Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week is coming up (September 29—October 6) and the VSLA Board encourages you to celebrate intellectual freedom and explore the issue of censorship with students in your libraries.
Here is a list of online resources on this topic.
American Library Association’s Banned Books Week page
The Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books.
A personal site but one created by a university librarian. There are some great censorship quotes here.
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE)’s Banned Books Week page features a handbook with information, ideas, posters and images, etc.
The Ten Most Challenged Books of 2006
ALA’s list of 2006 most challenge books
The American Civil Liberties Union page on Censorship
Oyez
a comprehensive site for supreme court information (find censorship cases and oral arguments here, etc.)
The Most Frequently Banned Books in the 1990s
Library of Congress Primary Source Resource Set on the Constitution
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund protects comic artists who face challenges to free expression:
Beacon for Freedom of Expression
a site created by the Norwegian Forum for Freedom of Expression. Provides an exhibit and database of information on censorship across the world and throughout history.
The Thomas Jefferson Center for Freedom of Expression
Current top news story on their web site is “Schools’ censorship growing, says group.”
National Council of Teachers of English, anti-censorship center. Check out “Students’ Right to Read”
The PEN American Center’s Freedom to Write
campaign for writers facing censorship or persecution because of their writings
Compiled by
Christine Eldred
Librarian
VSLA Intellectual Freedom Representative
Missisquoi Valley Union Middle & High School
Swanton, VT