"Censorship denies freedom; open up mind to banned books"
 
Throughout the country, most children have started a new academic year. Teachers have sent out their reading lists of required readings, and parents have begun to gather books. In some cases, classics like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “The Catcher in the Rye,” and “To Kill a Mocking Bird,” may not be included in curriculum or available in the school library due to challenges made by parents or administrators.

Since 1990, the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom has recorded more than 7,000 book challenges, including 515 in 2002. A challenge is a formal, written complaint requesting a book be removed from library shelves or school curriculum. About three out of four of all challenges are to material in schools or school libraries, and one in four is to material in public libraries. The Office for Intellectual Freedom estimates that less than one-quarter of challenges are reported and recorded.

It is thanks to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, and students that most challenges are unsuccessful and reading materials, like “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “Slaughterhouse Five,” and the Harry Potter series remain available. When parents in a south Georgia school last summer challenged the use of John Steinbeck’s classic “Of Mice and Men” in the sophomore advanced-level English class, the school superintendent and others rallied to keep the book available.

The most challenged and/or restricted reading materials have been books for children. At the same time that families nationwide have embraced the series that has encouraged many youth to delve into thousands of fantasy-filled pages, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling has been the most frequently challenged title in the country. In fact, last spring a U.S. district judge ordered the books back into general circulation in the Cedarville (Ark.) School District after the district restricted access.

Challenges are not simply an expression of a point of view; on the contrary, they are an attempt to remove materials from public use, thereby restricting the access of others. Even if the motivation to ban or challenge a book is well intentioned, the outcome is detrimental. Censorship denies our freedom as individuals to choose and think for ourselves. For children, decisions about what books to read should be made by the people who know them best---their parents or guardians.

In support of the right to choose books freely for ourselves, the ALA and Columbus Public Library want to encourage our right to access books without censorship. This year’s observance was themed “Open Your Mind to a Banned Book,” and commemorated the most basic freedom in a democratic society---- the freedom to read freely---and encouraged us not to take this freedom for granted.

Since its inception in 1982, Banned Books Week has reminded us that while not every book is intended for every reader, each of us has the right to decide for ourselves what to read, listen to, or view. The Columbus Public Library and thousands of libraries and bookstores across the country celebrated the freedom to read. The American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the ALA; the American Society of Journalists and Authors; the Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores sponsored Banned Books Week. The Library of Congress Center for the Book endorsed the observance.

American libraries are the cornerstones of our democracy. Libraries are for everyone, everywhere. Because libraries provide free access to a world of information, they bring opportunity to all people. Now, more than ever, let freedom read @ your library!!! Open your mind to an old favorite or a new banned book.

For more information on banned books, please contact: Judith F. Krug, American Library Assn. Office for Intellectual Freedom, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL. 60611. Toll free: 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4220, or at E-mail: oif@ala.org or Website: www.ala.org/bbooks.