Wednesday, 18 November 2009 22:50
Should a library be able to tell children what they can and can not read? The issue is being highly debated in Jessamine County.
Two Jessamine county library employees were fired last month when they took The League of Extraordinary Gentleman: Black Dossier off hold so a 12 year old girl couldn’t check it out.
Many people support the women's decision and others say it’s censorship. The library heard from both sides Wednesday.
In front of a packed room Wednesday, the Jessamine County Library Board listened to people voice their opinion on whether or not they should be limiting what children are reading.
“If you only have things people agree with there is no room for development, change, consideration or debate," Jessamine County resident, Christine Powell, said.
"This material is graphic in content and it should be put in a part of the library where only adults can access it," former pastor, Kevin Hearn said.
The argument stems from last months firings of Sharon Cook and Beth Boisvert.
http://www.wtvq.com/news/1064-library-book-debate-continues
20 November 2009
Library keeps Sex, Etc. magazine in teen section
By Jennifer Meyer, Staff Writer
Published: Friday, November 20, 2009 11:49 AM CST
A magazine about sex will stay where teens can find it at the Ames Public Library.
The Library Board of Trustees voted 6-1 Thursday to support Director Art Weeks’ recommendation to continue openly displaying and offering free copies of Sex, Etc. in the teen section.
Trustee Melody Warnick, however, said she agonized over the issue before casting the dissenting vote.
“It is very frank and honest in a way that teens need,” Warnick said, “but I agree with the Bannantines’ complaint … that we’re privileging this magazine over everything else that we have in the library.”
http://www.amestrib.com/articles/2009/11/20/ames_tribune/news/doc4b05f6d68a99e797160561.txt
Published: Friday, November 20, 2009 11:49 AM CST
A magazine about sex will stay where teens can find it at the Ames Public Library.
The Library Board of Trustees voted 6-1 Thursday to support Director Art Weeks’ recommendation to continue openly displaying and offering free copies of Sex, Etc. in the teen section.
Trustee Melody Warnick, however, said she agonized over the issue before casting the dissenting vote.
“It is very frank and honest in a way that teens need,” Warnick said, “but I agree with the Bannantines’ complaint … that we’re privileging this magazine over everything else that we have in the library.”
http://www.amestrib.com/articles/2009/11/20/ames_tribune/news/doc4b05f6d68a99e797160561.txt
16 November 2009
Panel votes to remove book from library
Twenty years after the band Nirvana released its first album a District 192 review panel has decided a book about the band’s lead singer is inappropriate for elementary and middle school students.
The panel reviewed the book, “Kurt Cobain,” Nov. 4 after the parent of a Riverview Elementary School third grader filed a complaint. The book is from publisher Edge Books’ Rock Music Library series of books. According to administrative services director Rosalyn Pautzke, a member of the review panel, it is geared toward students from ages 12 to 15.
A summary at online bookseller bn.com describes the book as high-interest material “coupled with a reading level for middle elementary grades.”
But Pautzke said most on the review panel found the book’s material too dark for the elementary-age audience it was presented to. The first image inside the book’s cover is a glossy, full-color image of Cobain’s body being wheeled out of his home following his suicide in 1994.
http://www.farmingtonindependent.com/event/article/id/13049/
The panel reviewed the book, “Kurt Cobain,” Nov. 4 after the parent of a Riverview Elementary School third grader filed a complaint. The book is from publisher Edge Books’ Rock Music Library series of books. According to administrative services director Rosalyn Pautzke, a member of the review panel, it is geared toward students from ages 12 to 15.
A summary at online bookseller bn.com describes the book as high-interest material “coupled with a reading level for middle elementary grades.”
But Pautzke said most on the review panel found the book’s material too dark for the elementary-age audience it was presented to. The first image inside the book’s cover is a glossy, full-color image of Cobain’s body being wheeled out of his home following his suicide in 1994.
http://www.farmingtonindependent.com/event/article/id/13049/
Wichita Falls Parents Seek To Ban A Book
The book called The Egypt Game is part of a reading list in a fourth-grade class at Southern Hills Elementary. Some parents have a problem with the reading selection. The book has been an optional part of the Wichita Falls School District's curriculum for years. However, the Turnbow family said they won't stop until the book is banned.
Multimedia
It's a Newbery Award-winning story about a group of children who invent a game involving Egyptian gods, but the Turnbows said its not a game they want their child knowing about.
http://www.kauz.com/news/local/69721972.html
Multimedia
It's a Newbery Award-winning story about a group of children who invent a game involving Egyptian gods, but the Turnbows said its not a game they want their child knowing about.
http://www.kauz.com/news/local/69721972.html
Middle schools yank graphic cartoon book
A cartoon anthology filled with teenage angst, four-letter words and some drug and sexual references has been pulled from the student library collections at two Sioux Falls public middle schools.
The school district averages about one complaint per year concerning library material, but this is the first time since at least 2001 that a book has been made unavailable to students.
A committee that reviewed the graphic novel said unanimously that it's inappropriate for middle school students. The book's editor says the cartoons are true to life and could help struggling teens and pre-teens understand that they're not alone.
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200911110155/NEWS/911110303
The school district averages about one complaint per year concerning library material, but this is the first time since at least 2001 that a book has been made unavailable to students.
A committee that reviewed the graphic novel said unanimously that it's inappropriate for middle school students. The book's editor says the cartoons are true to life and could help struggling teens and pre-teens understand that they're not alone.
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200911110155/NEWS/911110303
Novel will not be banned from Roanoke Co. school libraries
However, freshmen and sophomores will need parental permission to check out "The Perks of Being a Wallflower."
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/226161
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/226161
06 November 2009
Roanoke Schools Temporarily Removes 'Perks of Being a Wallflower'
By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 11/4/2009 2:05:00 PM
Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (MTV, 1999) is in trouble again—and this time it’s been removed from shelves as it goes through the review process outlined by Virginia’s Roanoke County Public Schools.
Read the full article at:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6705458.html
Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (MTV, 1999) is in trouble again—and this time it’s been removed from shelves as it goes through the review process outlined by Virginia’s Roanoke County Public Schools.
Read the full article at:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6705458.html
27 October 2009
Censor crosses out cussing
By CHRIS GRAHAM/chrisgraham@c-dh.net
Someone has been crossing out dirty words in books, and employees at the Maury County Library aren’t happy about it.
http://www.c-dh.net/articles/2009/10/26/top_stories/01censor.txt
Someone has been crossing out dirty words in books, and employees at the Maury County Library aren’t happy about it.
http://www.c-dh.net/articles/2009/10/26/top_stories/01censor.txt
'Caged Bird' the next book debate?
Board member challenges educator's qualifications to teach African-American culture
NEWMAN - The school district which found itself in the national spotlight and was widely criticized for pulling a controversial novel from its high school curriculum earlier this year has cracked open a new chapter of book debate.
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" may prove to be the sequel to the "Bless Me, Ultima" saga in the Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District.
You can access it at the following URL:
http://westsideconnect.com/content/view/2834/57/
NEWMAN - The school district which found itself in the national spotlight and was widely criticized for pulling a controversial novel from its high school curriculum earlier this year has cracked open a new chapter of book debate.
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" may prove to be the sequel to the "Bless Me, Ultima" saga in the Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District.
You can access it at the following URL:
http://westsideconnect.com/content/view/2834/57/
22 October 2009
Conyers, Nadler and Scott: Reform Patriot Act, Fight Terrorism While Protecting our Civil Liberties
(Washington)– House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), and Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) today introduced the USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009. The bill would amend and extend expiring Patriot Act and related provisions needed to combat terrorism, while at the same time better protecting Americans’ privacy and civil liberties. The same Committee leaders also introduced the FISA Amendments Act of 2009, which would amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to safeguard the constitutional rights of Americans while ensuring that the government has the tools it needs to collect foreign intelligence.
“Over the past eight years, Americans grew tired of the same old scare tactics, designed to fool the public into believing that we needed to give up freedom to be safe from terrorism,” said Conyers. “It is a new day and an opportunity for reform. The truth is that we can protect our nation from terrorist threats by giving our government the tools it needs while also ensuring there are checks and balances to protect against abuses.”
“This legislation is borne of the necessity to reign in the overbroad provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and ensure that the law is consistent with constitutional standards,” said Nadler. “As we reauthorize expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act, it is essential that we protect our homeland without abusing executive power or unnecessarily compromising the privacy of American citizens. In particular, this bill includes provisions of my legislation to reform National Security Letters – the National Security Letters Reform Act of 2009 – which are critical for protecting Americans against government invasion of privacy and, generally, for restoring critical checks and balances to our government. Notably, the bill would allow Americans to use libraries and bookstores without fear that their choice of books will be monitored by overzealous federal agents.”
