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Banned Books and Censorship

Learn how to best access and research materials banned, censored, or erased from the public

Lewis Library Physical Collections

Our physical items are divided into several distinct collections based on features like how recently they joined our collection or what format they are in. Below are these collections, and what might exist in them pertaining to censorship in America.

First Floor

  • The Discover & Lasallian Collections 
  • The Government Documents and Reference Collections 
  • The Graphic Novel Collection 
  • The New Books 
  • The Videos 

Second Floor

  • The Bound Periodicals 
  • The Curriculum Collection
  • The Local History Collection 
  • The Main Collection
  • The University Archives 

Feel free to browse these collections in-person, or you can do so through our library catalog too. The function is called "Virtual Browse," and it appears at the bottom of each results window, like this:

Call Number Ranges

The call number ranges listed below seem to be where the majority of our physical holdings on censorship live.

HQ 56 -- Sex education in schools

KF 4770s -- American law (regarding the freedom of speech)

LB 3045 -- School textbook choice

Z 657 -- Freedom of the press

Z 1019 -- Prohibited books

Browsing these ranges of our bookshelves can sometimes make you aware of titles your search results might have missed.