Brooklyn librarians offer banned books to children

NEW YORK - Librarian Jackson Gomes is part of a movement at the Brooklyn Public Library. It’s a movement, he says, that began once he felt there was a war on books.

"When I work with kids, it worries me that they don’t have access to freedom to read books," says Gomes.

At a time when parents, activists, and conservative lawmakers across the country were aggressively banning book titles they found offensive, Jackson and his colleagues decided to take action.

5 librarians started their own book club. It is called "Books Unbanned." Library Journal has already named them librarians of the year.

"It wasn’t really about the books after a while, it started to become a campaign against people in our communities," said Nick Higgins, the Chief Librarian for Brooklyn Public Library.

"Books Unbanned" offers young readers the chance to read books that have been banned in libraries and classrooms in parts of the US.

The librarians issue an electronic library card that gives access to banned titles online.

So far, more than 6,000 teenagers have requested the cards since the program launched last spring.