“Benjamin Franklin got it right when he said, ’those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety,’” said Scott. “These bills assure that we secure our liberties and our freedoms without diminishing either.”
A short summary of the USA Patriot Amendments Act and FISA legislation follows. Section-by-section summaries of both bills are attached.
H.R. 3845, USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009 Brief Summary
Title I: Patriot Act Related Amendments
Roving Wiretaps
• Clarifies roving wiretap laws in order to ensure that the government only conducts surveillance on a single, identifiable target.
Section 215 Orders
• Improves the standard for issuing a Section 215 order by requiring specific and articulable facts to show that the tangible things sought are relevant to an authorized investigation, other than a threat assessment.
• Provides recipients of Section 215 orders with the ability to immediately challenge both the underlying order and any gag order associated with it.
• Facilitates compliance with already existing minimization procedures to ensure proper safeguards pertaining to information collected via Section 215 orders.
• Prohibits a request for Section 215 records to a library or bookseller for documentary materials that contain personally identifiable information concerning a patron.
Criminal “Sneak and Peak” Searches
• Adopts safeguards against abuse of searches where notice to subject of search is delayed by shortening the initial 30 day delay period to 7 days, requiring that any application for an extension in the 7 day delay be made by the Senate confirmed US Attorney in the district where the delayed notice warrant was originally obtained, and removing ability to obtain delay by merely alleging that notice would “otherwise seriously jeopardize an investigation or unduly delay a trial.”
Pen Register and Trap and Trace Device
• Requires more specificity in the application for pen register and trap and trace and establishment of minimizations procedures.
Nationwide Court Orders
• Allows a provider of electronic communication service or remote computing service to challenge a subpoena, order, or warrant requiring disclosure of customer communications or records in either the district in which the order was issued or the district in which the order was served.
Audits, Reports, and Sunsets
• Requires annual Inspector General audits and reports to Congress on the use of Section 215 orders, NSLs, and Pen Registers and Trap and Trace Devices through the end of 2013.
• Provisions pertaining to Section 215, NSLs, and roving wiretaps will sunset on December 31, 2013.
Lone Wolf
• Allows the Lone Wolf provision to sunset at the end of this year (December 31, 2009).
Title II: NSL Reform
• Ensures that the FBI can obtain basic information without a court order, but also adds reasonable safeguards.
• Improves the issuance standard for NSLs by requiring specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the information sought pertains to a foreign power or agent of a foreign power, and requires the FBI to record them in a written certification.
• Improves procedures which provide an opportunity for an NSL recipient to challenge the NSL itself and any gag order associated with it.
• Authorizes meaningful, constitutionally sound judicial review of NSLs and associated gag orders.
• Requires the Attorney General to authorize the use of any information acquired or derived from an NSL in a criminal proceeding.
• Requires the Attorney General to establish minimization and destruction procedures to ensure that information obtained pursuant to an NSL regarding persons who are no longer of interest in an authorized investigation is destroyed.
H.R. 3846, FISA Amendments Act of 2009 Brief Summary
Telecommunications Immunity
• Repeals the retroactive immunity provision in the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, leaving it to the courts to determine whether telephone companies that complied with the illegal warrantless wiretapping program acted properly under the laws in effect at the time and therefore deserve immunity.
Bulk Collection
• Prevents the government from using the warrantless collection authorities of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to conduct “bulk collection,” which could include the collection of the contents of all communications between the United States and the rest of the world.
Reverse Targeting
• Places additional limits on the warrantless collection authorities of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to ensure that they are not used as a pretext when the government’s real goal is to target the Americans with whom the ostensible foreign target is communicating.
Use of Unlawfully Obtained Information
• Limits the government’s use of information about U.S. persons that is obtained under FISA Amendments Act of 2008 procedures that the FISA Court later determines to be unlawful, while still giving the FISA Court flexibility to allow such information to be used in appropriate cases.
Protections for International Communications of Americans
• Permit unfettered acquisition of foreign-to-foreign communications and of communications of suspected terrorists into or out of the United States, while creating safeguards for communications not related to terrorism that the government knows have one end in the United States.
“Over the past eight years, Americans grew tired of the same old scare tactics, designed to fool the public into believing that we needed to give up freedom to be safe from terrorism,” said Conyers. “It is a new day and an opportunity for reform. The truth is that we can protect our nation from terrorist threats by giving our government the tools it needs while also ensuring there are checks and balances to protect against abuses.”
“This legislation is borne of the necessity to reign in the overbroad provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and ensure that the law is consistent with constitutional standards,” said Nadler. “As we reauthorize expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act, it is essential that we protect our homeland without abusing executive power or unnecessarily compromising the privacy of American citizens. In particular, this bill includes provisions of my legislation to reform National Security Letters – the National Security Letters Reform Act of 2009 – which are critical for protecting Americans against government invasion of privacy and, generally, for restoring critical checks and balances to our government. Notably, the bill would allow Americans to use libraries and bookstores without fear that their choice of books will be monitored by overzealous federal agents.”
“Benjamin Franklin got it right when he said, ’those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety,’” said Scott. “These bills assure that we secure our liberties and our freedoms without diminishing either.”
A short summary of the USA Patriot Amendments Act and FISA legislation follows. Section-by-section summaries of both bills are attached.
H.R. 3845, USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009 Brief Summary
Title I: Patriot Act Related Amendments
Roving Wiretaps
• Clarifies roving wiretap laws in order to ensure that the government only conducts surveillance on a single, identifiable target.
Section 215 Orders
• Improves the standard for issuing a Section 215 order by requiring specific and articulable facts to show that the tangible things sought are relevant to an authorized investigation, other than a threat assessment.
• Provides recipients of Section 215 orders with the ability to immediately challenge both the underlying order and any gag order associated with it.
• Facilitates compliance with already existing minimization procedures to ensure proper safeguards pertaining to information collected via Section 215 orders.
• Prohibits a request for Section 215 records to a library or bookseller for documentary materials that contain personally identifiable information concerning a patron.
Criminal “Sneak and Peak” Searches
• Adopts safeguards against abuse of searches where notice to subject of search is delayed by shortening the initial 30 day delay period to 7 days, requiring that any application for an extension in the 7 day delay be made by the Senate confirmed US Attorney in the district where the delayed notice warrant was originally obtained, and removing ability to obtain delay by merely alleging that notice would “otherwise seriously jeopardize an investigation or unduly delay a trial.”
Pen Register and Trap and Trace Device
• Requires more specificity in the application for pen register and trap and trace and establishment of minimizations procedures.
Nationwide Court Orders
• Allows a provider of electronic communication service or remote computing service to challenge a subpoena, order, or warrant requiring disclosure of customer communications or records in either the district in which the order was issued or the district in which the order was served.
Audits, Reports, and Sunsets
• Requires annual Inspector General audits and reports to Congress on the use of Section 215 orders, NSLs, and Pen Registers and Trap and Trace Devices through the end of 2013.
• Provisions pertaining to Section 215, NSLs, and roving wiretaps will sunset on December 31, 2013.
Lone Wolf
• Allows the Lone Wolf provision to sunset at the end of this year (December 31, 2009).
Title II: NSL Reform
• Ensures that the FBI can obtain basic information without a court order, but also adds reasonable safeguards.
• Improves the issuance standard for NSLs by requiring specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the information sought pertains to a foreign power or agent of a foreign power, and requires the FBI to record them in a written certification.
• Improves procedures which provide an opportunity for an NSL recipient to challenge the NSL itself and any gag order associated with it.
• Authorizes meaningful, constitutionally sound judicial review of NSLs and associated gag orders.
• Requires the Attorney General to authorize the use of any information acquired or derived from an NSL in a criminal proceeding.
• Requires the Attorney General to establish minimization and destruction procedures to ensure that information obtained pursuant to an NSL regarding persons who are no longer of interest in an authorized investigation is destroyed.
H.R. 3846, FISA Amendments Act of 2009 Brief Summary
Telecommunications Immunity
• Repeals the retroactive immunity provision in the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, leaving it to the courts to determine whether telephone companies that complied with the illegal warrantless wiretapping program acted properly under the laws in effect at the time and therefore deserve immunity.
Bulk Collection
• Prevents the government from using the warrantless collection authorities of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to conduct “bulk collection,” which could include the collection of the contents of all communications between the United States and the rest of the world.
Reverse Targeting
• Places additional limits on the warrantless collection authorities of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to ensure that they are not used as a pretext when the government’s real goal is to target the Americans with whom the ostensible foreign target is communicating.
