The American Library Association sponsors a “Banned Books Week” every year (this year Sept. 29-Oct. 6).  They do this for a couple of different reasons: it increases circulation and it brings up the subject of censorship for people to debate.  I don’t promote banned books because I feel that it is something my community doesn’t want to exploit, but we do have books that are on the list in our library. The following comes from the ALA website:

The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) received a total of 546 challenges last year. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. Public libraries, schools and school libraries report the majority of challenges to OIF. 

Books get challenged for all kinds of reasons - some are good and some are not.  A lot of very popular books are on that list including: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and the Bible.  The question I want to pose to the outside world is: What are the limits of censorship?  In library school they teach you to know your community and make decisions based on what they want and feel is appropriate, but within any community there is diversity in thought and life practices.  What are your thoughts?  Does the responsibility of censorship rest with parents, school staff, librarians, or with the student?  What is the opinion of the masses?????    (for more info concerning the topic check out www.ala.org)

Read on,

Lloyd the Librarian