Banned Books Week Display
by Laura Callaway
October 08, 2009
To celebrate the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, the Chase County High School Library displayed a wide selection of books that had, at some point in time, been banned by a group, state, or country. Among these included Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Slaughterhouse-Five, John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me, and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Why have books been banned? There are four main categories that banned books fall into: political, religious, sexual, and social. Of course, books may be banned or challenged for myriad other reasons, including language, violence, and graphic content.
How does a book get banned? If someone finds a book
objectionable, they submit a challenge to the librarian, which then
is directed to the school’s board, the public library’s board, or
any other governing entity of the location in which they believe
the book should be banned. The American Library Association defines
a challenge as "an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based
upon the objections of a person or group." A successful challenge
results in a ban.
What happens to banned books? Banned books, once
successfully challenged, are moved to special shelves or removed
from the library. Some are even completely removed from the
library's automated cataloging system. But these measures don't
always deter those determined to read. In fact, studies have
indicated books placed on banned lists are often more widely read
because they have been deemed forbidden. For example, some
speculate Dan Brown’s wildly popular novel, The Da Vinci
Code,might have never reached such levels of success if the
Catholic Church hadn’t so openly condemned its content. In the UK’s
online newspaper, The Telegraph, Vatican spokesman Father
Marco Fibbi stated The Da Vinci Code “peddles a type of
fantasy that damages our common religious beliefs.” In a similar
vein, while we have the right to read what we want, we must also
respect those exercising their right to not read what they
want.
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Was Banned Books Week a
success? |