Use of Unlawfully Obtained Information
• Limits the government’s use of information about U.S. persons that is obtained under FISA Amendments Act of 2008 procedures that the FISA Court later determines to be unlawful, while still giving the FISA Court flexibility to allow such information to be used in appropriate cases.
Protections for International Communications of Americans
• Permit unfettered acquisition of foreign-to-foreign communications and of communications of suspected terrorists into or out of the United States, while creating safeguards for communications not related to terrorism that the government knows have one end in the United States.
As Congress Prepares to Reauthorize the Patriot Act, Reader Privacy Must be Protected
by Judy Platt
While I love to talk books with friends and colleagues, reading for me is a private and personal matter. Government agents secretly privy to what I read might be a fact of life in a dictatorship but it isn't anything I need to worry about in this country. We have a First Amendment that entitles us to read and think freely. Right?
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judy-platt/as-congress-prepares-to-r_b_324329.html
While I love to talk books with friends and colleagues, reading for me is a private and personal matter. Government agents secretly privy to what I read might be a fact of life in a dictatorship but it isn't anything I need to worry about in this country. We have a First Amendment that entitles us to read and think freely. Right?
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judy-platt/as-congress-prepares-to-r_b_324329.html
Controversial Book Series Banned From Wicomico Public Schools
Wicomico County Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Fredericksen on Thursday announced that a controversial series of Japanese graphic novels has been removed from all public school media centers. http://www.wboc.com/global/story.asp?s=11321353
15 October 2009
Church to burn books (and records) for Halloween
There is video here as well: http://www.kbmt12.com/news/local/63968712.html
North Carolina church to burn ‘Satan’s books,’ including works of Mother Teresa Raw Story
By Kathleen MillerWednesday, October 14th, 2009 -- 11:50 am
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http://rawstory.com/2009/10/n-c-church-to-burn-satans-books-including-works-of-mother-theresa/
A Baptist Church near Asheville, N.C., is hosting a "Halloween book burning" to purge the area of "Satan's" works, which include all non-King James versions of the Bible, popular books by many religious authors and even country music.
The website for the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C., says there are "scriptural bases" for the book burning. The site quotes Acts 19:18-20: "And many that believed, came and confessed and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts, brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed."
Church leaders deem Good News for Modern Man, the Evidence Bible, the New International Version Bible, the Green Bible and the Message Bible, as well as at least seven other versions of the Bible as "Satan's Bibles," according to the website. Attendees will also set fire to "Satan's popular books" such as the work of "heretics" including the Pope, Mother Teresa, Billy Graham and Rick Warren.
"I believe the King James version is God's preserved, inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God," Pastor Marc Grizzard told a local news station of his 14-member parish.
Grizzard's parish website explains that the Bible is the "final authority concerning all matters of faith and practice," for Amazing Grace Baptist Church. In the Parish doctrinal statement, Grizzard expounds that "the Scriptures shall be interpreted according to their normal grammatical-historical meaning, and all issues of interpretation and meaning shall be determined by the preacher."
The event also seeks to destroy "Satan's music" which includes every genre from country,rap and rock to "soft and easy" and "Southern Gospel" and" contemporary Christian."
David Lynch, a resident of nearby Asheville, N.C., told Raw Story "it's a little disconcerting how close this is to my home."
"They are burning so much stuff I've dubbed them the hypocritical Christian Taliban," Lynch said in a phone interview with Raw Story. "Just the scope of all the information they want to destroy is pretty disturbing."
Church leaders did not respond to Raw Story's requests for comment, but the website notes they will be providing "bar-b-que chicken, fried chicken and all the sides" at the book burning.
North Carolina church to burn ‘Satan’s books,’ including works of Mother Teresa Raw Story
By Kathleen MillerWednesday, October 14th, 2009 -- 11:50 am
Share on Facebook Stumble This!
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/n-c-church-to-burn-satans-books-including-works-of-mother-theresa/
A Baptist Church near Asheville, N.C., is hosting a "Halloween book burning" to purge the area of "Satan's" works, which include all non-King James versions of the Bible, popular books by many religious authors and even country music.
The website for the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C., says there are "scriptural bases" for the book burning. The site quotes Acts 19:18-20: "And many that believed, came and confessed and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts, brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed."
Church leaders deem Good News for Modern Man, the Evidence Bible, the New International Version Bible, the Green Bible and the Message Bible, as well as at least seven other versions of the Bible as "Satan's Bibles," according to the website. Attendees will also set fire to "Satan's popular books" such as the work of "heretics" including the Pope, Mother Teresa, Billy Graham and Rick Warren.
"I believe the King James version is God's preserved, inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God," Pastor Marc Grizzard told a local news station of his 14-member parish.
Grizzard's parish website explains that the Bible is the "final authority concerning all matters of faith and practice," for Amazing Grace Baptist Church. In the Parish doctrinal statement, Grizzard expounds that "the Scriptures shall be interpreted according to their normal grammatical-historical meaning, and all issues of interpretation and meaning shall be determined by the preacher."
The event also seeks to destroy "Satan's music" which includes every genre from country,rap and rock to "soft and easy" and "Southern Gospel" and" contemporary Christian."
David Lynch, a resident of nearby Asheville, N.C., told Raw Story "it's a little disconcerting how close this is to my home."
"They are burning so much stuff I've dubbed them the hypocritical Christian Taliban," Lynch said in a phone interview with Raw Story. "Just the scope of all the information they want to destroy is pretty disturbing."
Church leaders did not respond to Raw Story's requests for comment, but the website notes they will be providing "bar-b-que chicken, fried chicken and all the sides" at the book burning.
30 September 2009
Banned Books Week
posted by Peter Rothberg on 09/29/2009 @ 4:23pm
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/actnow/478684/banned_books_week
I wasn't surprised to read that the American Library Association (ALA) reported at least 513 actual and attempted book bannings in the US in 2008. Here's the list of the ten most frequently challenged books of last year.
What did surprise me is this interactive map showing exactly where the bannings have taken place. Would you have guessed that many of the bluest states have been just as guilty as the cradle of the Confederacy? New England's puritanical heritage seems to be holding sway with the Eastern Seaboard awash in incidents of censorship.
Along with the locations of each incident, the map notes the offending titles and offer brief summaries of the cases against these tomes. The controversies range from predictable fears about magic-related YA fiction to traditional opposition to classics like Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The transgressions range from the use of profanity and slang, to allegedly offensive depictions of racial or religious groups, to portrayals of homosexuals as anything other than mentally ill.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/actnow/478684/banned_books_week
I wasn't surprised to read that the American Library Association (ALA) reported at least 513 actual and attempted book bannings in the US in 2008. Here's the list of the ten most frequently challenged books of last year.
What did surprise me is this interactive map showing exactly where the bannings have taken place. Would you have guessed that many of the bluest states have been just as guilty as the cradle of the Confederacy? New England's puritanical heritage seems to be holding sway with the Eastern Seaboard awash in incidents of censorship.
Along with the locations of each incident, the map notes the offending titles and offer brief summaries of the cases against these tomes. The controversies range from predictable fears about magic-related YA fiction to traditional opposition to classics like Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The transgressions range from the use of profanity and slang, to allegedly offensive depictions of racial or religious groups, to portrayals of homosexuals as anything other than mentally ill.
Worried about provacative books, Leesburg votes to separate collection by age groups
Activists ask Leesburg commissioners to move racy books for teens at library
By Christine Show
Sentinel Staff Writer
September 28 2009, 7:29 PM EDT
LEESBURG -- Responding to a call by parents, church and community leaders concerned about provacative books available to teens at the Leesburg Public Library, city commissioners tonight voted 4-1 to separate all books based on age groups.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-racy-book-controversy-092809,0,3897922.story
By Christine Show
Sentinel Staff Writer
September 28 2009, 7:29 PM EDT
LEESBURG -- Responding to a call by parents, church and community leaders concerned about provacative books available to teens at the Leesburg Public Library, city commissioners tonight voted 4-1 to separate all books based on age groups.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-racy-book-controversy-092809,0,3897922.story
Banned Books Week: Still Needed in the U.S.
Joan E. Bertin
This piece was co-authored by Chris Finan, President of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.
For a country that venerates its First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech, the United States tries to ban books with alarming frequency.
Stick a pin in each place where there's been a challenge to a school or library book, and you'll have a map of the United States that looks like a hedgehog in need of a haircut.
This year already, challenges have been reported from Montana to Indiana to Texas, in high schools and libraries, and from classics like Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, to newer books like Brent Hartinger's The Geography Club and Chris Crutcher's Chinese Handcuffs.
This February in West Bend, Wisconsin, a local couple filed a petition calling for the Library Advisory Board to remove or label several Young Adult titles, including Francesca Lia Block's Baby Be Bop and Stephen Chobsky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, because they felt that all the books in the young-adult section that dealt with homosexuality were "gay-affirming." The couple also requested that the library build a collection of books by "ex-gays" in order to achieve an ideological balance.
