{"id":11576,"date":"2015-09-19T00:01:11","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T04:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=11576"},"modified":"2025-06-04T14:42:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T18:42:57","slug":"are-you-ready-for-banned-books-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/are-you-ready-for-banned-books-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Ready for Banned Books Week?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Banned Books Week, a celebration of our freedom to read, takes place September 27- October 3. \u00a0Many libraries and book sellers will be offering activities, displays and events to remind us of the importance of everyone\u2019s right to access materials and information. \u00a0As many books are challenged on the basis of protecting children, it is particularly important that those of us who serve young people be involved in whatever is being planned for Banned Books Week in our libraries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is happening in your library?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A read-aloud of banned\/challenged books \u2013 Make sure that titles for young people are included, from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the Night Kitchen <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Captain Underpants <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and a certain young wizard who created an international reading craze.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Displays \u2013 Create one in the children\u2019s and teen areas (teen books are especially fertile ground for challenges), or include copies of books for young people if your library is creating one, all-purpose display.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An article in your library newsletter \u2013 If your library offers a newsletter for the public and is including an article on Banned Books Week with a list of frequently challenged books, include some younger titles. \u00a0Our library article included some challenged titles that might surprise readers; <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Charlotte\u2019s Web <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Wizard of Oz <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">among others. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Radio and television \u2013 What about contacting a station about participating in a talk show? \u00a0Two of our children\u2019s librarians are joining a local radio show to talk about the obvious and frequently challenged items as well as some of the more surprising titles. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speakers \u2013 If your library is hosting a speaker to talk about intellectual freedom and Banned Books Week, go ahead and ask if she\/he is including information regarding challenges related to books for young readers. \u00a0Have a list ready to share!<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A match-up game \u2013 On a bulletin board, sheet of paper or bookmark, list titles, plus reasons for challenges and see if people can put the right ones together. \u00a0Some will be obvious, others not so obvious. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are only a few ideas and I know that there are many more out there. \u00a0Please share yours! \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I want to close this post with a question and a recommendation. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Have you gone to the ALA web site and viewed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bannedbooksweek.org\/\">the Banned Books Week site<\/a> and the site for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ala.org\/offices\/oif\">the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF)<\/a>? \u00a0These sites are rich resources for anyone who works with young people as well as those who work with adults. \u00a0They track frequently challenged books, update us on relevant legislation and provide supportive information. \u00a0If you haven\u2019t visited them yet, I encourage you to do so. \u00a0Finally, don\u2019t forget that ALA has just released the new <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Intellectual Freedom Manual, Ninth Edition. \u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is available in print and e-book formats. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s celebrate our freedom to read! <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Toni Bernardi,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">San Francisco Public Library<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Member, ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Banned Books Week, a celebration of our freedom to read, takes place September 27- October 3. \u00a0Many libraries and book sellers will be offering activities, displays and events to remind us of the importance of everyone\u2019s right to access materials and information. \u00a0As many books are challenged on the basis of protecting children, it is particularly important that those of us who serve young people be involved in whatever is being planned for Banned Books Week in our libraries. What is happening in your library? A read-aloud of banned\/challenged books \u2013 Make sure that titles for young people are included, from In the Night Kitchen to Captain Underpants and a certain young wizard who created an international reading craze. Displays \u2013 Create one in the children\u2019s and teen areas (teen books are especially fertile ground for challenges), or include copies of books for young people if your library is creating&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[272,7,11,41,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-intellectual-freedom-committee","category-call-to-action","category-priority-group-i","category-intellectual-freedom","category-programming-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}