What is the difference between a book that has been challenged and a book that has been banned?
According to the American Library Association's website:
"A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others."
50 Years of Intellectual Freedom
Click here to read about protecting intellectual freedom and why the American Library Association needs a special committee.
Why do we need to celebrate the Freedom to Read?
Click here to read why it is essential to celebrate the importance of free and open access to information and read some reasons why certain books have been banned.
Click here to learn why comics have been banned throughout the years.
State of Americas Libraries Report 2024
Click here to read in the 2024 State of the Libraries Report about the number and types of information challenged in 2023.
Intellectual freedom news from the Office for Intellectual Freedom from ALA
Books are often challenged or banned because they contain material that an individual or an organization deems offensive, vulgar, racist, or contrary to social norms.
According to the Office of Intellectual Freedom, the top three reasons given for challenging materials are:
1. The material was considered to be "sexually explicit."
2. The material contained "offensive language."
3. The material was "unsuited to any age group."
Below are some links to the history of censorship and the background of some books.
Article on the effects of banning books and how it may or may not affect readers.
"Book bans gain traction in cultures that imagine themselves as upholding a barrier between the purity of children and the corruption of the world."
Book bans reflect outdated beliefs about how children read (theconversation.com)
Adopted June 25, 1953, by the ALA Council and the AAP Freedom to Read Committee; amended January 28, 1972; January 16, 1991; July 12, 2000; June 30, 2004.
Organizations Promoting Access:
Typically held the last week of September, Banned Books Week "highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community — librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas" (Banned Books Week website).
Join the Schauffler Library in raising awareness on why books are challenged and which books have been targeted, and think about Whose Story They Seek to Silence through our interactive activity: Banned Books Amazing Race Challenge. Students, Faculty, and Staff members are invited to take part. The Challenge will run from September 22 through October 18. Let's go Hoggers!
I come from a race of people for whom, at one time in this country, it was illegal to be taught to read...white people who taught Black people how to read were taking the risk of being punished...I think the same sensibilities that informed those people to make it a criminal act for Black people to read are the ancestors of the same people who are making it a criminal act for their own children to read and I don't see a great deal of difference between that. There is some hysteria associated with the idea of reading that is all out of proportion to what...in fact happens when one reads. -Toni Morrison
Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. -Laurie Halse Anderson
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." -John Kennedy
"It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fears of censorship. As always, the young readers will be the real losers." -Judy Blume
"The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame."
-- Oscar Wilde
"Censorship is like telling a man he can't eat a steak just because a baby can't chew it." -Mark Twain
"Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself." -- Salman Rushdie
"Don't join the book burners... Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Censorship, like charity, should begin at home, but, unlike charity, it should end there."
-- Clare Boothe Luce
"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too." -- Voltaire
"Every burned book enlightens the world." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." -- Noam Chomsky
"You can cage the singer but not the song." -- Harry Belafonte
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