As this debate raged on, four members of the library board were not reappointed because of accusations that they were "promoting the indoctrination of the gay agenda." Then the Christian Civil Liberties Union Milwaukee branch filed a lawsuit against the city of West Bend, complaining that the mere presence of some of the young adult books in the library caused "mental and emotional harm" to the elderly plaintiffs. The CCLU seeks $30,000 in damages per plaintiff, the mayor's resignation, and the removal of the books for a public burning (literally!).
As the late, great, and much-censored author Kurt Vonnegut would say: And so it goes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-e-bertin/banned-books-week-still-n_b_302248.html
This piece was co-authored by Chris Finan, President of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.
For a country that venerates its First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech, the United States tries to ban books with alarming frequency.
Stick a pin in each place where there's been a challenge to a school or library book, and you'll have a map of the United States that looks like a hedgehog in need of a haircut.
This year already, challenges have been reported from Montana to Indiana to Texas, in high schools and libraries, and from classics like Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, to newer books like Brent Hartinger's The Geography Club and Chris Crutcher's Chinese Handcuffs.
This February in West Bend, Wisconsin, a local couple filed a petition calling for the Library Advisory Board to remove or label several Young Adult titles, including Francesca Lia Block's Baby Be Bop and Stephen Chobsky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, because they felt that all the books in the young-adult section that dealt with homosexuality were "gay-affirming." The couple also requested that the library build a collection of books by "ex-gays" in order to achieve an ideological balance.
As this debate raged on, four members of the library board were not reappointed because of accusations that they were "promoting the indoctrination of the gay agenda." Then the Christian Civil Liberties Union Milwaukee branch filed a lawsuit against the city of West Bend, complaining that the mere presence of some of the young adult books in the library caused "mental and emotional harm" to the elderly plaintiffs. The CCLU seeks $30,000 in damages per plaintiff, the mayor's resignation, and the removal of the books for a public burning (literally!).
As the late, great, and much-censored author Kurt Vonnegut would say: And so it goes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-e-bertin/banned-books-week-still-n_b_302248.html
Don't read that! The secret lives of book banners
Julia Keller
CULTURAL CRITIC
September 27 2009
My childhood was a bloodbath.
The blood stayed safely confined within the covers of books, but still: I relished gore. I ate up stories of serial killers and ax murderers and remorseless poisoners. I couldn't get enough of gun-toting hoodlums. Supernatural creatures, such as the vampires that currently flit and hover over pop culture, did not intrigue; my passion was strictly reserved for true crime, for the real-life roguery that imperils our every step -- or so one might think, from these lurid accounts.
My obsession worried my mother, who feared she had hatched a monster. One day, while I was busy toiling in a fourth-grade classroom at Geneva Kent Elementary School in Huntington, W.Va., she went into my room and gathered up my true-crime stash. I returned home, discovered the theft and confronted her: What had she done with my precious books?
"I threw them away," she replied with an infuriating calmness.
Oh, the outrage! Seething, I resolved then and there to run away from home -- Alaska sounded nice -- and get a head start on my destiny, which involved the establishment of a detective agency. What especially rankled was that my mother's fears had been wrong-headed: I didn't identify with the killers. I identified with the cops, the sleuths who cracked the case. I wanted to solve the crime -- not perpetrate it.
That day marked my first encounter with banned books.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0927-lit-life-banned-bookssep27,0,2766625.column
CULTURAL CRITIC
September 27 2009
My childhood was a bloodbath.
The blood stayed safely confined within the covers of books, but still: I relished gore. I ate up stories of serial killers and ax murderers and remorseless poisoners. I couldn't get enough of gun-toting hoodlums. Supernatural creatures, such as the vampires that currently flit and hover over pop culture, did not intrigue; my passion was strictly reserved for true crime, for the real-life roguery that imperils our every step -- or so one might think, from these lurid accounts.
My obsession worried my mother, who feared she had hatched a monster. One day, while I was busy toiling in a fourth-grade classroom at Geneva Kent Elementary School in Huntington, W.Va., she went into my room and gathered up my true-crime stash. I returned home, discovered the theft and confronted her: What had she done with my precious books?
"I threw them away," she replied with an infuriating calmness.
Oh, the outrage! Seething, I resolved then and there to run away from home -- Alaska sounded nice -- and get a head start on my destiny, which involved the establishment of a detective agency. What especially rankled was that my mother's fears had been wrong-headed: I didn't identify with the killers. I identified with the cops, the sleuths who cracked the case. I wanted to solve the crime -- not perpetrate it.
That day marked my first encounter with banned books.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0927-lit-life-banned-bookssep27,0,2766625.column
22 September 2009
Intellectual freedom videos from 2009 ALA Annual Conference now online!
OIF has four new videos up featuring programs from the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. Check them out!
http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=552
“My, those novels certainly are… graphic!”
One of the most popular intellectual freedom programs in years, this panel discussion was sponsored by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, Association of American Publishers, and Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Speakers: Neil Gaiman, Terry Moore, and Craig Thompson. Moderated by Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
“Privacy in an Era of Change”
An engrossing conversation about the status of privacy under the new administration. Cosponsored by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee and the ALA Washington Office. Speakers: Mary Ellen Callahan, Chief Privacy Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; David Sobel, Senior Counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and Craig Wacker, program officer for the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media & Learning initiative.
“Libraries, Librarians, and America’s War on Sex”
Sex ed advocate Marty Klein discusses the importance of having sexual information available to all library users. Sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table.
“Intellectual Freedom on the Front Lines”
Librarians and library supporters from West Bend, Wisconsin share their perspective on the protracted censorship challenges going on in their community at this issues briefing session, sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Committee and the Freedom to Read Foundation. (See a blog post on the session from American Libraries’ Inside Scoop here.)
http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=552
“My, those novels certainly are… graphic!”
One of the most popular intellectual freedom programs in years, this panel discussion was sponsored by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, Association of American Publishers, and Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Speakers: Neil Gaiman, Terry Moore, and Craig Thompson. Moderated by Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
“Privacy in an Era of Change”
An engrossing conversation about the status of privacy under the new administration. Cosponsored by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee and the ALA Washington Office. Speakers: Mary Ellen Callahan, Chief Privacy Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; David Sobel, Senior Counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and Craig Wacker, program officer for the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media & Learning initiative.
“Libraries, Librarians, and America’s War on Sex”
Sex ed advocate Marty Klein discusses the importance of having sexual information available to all library users. Sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table.
“Intellectual Freedom on the Front Lines”
Librarians and library supporters from West Bend, Wisconsin share their perspective on the protracted censorship challenges going on in their community at this issues briefing session, sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Committee and the Freedom to Read Foundation. (See a blog post on the session from American Libraries’ Inside Scoop here.)
21 September 2009
Your librarian, the freedom fighter
September 21, 2009
By Guy Tridgell Southtown Star
Nothing about Diane Norris indicates a freedom fighter is at work. As assistant director of youth services at the Orland Park Public Library, Norris helps to oversee the section containing children's books and juvenile literature. It's a quiet comfortable environment on the building's ground level, where most of the noise comes from kids still unwise to the ways of library etiquette.
"Controversial" is not the word that comes to mind describing the place and her job.
But if you need help finding "And Tango Makes Three" or "King & King" - two books for children that have been asked to be pulled from libraries throughout the country for their gay overtones - Norris will help. Happily.
To read the full story, click here: http://www.southtownstar.com/news/tridgell/1781568,092109tridgell.article
By Guy Tridgell Southtown Star
Nothing about Diane Norris indicates a freedom fighter is at work. As assistant director of youth services at the Orland Park Public Library, Norris helps to oversee the section containing children's books and juvenile literature. It's a quiet comfortable environment on the building's ground level, where most of the noise comes from kids still unwise to the ways of library etiquette.
"Controversial" is not the word that comes to mind describing the place and her job.
But if you need help finding "And Tango Makes Three" or "King & King" - two books for children that have been asked to be pulled from libraries throughout the country for their gay overtones - Norris will help. Happily.
To read the full story, click here: http://www.southtownstar.com/news/tridgell/1781568,092109tridgell.article
14 September 2009
School book ban raises censorship concerns in PR
By MANUEL ERNESTO RIVERA (AP)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4QmRHmriAQs3Jsy13LgLMGU-RtgD9AM19RG1
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Several university professors in Puerto Rico are protesting a decision to ban five books from the curriculum at public high schools in the U.S. territory because of coarse language.
