visit: https://www.usa.gov/#all-topics-header.

USA.gov also provides live agents if you would like to call or chat with one to answer your questions at  https://www.usa.gov/contact-us.

Don’t let the idea of government documents intimidate you, take advantage of free resources available to you and if you have business research inquiries, reach out to UAA/APU’s Business Librarian to set up an appointment. 

References 

GovInfo. (n.d). Discover U.S. Government Information. GovInfo. https://www.govinfo.gov/

USAGov. (n.d). Making government documents easier to find. USAGov. https://www.usa.gov/

USAGov. (2026, July 2). USAGov’s mission and history. USAGov. https://www.usa.gov/mission-history

There are so many subscriptions to keep up with and paywalls can make it hard to access the news – these can make it challenging to stay informed about what’s going on. That’s where the Library comes in – did you know that you can access some newspapers for free through the Consortium Library?

If you are on campus, you’re good to go – if you are off campus, be sure to log in for off-campus access using the link at the top of the Consortium Library website before trying to click any of the links below.

To access the Anchorage Daily News, go here. The second option listed is text only and will show you all the original articles written by local journalists in the ADN. Please note that the text only option will not show you any of the articles from other papers, such as AP News articles that the ADN might republish about national news. To see those articles, click on the third option which includes images. You’ll be able to read through the paper as if it were printed! This database includes newspapers from as far back as 1946, so it can be a great resource for historical research on local events.

Using this database, you can access the New York Times – just note that the database includes everything printed in their daily paper, but does not include web-only content. Newsbank’s America’s News Magazines database includes a number of publications from the lower 48 – you can browse those here.

Need help finding a particular article or newspaper? Reach out to us at the Information & Research Help Desk!