Instructor: Brandy Horne is the head of instruction and reference at USCA’s Gregg-Graniteville Library. Her research interests include information seeking motivation/behavior and how this impacts civil discourse; trends in book challenges/bans and censorship; and information literacy instruction. Prof. Horne has an MLIS from Valdosta State University and has been at USCA since 2012. Description: The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracks the number of book challenges across the country, and the number of challenges and individual titles has surged in recent years, from approximately 250 unique titles per year for the last 20 years to over 4000 unique titles in 2023. This presentation will discuss trends in book challenges, as well as motivations and other factors contributing to the current surge. We’ll also look at how libraries and other groups have responded to the drastic increase in challenges and discuss how people are advocating for intellectual freedom.