The Spanish-language books previously were read as part of the 11th grade curriculum, but proofreaders this year alerted education officials about "coarse" slang, including references to genitalia in "Mejor te lo cuento: antologia personal," by Juan Antonio Ramos.
Also among the banned books is the novel "Aura" by Carlos Fuentes of Mexico, one of Latin America's most prominent contemporary writers. The other four authors affected are from Puerto Rico.
Magali Garcia Ramis, a communications professor at the University of Puerto Rico, expressed concern Saturday about how books are being evaluated by the island's Department of Education.
"This kind of mentality rejects everything that is art and only associates sexuality with inappropriateness," Garcia Ramis said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4QmRHmriAQs3Jsy13LgLMGU-RtgD9AM19RG1
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Several university professors in Puerto Rico are protesting a decision to ban five books from the curriculum at public high schools in the U.S. territory because of coarse language.
The Spanish-language books previously were read as part of the 11th grade curriculum, but proofreaders this year alerted education officials about "coarse" slang, including references to genitalia in "Mejor te lo cuento: antologia personal," by Juan Antonio Ramos.
Also among the banned books is the novel "Aura" by Carlos Fuentes of Mexico, one of Latin America's most prominent contemporary writers. The other four authors affected are from Puerto Rico.
Magali Garcia Ramis, a communications professor at the University of Puerto Rico, expressed concern Saturday about how books are being evaluated by the island's Department of Education.
"This kind of mentality rejects everything that is art and only associates sexuality with inappropriateness," Garcia Ramis said.
12 September 2009
'Racy' Twilight books banned from schools in Australia
'Racy' Twilight books banned from schools September 12, 2009
Twilight books "too racy" for children have been removed from libraries"Goes against religious beliefs" http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26062002-421,00.html
PRIMARY school students have been banned from reading the teen cult classic Twilight books because they are too racy. Librarians have stripped the books from shelves in some junior schools because they believe the content is too sexual and goes against religious beliefs, The Daily Telegraph reports. They even have asked parents not to let kids bring their own copies of Stephenie Meyer's smash hit novels - which explore the stormy love affair between a teenage girl and a vampire - to school. Santa Sabina College at Strathfield was so concerned about the Twilight craze that teachers ran a seminar for Year 6 students to discuss sexual and supernatural themes in the books. The school's head librarian Helen Schutz said: "We don't have a policy of censorship but the issues in the Twilight series are quite different from the Harry Potter classics.
Twilight books "too racy" for children have been removed from libraries"Goes against religious beliefs" http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26062002-421,00.html
PRIMARY school students have been banned from reading the teen cult classic Twilight books because they are too racy. Librarians have stripped the books from shelves in some junior schools because they believe the content is too sexual and goes against religious beliefs, The Daily Telegraph reports. They even have asked parents not to let kids bring their own copies of Stephenie Meyer's smash hit novels - which explore the stormy love affair between a teenage girl and a vampire - to school. Santa Sabina College at Strathfield was so concerned about the Twilight craze that teachers ran a seminar for Year 6 students to discuss sexual and supernatural themes in the books. The school's head librarian Helen Schutz said: "We don't have a policy of censorship but the issues in the Twilight series are quite different from the Harry Potter classics.
10 September 2009
Libraries and the First Amendment exhibit
In July, the McCormick Freedom Museum in Chicago created a brand new exhibit: Libraries and the First Amendment. The exhibit explores the many ways that libraries are both bastions and battlegrounds of First Amendment freedoms. Libraries and the First Amendment has two main components. First is the virtual exhibit at www.FreedomInLibraries.org that features case studies, interactives, and comment boards. The second is a versatile poster show that transforms any public library into an exhibition space.
The exhibit is offered as a free service to any library.
The exhibit is offered as a free service to any library.
08 September 2009
Yale criticized for nixing Muslim cartoons in book
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer John Christoffersen, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 8, 10:41 am ET
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale University has removed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad from an upcoming book about how they caused outrage across the Muslim world, drawing criticism from prominent alumni and a national group of university professors.
Yale cited fears of violence.
Yale University Press, which the university owns, removed the 12 caricatures from the book "The Cartoons That Shook the World" by Brandeis University professor Jytte Klausen. The book is scheduled to be released next week.
A Danish newspaper originally published the cartoons — including one depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban — in 2005. Other Western publications reprinted them.
The following year, the cartoons triggered massive protests from Morocco to Indonesia. Rioters torched Danish and other Western diplomatic missions. Some Muslim countries boycotted Danish products.
Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
"I think it's horrifying that the campus of Nathan Hale has become the first place where America surrenders to this kind of fear because of what extremists might possibly do," said Michael Steinberg, an attorney and Yale graduate.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090908/ap_on_re_us/us_prophet_drawings_yale
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale University has removed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad from an upcoming book about how they caused outrage across the Muslim world, drawing criticism from prominent alumni and a national group of university professors.
Yale cited fears of violence.
Yale University Press, which the university owns, removed the 12 caricatures from the book "The Cartoons That Shook the World" by Brandeis University professor Jytte Klausen. The book is scheduled to be released next week.
A Danish newspaper originally published the cartoons — including one depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban — in 2005. Other Western publications reprinted them.
The following year, the cartoons triggered massive protests from Morocco to Indonesia. Rioters torched Danish and other Western diplomatic missions. Some Muslim countries boycotted Danish products.
Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
"I think it's horrifying that the campus of Nathan Hale has become the first place where America surrenders to this kind of fear because of what extremists might possibly do," said Michael Steinberg, an attorney and Yale graduate.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090908/ap_on_re_us/us_prophet_drawings_yale
EPIC seeks to intervene in Books settlement, says privacy policies are no solution
While the CDT finds Google’s new privacy promises a good first step, the Electronic Privacy Information Center apparenty feels differently. Not content to file a brief on the matter, EPIC is actually seeking to intervene in the case (PDF), since, it says, none of the parties are representing the public’s interests, which are massively impacted by the settlement.
http://government.zdnet.com/?p=5366
http://government.zdnet.com/?p=5366
Congress weighs landmark change in Web ad privacy
Congress weighs landmark change in Web ad privacy
By JOELLE TESSLER (AP)
WASHINGTON — The Web sites we visit, the online links we click, the search queries we conduct, the products we put in virtual shopping carts, the personal details we reveal on social networking pages — all of this can give companies insight into what Internet ads we might be interested in seeing.
But privacy watchdogs warn that too many people have no idea that Internet marketers are tracking their online habits and then mining that data to serve up targeted pitches — a practice known as behavioral advertising.
So Congress could be stepping in. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, is drafting a bill that would impose broad new rules on Web sites and advertisers. His goal: to ensure that consumers know what information is being collected about them on the Web and how it is being used, and to give them control over that information.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jDu3Jz5Pe_pkSNm1gHftBmK1AzdQD9AIHAP00
By JOELLE TESSLER (AP)
WASHINGTON — The Web sites we visit, the online links we click, the search queries we conduct, the products we put in virtual shopping carts, the personal details we reveal on social networking pages — all of this can give companies insight into what Internet ads we might be interested in seeing.
But privacy watchdogs warn that too many people have no idea that Internet marketers are tracking their online habits and then mining that data to serve up targeted pitches — a practice known as behavioral advertising.
So Congress could be stepping in. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, is drafting a bill that would impose broad new rules on Web sites and advertisers. His goal: to ensure that consumers know what information is being collected about them on the Web and how it is being used, and to give them control over that information.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jDu3Jz5Pe_pkSNm1gHftBmK1AzdQD9AIHAP00
02 September 2009
Privacy Missing From Google Books Settlement
If Google digitizes the world's books, how will it keep track of what you read?
That's one of the unanswered questions that librarians and privacy experts are grappling with as Google attempts to settle a long-running lawsuit by publishers and copyright holders and move ahead with its effort to digitize millions of books, known as the Google Books Library Project.
http://www.nytimes.com/external/idg/2009/08/28/28idg-privacy-missing-from-google-books-settlement-94780.html?emc=eta1
That's one of the unanswered questions that librarians and privacy experts are grappling with as Google attempts to settle a long-running lawsuit by publishers and copyright holders and move ahead with its effort to digitize millions of books, known as the Google Books Library Project.
http://www.nytimes.com/external/idg/2009/08/28/28idg-privacy-missing-from-google-books-settlement-94780.html?emc=eta1
24 August 2009
Free Tin Tin! Brooklyn Public Library made a big mistake when it put racist book in a locked room
By Michael Meyers Special to NYDailyNews.com
Saturday, August 22nd 2009, 12:51 PM
By placing a racist illustrated book, "Tin Tin Au Congo," behind locked doors, and making it available only upon request and appointment, the Brooklyn Public Library is sending the wrong message about how to deal with controversial works. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/08/22/2009-08-22_free_tin_tin.html#ixzz0P7XhIK5d
Saturday, August 22nd 2009, 12:51 PM
By placing a racist illustrated book, "Tin Tin Au Congo," behind locked doors, and making it available only upon request and appointment, the Brooklyn Public Library is sending the wrong message about how to deal with controversial works. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/08/22/2009-08-22_free_tin_tin.html#ixzz0P7XhIK5d
20 August 2009
New Book Censorship Map Reveals National Problem
http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=528
Have you ever wondered where challenges to books in the United States actually occur? A new book censorship map featured on the BannedBooksWeek.org site illustrates that censorship efforts take place all across the country. The Google map displays more than 120 book challenges—from Maine to Florida and from Long Island, New York, to San Francisco, California—that have occurred since the beginning of 2007. These challenges represent a small portion of those recorded, and have been culled from cases documented by the Kids’ Right to Read Project, which is sponsored by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the National Coalition Against Censorship, and the American Library Association’s “Books Challenged or Banned in 2007-2008″ (pdf) list, by Robert P. Doyle.
