Banned Books Week

September 27th marks the first day of Banned Books Week 2008. Banned Books Week (BBW) has been observed every year since 1982. BBW is about democracy and intellectual freedom – freedom to choose the books that you want. BBW is about helping to ensure that there is unrestricted access to information, no matter whether a person agrees or disagrees with that point of view. It is about our First Amendment Right to freedom of speech and attempts to draw attention to the fact that individuals and organizations consistently try to ban books from the public and promote the concept of censorship. In 2007, the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom received over 400 challenges to books requesting that the materials be removed from a particular library.

If you want to stand up to book banning and censorship, then read or talk about a banned book. You might also considering joining an organization dedicated to intellectual freedom issues.

Here are some quotes to ponder:

“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable”
- Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.

“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

“A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone”
- Jo Goodwin

Want to know more about banned books and censorship? Check out these sites:

BannedBooksWeek.org

ALA: Banned Books Week - Celebrating the Freedom to Read

Amnesty International USA: Banned Books Week

National Coalition Against Censorship

ALA: Censorship Basics

PBS: Definitions of Censorship

Denver Public Library: Banned Books Week 2008

by Stacey Bowers, Access Services Librarian