ULA Annual Conference 2026

Utah has also been one of the more active states in legislating for the removal of books from school libraries. Signed in 2024, Utah’s HB 29 requires that a book be immediately removed from all school libraries if 3 districts deem the book as containing sensitive content which has led to the removal of 19 titles from school libraries. This dramatic rise in censorship begs researchers to ask questions about the feelings and motivations of those involved towards censorship. We need to answer these questions with the hope of finding answers that can bring disparate voices together so that the development of shared values can help us learn to work together. In this presentation we will present conclusions from a qualitative research study about Utah parents' thoughts and experiences with the removal of books from school libraries. This study is helping us to identify parental involvement in and awareness of what constitutes a need for censorship in libraries and homes as we critically engage with a variety of opinions on the validity of book removals to determine what influences, personal or received, create the environment in which we find ourselves.