Have you ever wondered where challenges to books in the United States actually occur? A new book censorship map featured on the BannedBooksWeek.org site illustrates that censorship efforts take place all across the country. The Google map displays more than 120 book challenges—from Maine to Florida and from Long Island, New York, to San Francisco, California—that have occurred since the beginning of 2007. These challenges represent a small portion of those recorded, and have been culled from cases documented by the Kids’ Right to Read Project, which is sponsored by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the National Coalition Against Censorship, and the American Library Association’s “Books Challenged or Banned in 2007-2008″ (pdf) list, by Robert P. Doyle.
19 August 2009
One library’s alternative to book banning
By Marjorie Kehe 08.19.09
Christian Science Monitor: http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2009/08/19/one-librarys-alternative-to-book-banning/
When a book offends, what’s a library to do? Keep it on the shelves – and risk the wrath and upset of some patrons? Or remove it – and raise serious questions about censorship and intellectual freedom?According to the New York Times, the Brooklyn Public Library is trying to navigate a type of middle path as it deals with the controversial “Tintin au Congo” by Belgian comics writer Hergé. The Tintin books are a – mostly – beloved series about the adventures of young reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy. Tintin and Snowy are only likely to become more popular in America as they become the stars of a Steven Spielberg film set for release in 2011.
But the 79-year-old “Tintin au Congo” depicts Africans in a fashion that many readers find offensive and a Brooklyn library patron registered a formal complaint. So in an effort to keep the book off the shelves without making it entirely inaccessible, the library has moved it to a back room where it is held under lock and key and can be seen only by appointment.
It’s an unusual move – and it marks the first time the library has taken such action, despite the numerous controversial titles among its collection. (The Times notes that Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” can be found on its shelves, no appointment needed.)
To become too responsive to public discomfort can put a library in very tight straits. (The Times mentions one library that banned children’s classic “Eloise in Paris” after a parent became upset because the children in the story visit a museum with a nude statue.)
And yet the public library is just that – an institution that serves the public. “You do walk a fine line, making sure your materials are accessible, while being respectful of community standards,’’ Alice Knapp, a former president of the Connecticut Library Association, told the Times.
Christian Science Monitor: http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2009/08/19/one-librarys-alternative-to-book-banning/
When a book offends, what’s a library to do? Keep it on the shelves – and risk the wrath and upset of some patrons? Or remove it – and raise serious questions about censorship and intellectual freedom?According to the New York Times, the Brooklyn Public Library is trying to navigate a type of middle path as it deals with the controversial “Tintin au Congo” by Belgian comics writer Hergé. The Tintin books are a – mostly – beloved series about the adventures of young reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy. Tintin and Snowy are only likely to become more popular in America as they become the stars of a Steven Spielberg film set for release in 2011.
But the 79-year-old “Tintin au Congo” depicts Africans in a fashion that many readers find offensive and a Brooklyn library patron registered a formal complaint. So in an effort to keep the book off the shelves without making it entirely inaccessible, the library has moved it to a back room where it is held under lock and key and can be seen only by appointment.
It’s an unusual move – and it marks the first time the library has taken such action, despite the numerous controversial titles among its collection. (The Times notes that Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” can be found on its shelves, no appointment needed.)
To become too responsive to public discomfort can put a library in very tight straits. (The Times mentions one library that banned children’s classic “Eloise in Paris” after a parent became upset because the children in the story visit a museum with a nude statue.)
And yet the public library is just that – an institution that serves the public. “You do walk a fine line, making sure your materials are accessible, while being respectful of community standards,’’ Alice Knapp, a former president of the Connecticut Library Association, told the Times.
18 August 2009
Library Board refuses to censor book from teen section
original link: http://www.effinghamdailynews.com/local/local_story_230112621.html
Donna Riley-Gordon
Effingham Daily News
Effingham Helen Matthes Library Board was united in its stance against censorship Monday when it unanimously agreed to deny a request to remove a book from the teen section.Board members were adamant against censoring what books the public had access to, indicating it was up to parents and other patrons to preview materials prior to reading to decide if the book met individual tastes or value systems.Amy and Brad Hibdon and their five children all use the library, but the Hibdon’s became concerned about a particular book being offered in the teen section of the library after they read it because their 15-year-old daughter had checked out the book and seemed upset by the content.The book, “Living Dead Girl,” written by Elizabeth Scott, is about a 15-year-old’s perspective of living with her captor after being forcibly kidnapped and imprisoned at the age of 10. The book has received several accolades from book critics.The Hibdons formally requested the book be removed from the library or at least the teen section because of the graphic content of the book and the unsatisfactory ending. The main character is murdered at the end of the book.
Donna Riley-Gordon
Effingham Daily News
Effingham Helen Matthes Library Board was united in its stance against censorship Monday when it unanimously agreed to deny a request to remove a book from the teen section.Board members were adamant against censoring what books the public had access to, indicating it was up to parents and other patrons to preview materials prior to reading to decide if the book met individual tastes or value systems.Amy and Brad Hibdon and their five children all use the library, but the Hibdon’s became concerned about a particular book being offered in the teen section of the library after they read it because their 15-year-old daughter had checked out the book and seemed upset by the content.The book, “Living Dead Girl,” written by Elizabeth Scott, is about a 15-year-old’s perspective of living with her captor after being forcibly kidnapped and imprisoned at the age of 10. The book has received several accolades from book critics.The Hibdons formally requested the book be removed from the library or at least the teen section because of the graphic content of the book and the unsatisfactory ending. The main character is murdered at the end of the book.
14 August 2009
Move to remove book won't protect students
The following editorial contains a word that many people may find offensive
One complaint and a Brampton high school principal folded like a cheap tent and removed one of the 20th century's finest books from the Grade 10 curriculum.
One complaint and St. Edmund Campion Secondary School students can no longer study Harper Lee's classic To Kill A Mockingbird in the classroom.
They can still read the book, which is available in the school's library and in local bookstores. One complaint hasn't banned it there, at least not yet.
But it's ridiculous that this complaint from a parent will deprive students from studying a novel which won the Pulitzer prize for literature in 1961.
This principal certainly had options. He could have stood by the book, told the parent of its merits, and said it would be taught.
The offended parent also had options. His or her teenager could have asked to read another book in place of To Kill A Mockingbird.
At least then the other 25 or 30 students in the class would not have been deprived of the experience of discussing and writing assignments about Lee's classic.
Not to mention learning about the fictional lives of Atticus Finch, his children Scout and Jem, Boo Radley, Tom Robinson and the Ewell family.
http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1699172
One complaint and a Brampton high school principal folded like a cheap tent and removed one of the 20th century's finest books from the Grade 10 curriculum.
One complaint and St. Edmund Campion Secondary School students can no longer study Harper Lee's classic To Kill A Mockingbird in the classroom.
They can still read the book, which is available in the school's library and in local bookstores. One complaint hasn't banned it there, at least not yet.
But it's ridiculous that this complaint from a parent will deprive students from studying a novel which won the Pulitzer prize for literature in 1961.
This principal certainly had options. He could have stood by the book, told the parent of its merits, and said it would be taught.
The offended parent also had options. His or her teenager could have asked to read another book in place of To Kill A Mockingbird.
At least then the other 25 or 30 students in the class would not have been deprived of the experience of discussing and writing assignments about Lee's classic.
Not to mention learning about the fictional lives of Atticus Finch, his children Scout and Jem, Boo Radley, Tom Robinson and the Ewell family.
http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1699172
05 August 2009
Web site tracks world online censorship reports
Web site tracks world online censorship reports
by JEANNIE NUSS, Associated Press Writer - Tue Aug 4, 2009 1:50PM EDT
BOSTON - When Shanghai blogger Isaac Mao tried to watch a YouTube clip of Chinese police beating Tibetans, all he got was an error message.
