Banned Books Week

2011

Banned Books Week

• Celebrates the freedom to read and freedom from censorship.

• Observed since 1982 during the last week of September, the week reminds us that while not every book is intended for every reader, each of us has the right to decide for ourselves.

• Although they were the targets of attempted bannings, most of the books featured during BBW were not banned, thanks to the efforts of librarians to maintain them in their collections.

Intellectual Freedom

• is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction.

• is important because Libraries provide the ideas and information, in a variety of formats, to allow people to inform themselves.

• is the basis for our democratic system. We expect our people to be self-governors.

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."

-- Mark Twain

• Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons—individuals, groups or government officials—find objectionable or dangerous.

• The censor wants to make decisions for everyone.

• In most instances, a censor is a sincerely concerned individual who believes that censorship can improve society, protect children, and restore what the censor sees as lost moral values.

First Amendment• Under this amendment, each of us has

the right to read, view, listen to, and disseminate constitutionally protected ideas, even if a censor finds those ideas offensive.

• People who object to certain ideas are exercising the same rights as those who created and distributed the material they find objectionable.

• The rights of both sides must be protected, or neither will survive.

• The question is should ONE person be allowed to THINK for everyone?

Don’t Librarians Censor Everything They Choose Not To Buy For The Library?

• No library can make everything available, and selection decisions must be made.

• Librarians select materials that fit the mission of the library and reflect the needs of the community.

What's the Difference between a Challenge and a Banning?

• A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group.

• A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint filed with a library regarding the presence and/or appropriateness of specific

material.• A banning is the removal

of those materials.

Things that make you go Hmm . . .

• "If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed."-- Benjamin Franklin, 1730

Books Challenged, Restricted, Removed, or Banned in 2009 and 2010 – as reported in the Newsletter on

Intellectual Freedom

You may recognize a few!

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. Thorndike Press; Little.

Retained on the summer reading list at Antioch, Ill. High School (2009) despite objections from several parents who found its language vulgar and racist.

Boyle, T.C. The Tortilla Curtain. Viking.

Challenged on the Santa Rosa, Calif. High School reading list (2010). A review committee approved the continued use of the book with guidelines such as, “The teacher must appropriately prepare students for parts of the book that may be considered provocative.”

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. Holt.

Challenged at the Easton, Penn. School District (2010), but retained despite a parent’s claim the book promotes “economic fallacies” and socialist ideas.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Lippincott/Harper; Popular Library.

Removed from the St. Edmund Campion Secondary School classrooms in Brampton, Ontario, Canada (2009) because a parent objected to language used in the novel.

Shusterman, Neal. Unwind. Simon & Schuster.

Withdrawn from classroom use and the approved curriculum at the Montgomery County, Ky. High School (2009), but available at the high school library and student book club. Some parents contend that the book doesn’t provide the intellectual challenge and rigor that students need in college prep classes.

Challenged Books(some information from The Forbidden Library website)

• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne Frank. Modern Library. – Four members of the

Alabama State Textbook Committee (1983) called for the rejection of this book because it is a "real downer."

– Challenged at the Culpeper County, Va. Public school (2010); Complaints that the book includes sexual material and homosexual themes.

Kotzwinkle, William and Glenn Murray. Walter theFarting Dog. Frog, Ltd.

Challenged, but retained on the library shelves ofthe West Salem, Wis. Elementary School (2004) despite the book's use ofthe word "fart" and "farting" twenty-four times. Source: May 2004, p. 118.

Challenged Books(The Forbidden Library website)

• The Bible. – William Tyndale, who partially completed translating

the Bible into English, was captured, strangled, and burned at the stake (1536) by opponents of the movement to translate the bible into the vernacular.

– Beginning around 1830, "family friendly" bibles, including Noah Webster's version (1833) began to appear which had excised passages considered to be indelicate.

Challenged Books(from The Forbidden Library website)

• The Call of the Wild. Jack London. Ace; Bantam; Grosset; Macmillan; NAL; Penguin; Pocket Bks.; Raintree; Tempo. – Banned in Italy (1929),

Yugoslavia (1929), and burned in Nazi bonfires (1932).

– Who knew Nazis didn't like sled dogs?

Snyder, Zilpha KeatleyThe Egypt Game. Dell; Macmillan.

Challenged as part of a reading list in a fourth-grade class at Southern Hills Elementary School in Wichita Falls, Texas (2009) because the book includes scenes depicting Egyptian worship rituals.

Challenged Books(from The Forbidden Library website)

• A Light in the Attic. Shel Silverstein. Harper. – Challenged at the

Cunningham Elementary School in Beloit, Wis. (1985) because the book "encourages children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them."

– Removed from Minot, N.Dak. Public School libraries when the superintendent found "suggestive illustrations."

Books Challenged in Louisianafrom Middleton Library (LSU) website

• BLACK HAWK DOWN - Removed from a classroom in Lafourche Parish in 2008 for violating the district policy on cursing.

• A LESSON BEFORE DYING - Removed from LA College bookstore in 2004, content clashes with school's Christian values.

• LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE - Challenged in Lafourche Parish in 1993 because offensive to Indians.

• OF MICE AND MEN - Challenged in Alexandria in 1992 because of profanity.

• TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Challenged in Caddo Parish in 1995 because of objectionable language and content.

One last thought . . .

• "Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance."-- Lyndon Baines Johnson, February 11, 1964

Websites

• LSU Library

http://www.lib.lsu.edu/edu/bbweek/

• American Library Association

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

• American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression

http://www.abffe.org/banned2007.htm