In 2025, 17 cases of undue influence were reported at Swedish libraries, situations where librarians did not feel they had the opportunity to make independent decisions without being questioned in a threatening manner, according to the compilation from the Swedish Library Association, Swedish PEN and the Dawit Isaak Library.
Most often, about 70 percent of the cases concerned LGBTQI issues.
You become dismayed and angry. It is important that all stories are available in the library. So even if it is not that many cases, it is 17 cases too many.
Silvia Ernhagen, general secretary of the Swedish Library Association, told Svensk Bokhandel.