Mao thought the error — just after the one-year anniversary of a crackdown on Tibetan protesters in China — was too suspicious to be coincidental, so he reported it on a new Harvard-based Web site that tracks online censorship.
Meanwhile, more than 100 other people in China did the same thing. The spike in reports on Herdict.org in March pointed to government interference rather than a run-of-the-mill technical glitch, even before Google Inc. confirmed China was blocking its YouTube video-sharing site.
Full story: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090804/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_online_censorship_site
by JEANNIE NUSS, Associated Press Writer - Tue Aug 4, 2009 1:50PM EDT
BOSTON - When Shanghai blogger Isaac Mao tried to watch a YouTube clip of Chinese police beating Tibetans, all he got was an error message.
Mao thought the error — just after the one-year anniversary of a crackdown on Tibetan protesters in China — was too suspicious to be coincidental, so he reported it on a new Harvard-based Web site that tracks online censorship.
Meanwhile, more than 100 other people in China did the same thing. The spike in reports on Herdict.org in March pointed to government interference rather than a run-of-the-mill technical glitch, even before Google Inc. confirmed China was blocking its YouTube video-sharing site.
Full story: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090804/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_online_censorship_site
04 August 2009
Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights Update
http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=508
In preparation of the 8th Edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual, the Intellectual Freedom Committee revised several Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights, which were adopted as amended by the ALA Council. The Committee also proposed three new interpretations to the Library Bill of Rights: “Importance of Education to Intellectual Freedom,” “Minors and Internet Interactivity,” and “Services to Persons with Disabilities.” “Services to Persons with Disabilities” was adopted by ALA Council during the 2009 Midwinter Meeting in Denver, CO. “Importance of Education to Intellectual Freedom” and “Minors and Internet Interactivity” were adopted by the ALA Council during the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL.
All the revised and new Interpretations will be available in the 8th Edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual. Publication of the Manual is scheduled to coincide with the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. They are also available on the ALA site, Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights.
In preparation of the 8th Edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual, the Intellectual Freedom Committee revised several Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights, which were adopted as amended by the ALA Council. The Committee also proposed three new interpretations to the Library Bill of Rights: “Importance of Education to Intellectual Freedom,” “Minors and Internet Interactivity,” and “Services to Persons with Disabilities.” “Services to Persons with Disabilities” was adopted by ALA Council during the 2009 Midwinter Meeting in Denver, CO. “Importance of Education to Intellectual Freedom” and “Minors and Internet Interactivity” were adopted by the ALA Council during the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL.
All the revised and new Interpretations will be available in the 8th Edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual. Publication of the Manual is scheduled to coincide with the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. They are also available on the ALA site, Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights.
03 August 2009
Reps. Markey and Eshoo Introduce Internet Freedom Preservation Act
Would amend Communications Act to mandate net neutrality
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/31/2009 5:17:23 PM EDT
Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Ann Eshoo (D-Calif.) have given the industry and their colleagues something to ponder over the August recess: network neutrality.The pair Friday introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009, according to a draft of the bill supplied by Public Knowledge, which called it a bold first step that was bound to be a conversation starter.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/326163-Reps_Markey_and_Eshoo_Introduce_Internet_Freedom_Preservation_Act.php
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/31/2009 5:17:23 PM EDT
Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Ann Eshoo (D-Calif.) have given the industry and their colleagues something to ponder over the August recess: network neutrality.The pair Friday introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009, according to a draft of the bill supplied by Public Knowledge, which called it a bold first step that was bound to be a conversation starter.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/326163-Reps_Markey_and_Eshoo_Introduce_Internet_Freedom_Preservation_Act.php
30 July 2009
FTRF urges Supreme Court to reject broad speech ban
CHICAGO – The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF), the First Amendment legal defense arm of the American Library Association (ALA), has joined publishers, booksellers, writers and other media groups in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a statute that, if upheld, would allow the government to ban a wide range of material it deems to lack value, including many mainstream books, magazines and movies.
http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2009/july2009/broadspeechban_ftrf.cfm
http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2009/july2009/broadspeechban_ftrf.cfm
27 July 2009
23 July 2009
Library fight riles up city, leads to book-burning demand
A fight over books depicting sex and homosexuality has riled up a small Wisconsin city, cost some library board members their positions and prompted a call for a public book burning.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/22/wisconsin.book.row/
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/22/wisconsin.book.row/
23 April 2009
04 March 2009
Article about CIPA in Public Libraries and Schools
I found this article to be an interesting comparative study on how CIPA works and fails in public libraries and schools. The article raises several thought provoking questions as to why public libraries are given the same kinds of guidelines/treatments as school libraries, when the end users and missions can differ wildly.
I also found the research conducted on filtering issues to be particularly valuable, as well as the information about the number of libraries that are NOT CIPA compliant on purpose.
Here is the citation for the article:
Jaeger, P (2009).Information Technology and Libraries. 28, 6-14.
Happy Reading!
I also found the research conducted on filtering issues to be particularly valuable, as well as the information about the number of libraries that are NOT CIPA compliant on purpose.
Here is the citation for the article:
Jaeger, P (2009).Information Technology and Libraries. 28, 6-14.
Happy Reading!
2009 Call for Conference Programs, Preconferences, Roundtables and Posters
Participate as a program presenter at the 2000 Arizona Library Association Annual Conference on December 7-9, 2009 at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel & Spa in Glendale.
Proposals for Conference Programs, Preconferences, Roundtable and Poster Sessions are now being accepted through Friday, April 24, 2009. Visit the conference website at http://www.azla.org/displayconvention.cfm to submit your proposal via the online form.
2008 Conference Theme – Libraries Lighting the Way
This theme emphasizes how libraries are like a beacon, illuminating access to information when times are dark and using innovative ways to remain a vital and relevant source for our users and communities.
We invite program proposals on all topics such as:
Leadership Issues
Collaborative Projects
Emerging Trends and Innovations
Stewardship
Intellectual Freedom, Privacy, and Equity of Access
Technology Application
Service
Literacy, Learning, and Reading
Marketing and Outreach
Back by popular demand - Roundtable Discussions!
Roundtable discussions were so popular we decided to make them a permanent part of the conference. Lead a 45-minute informal, small group discussion session on a hot library topic. Facilitators develop a topic, facilitate discussion, and ensure useful content for the attendees. The role of facilitators is to keep the group focused, encourage creative thinking, and keep everyone involved in the discussion. Facilitators initiate group discussion but do not present a program or prepared lecture on the topic. This type of program will give attendees the opportunity to network, share information, and solve common problems.
President's Program Award
The AzLA Program Committee will select the program that best embodies the conference theme, Libraries Lighting the Way. This program will earn the title President’s Program and will be highlighted in the conference program book and on the conference web page. The award recipient will be acknowledged before the keynote address and will receive a plaque.
If you have any questions about submitting a proposal, please contact Tracy Hokaj at Tracy_Hokaj@tempe.gov or Sarah Kaufman at sarah_kaufman@tempe.gov.
Proposals for Conference Programs, Preconferences, Roundtable and Poster Sessions are now being accepted through Friday, April 24, 2009. Visit the conference website at http://www.azla.org/displayconvention.cfm to submit your proposal via the online form.
2008 Conference Theme – Libraries Lighting the Way
This theme emphasizes how libraries are like a beacon, illuminating access to information when times are dark and using innovative ways to remain a vital and relevant source for our users and communities.
We invite program proposals on all topics such as:
Leadership Issues
Collaborative Projects
Emerging Trends and Innovations
Stewardship
Intellectual Freedom, Privacy, and Equity of Access
Technology Application
Service
Literacy, Learning, and Reading
Marketing and Outreach
Back by popular demand - Roundtable Discussions!
Roundtable discussions were so popular we decided to make them a permanent part of the conference. Lead a 45-minute informal, small group discussion session on a hot library topic. Facilitators develop a topic, facilitate discussion, and ensure useful content for the attendees. The role of facilitators is to keep the group focused, encourage creative thinking, and keep everyone involved in the discussion. Facilitators initiate group discussion but do not present a program or prepared lecture on the topic. This type of program will give attendees the opportunity to network, share information, and solve common problems.
President's Program Award
The AzLA Program Committee will select the program that best embodies the conference theme, Libraries Lighting the Way. This program will earn the title President’s Program and will be highlighted in the conference program book and on the conference web page. The award recipient will be acknowledged before the keynote address and will receive a plaque.
If you have any questions about submitting a proposal, please contact Tracy Hokaj at Tracy_Hokaj@tempe.gov or Sarah Kaufman at sarah_kaufman@tempe.gov.
