Each year, schools and libraries nationwide rid their bookshelves of books that challenge mainstream ideas. In honor of this, Banned Books Week is held as a celebration of freedom to read whatever one chooses.
The eighth anniversary of the Banned Books Workshop will take place from 4-5 on Wednesday in the J.D. Williams Library, room 106E. (Photo by: Aleea Burge)
This year marks the eighth anniversary of the Banned Books Workshop. The workshop will take place from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday in the J.D. Williams Library, room 106E.
“During Banned Books Week, we bring awareness to books that are being targeted for removal from our schools and libraries because we want this aggression against ideas to end,” said Melissa Dennis, head of Research and Instruction and associate professor at the J.D. Williams Library.
Dennis said this year she wants to focus on books from minority authors, especially the university’s current Common Reading Experience author, Sherman Alexie.
“We should celebrate our freedoms, including the freedom to express ourselves through words,” Dennis said. “It’s here we learn. It’s here we figure out how to discuss viewpoints different than our own.”
Books have been banned in U.S. schools and libraries for decades. These particular books can challenge cultural norms by questioning sexual orientation and religious beliefs or using profanity.
“In short, the questions these books may cause children to ask their parents about may in turn make their parents extremely uncomfortable or defensive,” Dennis said. “If this happens, well-meaning parents may write a letter to a librarian or visit a school principal to demand that such books are ‘corrupt’ or ‘trash’ and therefore should just be removed from all reading lists and shelves.”
Before a book is banned, the American Library Association challenges the book. Challenged books are books that have been identified as dangerous or offensive. (Photo by: Aleea Burge)
Each time this happens, the American Library Association keeps record. Before a book is banned, it is challenged. Challenged books are books that have been identified as dangerous or offensive. When it is removed from a school or library, it is considered “banned.”
Dennis said the banning of books restricts what people can read, and without that freedom, there is less creativity, less understanding and less individuality.
“If someone else decided everything I could read, why stop there?” Dennis said. “Why not also control my access to all information whether it was books, music, media or films? Societies that encourage book banning discourage non-conformity.”
She said Banned Book Week also reminds us of the importance of libraries.
“It’s here we find value in opinion and discover life-changing authors who shape our thinking,” Dennis said. “It’s also here, reading books, that we understand what we, individually, want to read and not read all on our own, without a hovering authority figure dictating what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ for us.”
