Introducing the Bookshelf Initiative | Banned Camp
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RSS Feed This is a bonus episode, not a chapter. Jennifer and Dan are launching something new called the Bookshelf Initiative: every quarter, Banned Camp is giving away a full set of every banned book they've ever covered on the show to one nominated high school librarian. Here's how it works and how to nominate someone before nominations close.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter. We don't read ahead.
Things To Listen For:
- Why eleven seasons of banned books turned into a plan to actually give the books away
- Why this round is scoped to high school librarians specifically, and how that ties back to what's on the shelf, including The Handmaid's Tale
- The one thing they're looking for in a nominee: someone who's fought a book challenge, or is just quietly doing great work while people try to make their job harder
- How short the nomination actually is (school, one line on why, your name and email, no essay required)
- Why you don't need to know the librarian's name to nominate their school
- The full timeline: nominations close September 21, a winner gets picked the following week, and the winner is announced during Banned Books Week, October 4 to 10, the same week the books ship
- A shoutout to the free-expression and library organizations helping spread the word, who'll get named by name when the winner is announced
How to nominate a librarian for the Bookshelf Initiative
Nominations are open now through September 21 at bannedcamppodcast.com/the-bookshelf-initiative. It takes about ninety seconds. Jennifer and Dan go through every nomination themselves and pick a winner September 22 through 28, then announce it in a special bonus episode during Banned Books Week.
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Disclaimer
Banned Camp features readings and discussions of banned books for the purpose of criticism, commentary, education, and entertainment, in accordance with fair use guidelines.
This podcast is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to Margaret Atwood, her estate, or the publishers of The Handmaid's Tale. Any monetization of the podcast is separate from the copyrighted material discussed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Bookshelf Initiative?
The Bookshelf Initiative is a new quarterly giveaway from Banned Camp. Every quarter, the show donates a full set of every banned book it has ever covered to one nominated high school librarian. The flagship round happens every October, timed to Banned Books Week.
How do I nominate a librarian for the Bookshelf Initiative?
Visit bannedcamppodcast.com/the-bookshelf-initiative and submit the school, one line on why, and your name and email. You don't need to know the librarian's name. Nominations for the first round close September 21, 2026.
Topics Covered:
Bookshelf Initiative, Banned Camp, banned books, book donation, high school librarians, Banned Books Week, book bans, censorship, nominate a librarian, banned books podcast
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Why hello everybody.
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Quick heads up before we get going, this is not gonna be a regular Bandcamp episode today.
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It's a little special So no chapter of Handmaid's Tale this time.
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We'll be right back to that on Thursday.
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We promise Chapter 33 is coming it's really depressing.
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You, you, you can wait.
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You'll wanna wait.
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But we did wanna take today and talk to you about something that is pretty cool.
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It's something we're really proud of And in a second, we're gonna ask you to help if you can.
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Promise, it's not gonna be hard.
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You're not gonna burn any precious calories.
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It'll be easy We're in season 11 now, 11 seasons.
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We've read to you 10 and a half books out loud on this show, start to finish, chapter by chapter, without reading ahead And every single one of those books has been kept away from you.
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People have been trying to keep the books away from you, right? And that's the whole point of this show.
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We read the books that people don't want you to read, and then we try to figure out why So anyway, a while back we started thinking, that's dangerous for the two of us together.
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we try, we try not to do it.
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Reading these books out loud is great, but people can't put a podcast episode on a shelf You can't do it, Jennifer.
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Ones and zeros.
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Ones and zeros.
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you scary book people, if you don't believe me, oh my God, am I gonna blow your mind.
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Go to Google and just type ones and zeros.
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You'll see what I mean That's where the Bookshelf Initiative comes in Yeah, so here's how this works.
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Every quarter, we're gonna give away a full set of every single banned book that we've covered on this show.
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The whole bookshelf, not just this season, every book from season one all the way to now, season 11 And we give that whole set to one high school library.
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Somebody doing the hard work every day.
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Maybe it's a librarian fighting off a book challenge right now, or maybe a school that's just quietly making sure that kids have access to the books they need And we just wanna say thank you to the librarians the only way we really know how, by showing up with books And we've got some big news to share about this.
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The actual American Library Association has partnered with us on the Bookshelf initiative Do you understand, you scary book people? The ALA thinks we're happening enough to be part of this.
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It is so insane.
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Not only that, get this, they even asked us to become a partner with them in their Unite Against Book Bans campaign that they do.
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That's their national campaign fighting book bans in libraries and schools all over the country.
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This is, like, such a huge deal to us, and we're so proud of it and we've got more help lining up behind us too.
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If you listen to the show regularly, you already know Beowulf Rocklin, our news speaker, truth seeker.
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Oh God, I'm so tone deaf on that one.
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His company, Two Squared Media Productions, is jumping in to help us get the word out on this too Yeah, so a big thank you to Beowulf and Lisa and everyone over at Two Squared Media for stepping up with us on this So here's what we need from you, Scary Book people.
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If you know a high school librarian or a high school library anywhere in the country who's fought the good fight or just quietly does the work, we want to hear about them All you have to do is go to bandcamppodcast.com/thebookshelfinitiative
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and nominate them.
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It takes like two minutes.
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It's super easy Nominations will close on Sunday, September 27th, so you've got a little bit of time on this, but don't sit on it too long In fact, go do it now while you're thinking about it.
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may- maybe it was your high school.
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I can't nominate my high school librarian, Jennifer, She's, uh, in the grave there.
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yeah, she has to be.
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Mrs.
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Carlson was 147 when she was my librarian, and that was almost 50 years ago.
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I'm not really good with math, but she's gotta be deep underground reading, I will say that.
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Anyway, we're gonna pick a winner.
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After that, we're gonna announce them during Banned Books Week, which is October 4th through the 10th So that's it.
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That's all we're asking.
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Please go nominate a librarian or a library that deserves this And we're gonna be back on Thursday with our normal literary hijinks and, uh, we will continue with the ever delightful The Handmaid's Tale and chapter 33 Thanks for listening everyone Robot, thanks so much for all your help in saying nothing in this episode My pleasure
