Book Challenges Up

Earlier this month Jim Welch who writes Jim’s 2.0 Blog wrote a post called: How many banned books have you read?

Starting with rumors that Republican VP Candidate Sarah Palin asked her local librarian about book censorship, he moves to some fascinating lists. First is the American Library Association’s list of most challenged books. According to the site:

A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.

Of course, our standards of free speech mean anyone certainly has the right to object to material in a library (or anywhere else for that matter). There is a formal process to try to remove a book or other item from any library, and the ALA tracks those challenges.

What startled me, but probably shouldn’t have given the current political climate of fear, is how much the number of challenges have increased recently. Scroll down the page to the subhead Background (Challenges, 1990-2000). It’s fascinating and, to me, scary reading.

While I would restrict certain materials to adults, I wouldn’t remove them from either the library or the market place.

Do you agree? Or not? Let us know how you feel about censorship.

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