From the ALA Web Site:
Banned Books Week (BBW): Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where the freedom to express oneself and the freedom to choose what opinions and viewpoints to consume are both met. As the Intellectual Freedom Manual (ALA, 7th edition) states:
Intellectual freedom can exist only where two essential conditions are met: first, that all individuals have the right to hold any belief on any subject and to convey their ideas in any form they deem appropriate; and second, that society makes an equal commitment to the right of unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used, the content of the work, and the viewpoints of both the author and receiver of information. Freedom to express oneself through a chosen mode of communication, including the Internet, becomes virtually meaningless if access to that information is not protected. Intellectual freedom implies a circle, and that circle is broken if either freedom of expression or access to ideas is stifled.
Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.
Resources
+ Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2008
+ List: Banned and Challenged Classics
+ List: Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century
+ List: Frequently challenged books of the 21st century
Includes where and why the title was banned.
Background Information from 2001 to 2008
Over the past eight years, American libraries were faced with 3,736 challenges.
* 1,225 challenges due to “sexually explicit” material;
* 1,008 challenges due to “offensive language”;
* 720 challenges due to material deemed “unsuited to age group”;
* 458 challenges due to “violence”
* 269 challenges due to “homosexuality”; and
Further, 103 materials were challenged because they were “anti-family,” and an additional 233 were challenged because of their “religious viewpoints.”
1,176 of these challenges (approximately 31%) were in classrooms; 37% were in classrooms; 24% (or 909) took place in public libraries. There were less than 75 challenges to college classes; and only 36 to academic libraries. There are isolated cases of challenges to materials made available in or by prisons, special libraries, community groups, and student groups. The majority of challenges were initiated by parents (almost exactly 51%), while patrons and administrators followed behind (11% and 6% respectively)
+ List: The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books by Decade
++ 1990-1999
+ List: Frequently Challenged Books by Year
Look for the links on the left-hand side of this page. Top 10 lists for 2001-2008 are available.
+ List: Most frequently challenged authors of the 21st century
+ List: Most Frequently Challenged Authors of Color List
+ Challenges to library materials
Includes definitions, “to clarify terminology associated with challenges.”
+ Number of Challenges by Year, Reason, Institution, & Initiator (1990 – 2008)
+ School Library Media Centers and Intellectual Freedom (via ALA)
+ Banned Books Week and the Freedom of the Press: Using a research collection for campus outreach (via ACRL News)
An article by Melissa A. Hubbard, a rare book librarian at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
+ Library Bill of Rights
++ Access to Electronic Information, Services, and Networks An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
+++ Questions and Answers: Access to Electronic Information, Services, and Networks: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
+ Ideas and Resources
++ Clip Art and Badges
++ BBW Proclamation
++ Activity Ideas for Banned Books Week
+ ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom
+ ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee
Source: Office of Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association
+ See Also: BannedBooksWeek.org
++Book Censorship Map
+ See Also: Resources from the Association of American Publishers (AAP)
++ Freedom to Read Briefs 2008/2009 (PDF)
++ Materials from Various Publishers
+ See Also: Banned Books Week Handbook (American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression)
See Also: Anti-Censorship Center (National Council of Teachers of English, NCTE)
++ NCTE Position Statements on Censorship and Intellectual Freedom
Videos
4 New Videos (from ALA Annual Conference 2009) Now Available from the Office of Intellectual Freedom. You can access direct links and summaries to them via this ResourceShelf post. The video programs are titled:
+ “My, those novels certainly are… graphic!”
+ “Privacy in an Era of Change”
+ “Libraries, Librarians, and America’s War on Sex”
+ “Intellectual Freedom on the Front Lines”
Press
+ Our View – A good week to read a few banned books (via Iowa City Press-Citizen, 9/25/2009)
+ Opinion: Finding Censorship Where There Is None (via Wall Street Journal, 9/25/2009)
+ Advocates Protest Censorship For Banned Books Week: ‘Read-Out’ By Banned Or Challenged Authors Set For Saturday In Chicago (CBS 2-Chicago, 9/25/2009)
+ Passages From ‘Banned Books’ to Be Read Aloud (The Ledger, Lakeland, FL, 9/21/2009)
+ Norman parent’s questions stop author’s visit to school (The Daily Oklahoman, 9/22/2009)
+ Banned Books Week adopts author’s anti-censorship poem as manifesto (The Guardian, 9/24/2009)
+ Even Banned Books Week has its detractors (surprise?) (Comic Book Resources)
+ Banned Books Week: Still Needed in the U.S. (via The Huffington Post)
+ Maya Angelou shares thoughts on Banned Book Week (via Press-Enterprise)
Manuals
+ California Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual
+ Colorado Association of Libraries, Intellectual Freedom Manual
+ Florida Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual
+ Kansas Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual
+ Louisiana Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual (PDF)
+ Maryland Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual (PDF)
+ New York Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual
+ Virginia Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual
||| PDF Version
+ South Dakota Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual (PDF)
+ Utah Library Association Intellectual Freedom Manual And Action Guide
