#Hashingout: Banned Books Week - Celebrating the Freedom to Read

In #hashingout, we talk about the issues that are positively GRIPPING the library world. Stay tuned for upcoming #hashingout posts on libraries without books, net neutrality, and open access. In our seminal #hashingout, we hash out:

#BannedBooksWeek

What is Banned Books Week?

photo by ALA

Every year, the American Library Association (ALA) celebrates Banned Books Week near the end of September. This year we celebrate Banned Books Week from September 27th-October 3rd. 

Over the course of each year, the ALA’s office of Intellectual Freedom relies on the self-reporting of libraries to keep track of books that are challenged or outright banned. A book challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials based upon the objections of a person or group. A book being banned is the actual removal of those materials from the library collection in a school or public library across the country. 

In 2014, according to ALA, there were at least 311 instances of books being challenged or removed from collections. Find out the top 10 frequently challenged books of 2014 here.

Why do people want books banned?

photo from ALA.org

Most book challenges and bans are based on claims that the literature is inappropriate, obscene, a danger to the innocence of children, or a danger to the public. Some examples: A K-12 parent is concerned that a book from their child’s school library is inappropriate for them; a book at the public library speaks candidly about a controversial issue; someone is offended by the viewpoint expressed in an author’s work. 

While these concerns are (usually) genuine, ALA takes the stance that no one person or group has the power to mandate what other people are allowed to read or write. ALA, and the majority of  any librarian you are to come across, are very anti-censorship. 

A parent certainly has the right, perhaps even the obligation, to direct their own child’s information seeking habits; but they DO NOT have the right to restrict access to a book they object to for other parents’ children. Likewise, a community member has no right to restrict access to library materials for others in their community based on their personal objections. It is a stance rooted in the first amendment – the one that protects freedom of speech and of the press.

You may be asking yourself, "What exactly are we celebrating? Banning Books?!" Actually, quite the contrary. 

We are celebrating our freedom to read.

Photo: Unknown Creator

Censorship is a very dangerous thing. The censoring of the written word, no matter the format, is crippling to our freedom of thought, expression, and inquiry. Censorship causes missed opportunities to learn from our past. Censorship suppresses thoughts and ideas that are opposed to the status quo. Censorship inhibits our critical thinking skills. Who wants to live in a place like that?

Image: Unknown Author

Image: Unknown Author

“By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship… While books have been and continue to be banned in certain places, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available” (ALA, 2012).

 

photo by The Architecture of Knowledge

Links of Interest?

Check out the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom’s frequently challenged books section to explore the issues and controversies around book challenges and book banning.

This link will bring you to Banned Books That Shaped America.

Click here to learn about some Banned Books Heroes. 

Ellen Hopkins, an author often targeted in challenges and bans, writes an amazing poem about censorship here.

To fight censorship, go to the National Coalition Against Censorship. 

Photo by: romclibrary.com

Image by ALA

References

American Library Association . (2012, December 20). Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read. Retrieved from: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/bannedbooksweek