Banned Books Week: The Source

"Goose-Stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them." ~ Henry Jones, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

I've always loved that Sean Connery quote (not just because it's Sean Connery and he has that hunky Scottish accent, but also because of the underlying sentiment). Ignorance (whether willful or enforced) breeds many things, none of them good.

Thankfully, we live in a country that prides itself on individual freedom, on civil rights which, so many times in our collective histories, have been restricted. Or do we? Each year, hundreds of challenges are received, protesting the presence of certain books in schools, libraries, and bookstores. We must not become complacent about our freedoms, must not take them for granted, lest they slip quietly away while we're not looking.

Just what are these freedoms?

From the Constitution of the United States:

• First Amendment. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

From the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights:

1. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
2. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
3. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
4. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

From the United Nations's Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

• Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.

So those are some of our freedoms that apply to books and reading. Now it's our responsibility to defend them against fear and ignorance.

That's where Banned Books Week comes in. It's a unified effort sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores. Banned Books Week is also endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.

What can you do to help? I'll be going into depth about some projects and ideas later in the week, but for now you can start by visiting the Banned Books Week website. And you can get a badge from the ALA website to put on your blog or MySpace or Facebook.

Hugs,
TLC