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Read Banned Books--An ALASC/Simmons Library Book Display

Posted September 23, 2005

The American Library Association Student Chapter (ALASC) and the Simmons Library are currently featuring a display of challenged and banned books, in conjunction with Banned Books Week 2005.

Since 1990, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has recorded more than 8,300 book challenges. A challenge is a formal, written complaint requesting a book be removed from a library’s shelves or a school’s curriculum. About three out of four challenges are to material in schools or school libraries, and one in four is to material in public libraries. OIF estimates that fewer than one-quarter of challenges are reported and recorded.

Thanks to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, and students, most challenges are unsuccessful, and books like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Slaughterhouse Five, the Harry Potter series, and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Alice series, remain available. The most challenged or restricted reading materials have been books for children. However, challenges are not simply an expression of a point of view; they are an attempt to remove materials from public use, thereby restricting the access of others. Censorship denies our freedom as individuals to choose and think for ourselves.

In support of our right to choose books freely for ourselves, without censorship, the American Library Association is sponsoring Banned Books Week 2005, September 24 through October 1. The Simmons Library and the American Library Association Student Chapter are proud to support this annual event by spotlighting banned books.

The display, entitled Read Banned Books: It’s Your Freedom We’re Talking About, is located on the first floor of the library, across from the elevator.

Please feel free to stop by the Simmons Library and exercise your right to read a book from our new display.

 

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