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SAN JUAN ISLAND LIBRARY |
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Celebrating the Freedom to Read
“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas During the last week in September Banned Books Week is celebrated to educate people about banned books and to honor our freedom to read and express our opinions. Banned Books Week was first observed in 1982 and now 25 years later bookstores and libraries across the country hold special events and present displays and exhibits every year promoting our freedom to read. We are proud to take part in this initiative and put forward the importance of these ideals. It has recently been shown it is as important as ever for libraries to stand up and protect intellectual freedom and access to information. The American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom of late reported, “More than a book a day faces expulsion from free and open public access in U.S. schools and libraries every year. There have been more than 8,700 attempts since the American Library Association (ALA) began electronically compiling and publishing information on book challenges in 1990.” Further reported was, “There were 405 known attempts to remove books in 2005…about 70 percent of challenges take place in schools and school libraries…the number of challenges reflects only incidents reported, and for each reported, four or five remain unreported.” This year the ALA has continued to develop the range of available resources for use. For the first time you can go to the Banned Books Week website and vote for your favorite book from a list of frequently challenged books. Books range from "Captain Underpants" to "Of Mice and Men." All of the listed books have been challenged during the last 25 years. Votes will be tallied and announced Monday, October 2. https://cs.ala.org/websurvey/pio/challengedbook/index.cfm?CFID=59790507&CFTOKEN=93286273. Also new with Google Book Search you can explore 42 banned or challenged books that appear on the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. At their site you can see basic information about the books and then check to see if we have a copy here in our library. http://books.google.com/googlebooks/banned/ Here at our library Shannan, our Youth Services Librarian, has put together a great display of frequently challenged and banned books throughout our library. We also have a limited supply of our great “I Read Banned Books” button. Come in to the library to get your button and find out the most challenged book of 2005 and the 100 most frequently challenged books. Then go ahead and check out a banned book! For more information on Banned Books Week, book challenges, and censorship go to www.ala.org/bbooks
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