Blog Archive: September 2008

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!

No, I don't mean it. Banned books aren't cool. I mean, the banning isn't cool. But the books? Well, in the words of Judith Krug, director of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, "These are books that say something, that are meaningful to who we are and what we are."

Which is, you know, very cool indeed.

To continue my celebration of Banned Books Week, here are a few more things worth checking out:

• AL Focus has posted yet another amusing video, this one in honor of Banned Books Week.

• Little Willow has posted some nice ruminations on banned books: the chasm between exercising discretion in your own reading and forcing your personal choices on others, the role of ageism in book challenges, and her personal favorite banned books.
• The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 are represented visually in this short video. (Via Bookshelves of Doom.)

• For a global cross-section of banned books, check out LibraryThing's Banned Books Library. Currently, it includes just under 700 books that have been banned somewhere around the world. In addition to the usual bibliographic information, there's info about the cited reasons for banning. (Via Abby the Librarian.)

Banned Books Week continues! Exercise your intellectual freedom and read a book that has been threatened with removal from public libraries, schools, and bookstores—BUT, thanks to the First (and Arguably Greatest) Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, is still yours to read! Need some ideas? Start with the most frequently challenged books of 2007!

It's worth remembering that in many countries with an authoritarian government, there is no guarantee of intellectual freedom, and you can get busted for reading a banned book. Yes, my fellow Americans, for as many mistakes our government has made over the years, we got one very important thing right: the freedom to think, speak, and read what we choose, even when it goes against our neighbors' beliefs, social norms, or our own government's ideologies. Wow!

ALA goes into more detail here about challenged and banned books, including what the difference is between "challenged" and "banned."

I confess that my library is not doing anything particular to celebrate Banned Books Week besides offering the usual books at the usual prices. But here's a taste of what other organizations are doing to celebrate...

• Wondering what's going on in your corner of the world? Check out the official list of Banned Books Week events.
• Read Write Think suggests classroom activities to tie in with Banned Books Week.
• This month, an Indiana library offered frequently challenged books wrapped in brown paper. Patrons didn't know what they'd picked until they got home with it and unwrapped it. How fun and enticing is that?
• If you're in the Bay Area, check out Banned and Recovered, an art show inspired by banned books. More info here and here.
• In 2007, U of M's Hatcher Graduate Library created a Flickr photo gallery of its staff posing with challenged books—another fun take on a serious topic.

This past Wednesday, I attended the 2008 ILA Conference. Short story, it was a good and worthwhile time. I attended a few sessions, gathered some ideas to take back to work, and made a new friend. What more could I hope for?

Given that today kicks off Banned Books Week, I want to share my notes from the keynote address. Called "The New Inquisition," it was delivered by Jamie LaRue, Director of the Douglas County Libraries in Colorado. La Rue is also the author of The New Inquisition: Understanding and Managing Intellectual Freedom Challenges (Libraries Unlimited, 2007)

LaRue was a dynamic and entertaining speaker, and the talk itself was spectacular. The topic was how libraries can better handle book challenges. LaRue’s main point was that instead of treating people who challenge books as the “enemy,” demonizing them, we should find out where they are coming from and thereby achieve mutual respect.

LaRue emphasized that people who challenge books are not generally evil book-burning sorts. They are people who found something in the library that upset them. These are generally people who use the library and are well-educated and concerned about their children and the public (albeit to the point of overprotection). In other words, “they” are not so different from “us.”

LaRue suggested the following process to get rid of 80% of book challenges on the spot:

1. Give a sympathetic “I’m sorry.” Even if we disagree with their complaint, we are still sorry they have found reason to be unhappy with our library materials.
2. Listen carefully to their complaints with a nonjudgmental attitude and body language. Don’t get defensive!
3. Repeat their concerns back to them, so they know you listened and understood.
4. Offer to help them find something that better suits their wants/needs. They are upset because they found something that wasn’t right for them. Help them find what's right for them.

If they still want to formally challenge the book, LaRue reads the book so he knows exactly what the challenger is talking about and then writes the them a letter about the library's decision. Sometimes the book can be withdrawn because it is out of date or contains misinformation anyway. (He told an amusing anecdote about withdrawing a 1950s teen dating guide a patron challenged—only to replace it with something much racier, of course!)

LaRue suggests finding out who “they” are, e.g., if they are members of Focus on the Family, join Focus on the Family! Find common ground with them so they can respect you even when you disagree with them (e.g., on First Amendment issues). Invite them to suggest books they think the library needs and then stock them, so they cannot complain of imbalance. Remind them that as the library acted to serve their needs, so must the library serve other individuals with different needs.

If you have the opportunity to hear Jamie LaRue speak or to read his book (as I plan to), I really think you should. His talk really made me think twice about how I've reacted to patron complaints about materials, the few times it's happened. He also has a blog and a weekly column available online.

The Kidlitosphere 2008 Conference in Portland, Oregon, should be kicking off any moment now. Knowing how much fun it was last year, I'm envious. On the other hand, I've got a glorious, free weekend ahead. I'm looking forward to all you bloggers' reports when it's over!