Book Challenges: Who's Who?

I was glad when Dan of SafeLibraries.org commented with a link on my post from yesterday because I'd wanted to write about national organizations and watchdog groups on various sides of the book challenge issue. My own feelings on matters of intellectual freedom ought to be pretty clear by now—to put it briefly, I don't believe that any subset of the population should be allowed to dictate what the rest of the population may or may not read, or limit access to those materials, no matter how good its intentions—but below I'm going to stick to the facts.

Here are some of the major players, listed in alphabetical order:

• American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE)
  Mission statement:

  Founded by the American Booksellers Association in 1990, ABFFE’s mission is to promote and protect the free exchange of ideas, particularly those contained in books, by opposing restrictions on the freedom of speech; issuing statements on significant free expression controversies; participating in legal cases involving First Amendment rights; collaborating with other groups with an interest in free speech; and providing education about the importance of free expression to booksellers, other members of the book industry, politicians, the press and the public.

  The ABFFE's website includes news, action alerts, materials, and Banned Books Week handbook, from a bookseller's perspective. You can buy banned book/intellectual freedom themed merchandise in their store.

• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
  Relevant portion of mission statement:

  The mission of the ACLU is to preserve all of these protections and guarantees: Your First Amendment rights - freedom of speech, association and assembly; freedom of the press, and freedom of religion.

  The ACLU offers documentation of legal precedent and information about current court cases dealing with censorship.

• American Library Association, Office for Intellectual Freedom
  Statement of purpose:

  Established December 1, 1967, the Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, the Association’s basic policy on free access to libraries and library materials. The goal of the office is to educate librarians and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries.

  Here's the Library Bill of Rights. One of the big take-away ideas is that libraries exist to provide free access to materials representing all sides of an issue, not just the views of one person or group.

  The ALA is revamping its website, and I can't locate the page on handling challenges. (I'll try to remember to add the link here when it's restored.) In the meantime, here's the American Association of School Librarians' list of intellectual freedom resources. You can also check out the Center for Children's Books at UIUC's guide What to Do When a Book is Being Challenged in Your Library.

• Authors Support Intellectual Freedom (AS IF!)
  Mission statement:

  AS IF! (Authors Supporting Intellectual Freedom) champions those who stand against censorship, especially of books for and about teens.

  AS IF! is a collective of published authors, largely of children's/YA books. Members share and editorialize on news items about book challenges.

• Family Friendly Libraries
  Statement of purpose:

  Our goal is to keep libraries accountable to the taxpayers in the communities they serve by providing tools, information, and networking resources to citizens across the nation.

  Family Friendly Libraries is a Virginia-based grassroots organization that focuses on "the growing problem of internet pornography and age-inappropriate materials in school and public libraries." It has developed its own standards for K-12 schools and public libraries. It also offers advice on affecting library policy at the local level.

• National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC)
  The NCAC is "an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups." Its statement of purpose:

  • To promote and defend First Amendment values of freedom of thought, inquiry and expression.
  • To oppose restraints on open communication and to support access to information.
  • To encourage, support and coordinate activities of national organizations in opposition to censorship.
  • To encourage understanding that restrictions on the free interchange of ideas threaten religious, moral, political, artistic and intellectual freedom.

  Its website offers news, a Book Censorship Toolkit for schools facing challenges, and resources for forming a local coalition.

• Parents Against Bad Books in Schools (PABBIS)
  Statement of purpose:

  The main purpose of this webpage is to identify some books that might be considered bad and why someone might consider them bad. Another purpose of this webpage is to provide information related to bad books in schools.

  PABBIS offers advice on how to challenge a book as well as various children's book passages found to be objectionable for easy reference. For information about local groups, visit their links page.

• SafeLibraries.org
  This website run by New Jersey resident Dan Kleinman examines ALA policy and action as it relates to intellectual freedom, pornography, and other content deemed objectionable, on the Internet and in books. From the home page:

  SafeLibraries.org is certified in Internet safety training and we wrote "LMIRL" (you'll never guess what it means) to provide information and excellent exhibits on how to protect children in cyberspace. We wrote "P-rn Pushers" to present evidence from people of all political stripes about the downward spiral in books written for children (not necessarily p-rn) and how the ALA encourages this. "Value Voters" details what's wrong, why, and what can be done about it. Also exposed is the ALA's admitted media manipulation to ensure ALA policy controls local libraries.

ETA, 9/30/08:
If anyone has suggestions of additional organizations that should be added to this list, please leave me a comment with a link to that organization. Thanks!