25 February 2009
Applications open for 2009 Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship, sponsored by Freedom to Read Foundation
The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) has opened applications for the 2009 Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship, which will enable a library school student or new professional to attend ALA’s 2009 Annual Conference.
The scholarship’s goal is to advance two principles that Gordon Conable held dear: intellectual freedom and mentorship. The 2009 ALA Annual Conference will be held July 9–15 in Chicago.
It provides for conference registration, transportation, housing for six nights and six days per diem. In return, the recipient will be expected to attend various FTRF and other intellectual freedom meetings and programs at conference, consult with a mentor/board member and present a report about his or her experiences. The 2009 Conable Scholarship recipient also will attend the Freedom to Read Foundation’s 40th Anniversary Gala, scheduled for Sunday, July 12 at the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.
The deadline for submitting an application for the 2009 Conable Scholarship is Friday, March 20; the award will be announced in April.
Students currently enrolled in a library and information studies degree program and new professionals (those who have worked in librarianship for three years or less) are eligible to receive the Conable Scholarship. Those interested must submit an application that includes two references and an essay detailing their interest in intellectual freedom issues. Applicants also are asked to attach a résumé, particularly those who are working professionals. If the recipient is already registered for ALA’s Annual Conference, he or she will have the conference fee refunded.
To apply for the Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship, visit http://www.ftrf.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/oifprograms/ifawards/conablescholarship/Conablemain.cfm. For more information, please contact Jonathan Kelley at (800) 545-2433, ext. 4226 or jokelley@ala.org.
Gordon Conable was a California librarian and intellectual freedom champion who served several terms as president of the Freedom to Read Foundation. He was executive vice president for public libraries at Library Systems and Services (LSSI) in Riverside, Calif., and was responsible for management and performance of LSSI’s public library contracts, including the 30-branch Riverside County, Calif., system. He also served as director of the Monroe County (Mich.) Library System from 1988–1998. During his tenure there, he withstood an intense controversy over Madonna’s book “Sex.” Before that he was associate director of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library in Washington. For his efforts, Conable received the Freedom to Read Foundation Roll of Honor Award and the John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award for “intellectual freedom fighters.” In 1994 he was the first librarian recognized as Michigan’s Public Administrator of the Year.
Following his unexpected death in 2005, his wife and FTRF created the Conable Fund, which provides funding for the Conable Scholarship. To contribute to the Conable Fund, visit the Conable Fund page, contact the Freedom to Read Foundation at (800) 545-2433, ext. 4226 or e-mail ftrf@ala.org.
The Freedom to Read Foundation, a sister organization of the American Library Association, was founded in 1969 to promote and defend the right of individuals to freely express ideas and to access information in libraries and elsewhere. FTRF fulfills its mission through the disbursement of grants to individuals and groups, primarily for the purpose of aiding them in litigation, and through direct participation in litigation dealing with freedom of speech and of the press.
The scholarship’s goal is to advance two principles that Gordon Conable held dear: intellectual freedom and mentorship. The 2009 ALA Annual Conference will be held July 9–15 in Chicago.
It provides for conference registration, transportation, housing for six nights and six days per diem. In return, the recipient will be expected to attend various FTRF and other intellectual freedom meetings and programs at conference, consult with a mentor/board member and present a report about his or her experiences. The 2009 Conable Scholarship recipient also will attend the Freedom to Read Foundation’s 40th Anniversary Gala, scheduled for Sunday, July 12 at the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.
The deadline for submitting an application for the 2009 Conable Scholarship is Friday, March 20; the award will be announced in April.
Students currently enrolled in a library and information studies degree program and new professionals (those who have worked in librarianship for three years or less) are eligible to receive the Conable Scholarship. Those interested must submit an application that includes two references and an essay detailing their interest in intellectual freedom issues. Applicants also are asked to attach a résumé, particularly those who are working professionals. If the recipient is already registered for ALA’s Annual Conference, he or she will have the conference fee refunded.
To apply for the Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship, visit http://www.ftrf.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/oifprograms/ifawards/conablescholarship/Conablemain.cfm. For more information, please contact Jonathan Kelley at (800) 545-2433, ext. 4226 or jokelley@ala.org.
Gordon Conable was a California librarian and intellectual freedom champion who served several terms as president of the Freedom to Read Foundation. He was executive vice president for public libraries at Library Systems and Services (LSSI) in Riverside, Calif., and was responsible for management and performance of LSSI’s public library contracts, including the 30-branch Riverside County, Calif., system. He also served as director of the Monroe County (Mich.) Library System from 1988–1998. During his tenure there, he withstood an intense controversy over Madonna’s book “Sex.” Before that he was associate director of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library in Washington. For his efforts, Conable received the Freedom to Read Foundation Roll of Honor Award and the John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award for “intellectual freedom fighters.” In 1994 he was the first librarian recognized as Michigan’s Public Administrator of the Year.
Following his unexpected death in 2005, his wife and FTRF created the Conable Fund, which provides funding for the Conable Scholarship. To contribute to the Conable Fund, visit the Conable Fund page, contact the Freedom to Read Foundation at (800) 545-2433, ext. 4226 or e-mail ftrf@ala.org.
The Freedom to Read Foundation, a sister organization of the American Library Association, was founded in 1969 to promote and defend the right of individuals to freely express ideas and to access information in libraries and elsewhere. FTRF fulfills its mission through the disbursement of grants to individuals and groups, primarily for the purpose of aiding them in litigation, and through direct participation in litigation dealing with freedom of speech and of the press.
18 February 2009
School Library Journal- A Dirty Little Secret: Self-Censorship
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6632974.html
05 February 2009
ACLU Video on Internet Filtering
The ACLU released a short video about why they feel Internet filters are not acceptable when mandated by the government. There is also a mention of the true lack of effectiveness in Internet filtering.
03 February 2009
Google Executives Face Jail Time for Italian Video
The New York Times recently reported that an Italian advocacy group seeks to punish Google for a 2006 posted Google video depicting a child with Down's Syndrome being teased by other boys. The trial is set to begin today.
This case will have broad implications for how all content sharing websites will be used on the social web in the future, if these executives are convicted.
You can view the article in it's entirety here.
This case will have broad implications for how all content sharing websites will be used on the social web in the future, if these executives are convicted.
You can view the article in it's entirety here.
21 January 2009
Library files may still be at risk under Obama
Eric Holder, US Attorney General- designate, said that he supports renewing a section of the USA Patriot Act that allows FBI agents investigating international terrorism or espionage to seek records from businesses, libraries and bookstores. If not renewed by Congress, the provision will expire at the end of 2009.
To read the whole article, click here:
To read the whole article, click here:
13 January 2009
AzLA IF Network now on Facebook
Hello Everyone!
I just created the AzLA Intellectual Freedom Network group on Facebook for those who are active on the site and would like to keep up with IF issues in Arizona through it. Feel free to join the group, post articles, photos, videos, etc. make comments, and friend me, if you wish.
Thanks to Wordle (http://www.wordle.net) for help with creating the image. Happy Networking! ---M.
05 January 2009
2008 Challenges in Arizona
Here is a list of the challenges that were reported to the AzLA Intellectual Freedom Committee in 2008.
May: Gossip Girl and A-List series were challenged in an Arizona High School.
June: A parent objected to the covers on Vibe magazine in an Arizona public library. She requested the magazine be moved to a private area in the library or terminate the subscription altogether due to partial nudity on the cover. Magazine, and subscription, were maintained on the YA shelf, as they fit the collection development policy of the owning library.
August: A parent objected to L8r, G8r, by Lauren Myracle stating the book was not only pornographic, but the worst was the cover especially appealed to small children like his 10-year old with it's cartoon characterizations. He did not want to file a formal complaint or have the book removed as he stated he does not accept censorship, but he felt strongly he should make the librarians aware of this issue.
August: The Notebook Girls was challenged in an Arizona high school.
September: A parent objected to the teaching of James Baldwin's Another Country in an AP American Lit class on the basis of strong language and sexuality.
September: A public library patron requested the removal of the YuYu Hakusho series by Yoshihiro Togashi. She claimed the books depict violence and rape. Based on this, she determined they did not belong in the YA collection of the library. The materials were maintained because of the awards the series won, the popularity of the series in the community and the fact nearly 300 libraries have the books shelved in J or YA collections around the country.
December: A public library patron asked for the removal of Chuck Palahniuk's Snuff. She did not see any redeeming value in the book based on the plot and she felt it was too available for anyone (children) to check out. She felt it was completely inappropriate for a library to keep on its shelves. The material was maintained in the Adult fiction collection, as it fit the collection development policy of the owning library.
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