April 14 – National Library Week in the U.S.

nPostednon April 14, 2014

nCelebratenlibraries in general and your local library in particular this week.

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Thentheme this year is Lives Change @ Your Library. You can find storiesnabout exactly how libraries have changed lives and Library Week infonhere. There are some links to downloadable materials at the American Library Association website.

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nOnenthing that is happening today is that this year’s Top Ten List ofnFrequently Challenged Books is released. “Challenged” books arenthose that have motivated people to write letters of complaint. Well,nthey don’t just complain about the book – they ask that thenbook be removed from the library or restricted to only certain ages.

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nBasically,na lot of people who don’t want to read a particular book, or don’tnwant their kids to read a book, aren’t satisfied with simply skippingnthat book – they don’t want anyone ELSE to read the book, either.nWe are talking about people attempting to ban books, to censornreading materials.

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nWhyndo people want to ban certain books? The top reasons for challengesnare for sexual material, “offensive” language, violence,nhomosexuality, and occult or “Satanic” themes. Many peoplencomplain that certain books are unsuited for kids or anti-family. n

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Reallynpopular books are often the ones that lots of people want to ban. Fornexample, in 2012 the most challenges were about the CaptainnUnderpants series, and in 2011 The Hunger Games trilogynwas high on the challenge list. A decade ago the Harry Potternbooks continually found themselves topping the challenge lists.

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nBynthe way, even though librarians receive lots of challenge letters,nthey very rarely actually ban books. And that’s as it should be! After all, each person has the choice NOT to read a book that IS there – but if a book ISN’T there, nobody has a choice.

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