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Smithsonian museums and National Zoo set to close as shutdown takes its toll
Panda Bao Li eats bamboo at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 28. The zoo, as well as other Smithsonian facilities, will be closed beginning on Oct. 12 as the government shutdown continues.
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
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Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
As the government shutdown drags on, Smithsonian museums, the National Zoo and other facilities are the latest to be caught in the fray, with the federal trust announcing the closure of all of its sites beginning on Sunday.
“We will update our operating status as soon as the situation is resolved,” the Smithsonian announced on social media. “We do not plan to update social media other than to inform you of changes to our operating status.”
The closure affects all of the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, its research centers and the National Zoo.
As worried social media users expressed concern about the well-being of the animals at the zoo, the Smithsonian assured its supporters that the animals would still be cared for during the zoo’s closure.
“All the animals at the Zoo and at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, will continue to be fed and cared for,” the Smithsonian said. “A shutdown will not affect our commitment to the safety of our staff and standard of excellence in animal care.”
The zoo’s beloved animal cams, however, are considered nonessential and will be turned off for the remainder of the shutdown.
The Smithsonian receives about 62% of its funding from the federal government, which helps support free admission to all of its D.C. museums and the National Zoo.
Its facilities had been able to keep their doors open for the first 11 days of the shutdown by relying on prior-year funds, but those coffers have since run dry.
The Smithsonian is just the most recent entity to find itself ensnared in the ongoing dispute on government funding.
Some national parks around the country have also been forced to close as staff have been deemed nonessential and sent home until Congress can reach an agreement on government funding.
On Friday, thousands of federal employees across agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education began receiving reduction in force notices, informing them that they would be laid off.
The American Library Association’s list of the most frequently challenged books of 2025 includes Sold by Patricia McCormick, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir.
American Library Association
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American Library Association
The American Library Association has released its annual list of the most commonly challenged books at libraries across the United States.
According to the ALA, the 11 most frequently targeted books include several tied titles. They are:
1. Sold by Patricia McCormick
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
4. Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
5. (tie) Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
5. (tie) Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
8. (tie) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
8. (tie) Identical by Ellen Hopkins
8. (tie) Looking for Alaska by John Green
8. (tie) Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Many of these individual titles also appear on a 2024-25 report issued last October by PEN America, a separate group dedicated to free expression, which looked at book challenges and bans specifically within public schools.
The ALA says that it documented 4,235 unique titles being challenged in 2025 – the second-highest year on record for library challenges. (The highest ever was in 2023, with 4,240 challenges documented – only five more than in this most recent year.)
According to the ALA, 40% of the materials challenged in 2025 were representations of LGBTQ+ people and those of people of color.
In all, the ALA documented 713 attempts across the United States in 2025 to censor library materials and services; 487 of those challenges targeted books.
According to the ALA, 92% of all book challenges to libraries came from “pressure groups,” government officials and local decision makers. While 20.8% came from pressure groups such as Moms for Liberty (as the ALA cited in an email to NPR), 70.9% of challenges originated with government officials and other “decision makers,” such as local board officials or administrators.
In a more detailed breakdown, the ALA notes that 31% of challenges came from elected government officials and and 40% from board members or administrators. In its full report, the ALA states that only 2.7% of such challenges originated with parents, and 1.4% with individual library users.
Fifty-one percent of challenges were attempted at public libraries, and 37% involved school libraries. The remaining challenges of 2025 targeted school curriculums and higher education.
The ALA defines a book “ban” as the removal of materials, including books, from a library. A “challenge,” in this organization’s definition, is an attempt to have a library resource removed, or access to it restricted.
The ALA is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to American libraries and librarians.
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This week, Phil Pritchard, NHL’s Keeper of the Stanley Cup, joins us to about taking the cup jet-skiing and panelists Alonzo Bodden, Adam Burke, and Dulcé Sloan beef with the Pope and get misdiagnosed.
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