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Banned Books
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The title "Banned Books Week" is frequently questioned because many books in the program are not officially banned, but being challenged. (Or they have been challenged in the past) The ALA cites two major reasons for not changing the name. The first has to do with sponsorship of the week. The ALA is not the sole sponsor, so unless all sponsors agreed to a name change it could not happen. This probably won't happen because a challenge can ultimately lead to a ban on a book, and the idea they are promoting revolves around the end result, the ban. So "Banned Books Week" is a more useful title in their overall aims.
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As Banned Books Week takes place across the nation this September, Trinity University will be participating by offering original programs and events. Since 1990, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom has recorded more than 8,300 book challenges, and there were 546 known attempts to remove books in 2006, 141 more than in 2005, or a 35% increase. About 70% of the challenges took place in schools and school libraries, where students and teachers often have little or no say in the matter. Institutions of higher education are in a unique position to affirm the freedom to read and write and to promote an environment of tolerance and informed discussion.
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Banned Books * Are you a fan of Film Noir, Art House, Documentaries or Hong Kong Action? * Searching for a long-lost children's book or a first printing of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on vinyl? Find it at Alibris!
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Challenges have gone up and down over the past few years, but overall have dropped by more than half since Banned Books Week was started. Judith Krug, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, cited a couple of possible factors for the decline: Librarians are better prepared to organize community support on behalf of a book, and would-be censors are focusing more on online content.
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Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Association of American Publishers and the National Association of College Stores. It is ... endorsed by the Library of Congress' Center for the Book.
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A major theme of this year's Banned Book Awareness Week will be Religious Censorship and Persecution. The historic elements of the censorship of religious expression is rife with examples of persecution and the suppression of religious texts and thought. Moreover, despite international legal guarantees designed to ensure freedom of religious expression, religious freedom is not a global reality. In 2006 people around the world are persecuted, imprisoned and killed for their religious beliefs. Many countries continue to officially ban or censor religious texts and publications while socially imposed norms and practices limit the expression of religion and availability of sacred texts and other writings on religion throughout the world.
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