This article appeared today in American Libraries Online, the online magazine of the American Library Association.
http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/censorship-watch/court-tells-missouri-school-district-replace-antigay-internet-filter
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Looking back so we can look ahead! The History of Censorship
The article “Censorship in School Libraries: “Disturbing
stuff’” located on the Warrior Librarian
website and written by Amanda Credaro starts out with an amazing quote:
“Why is
it that we are not allowed to be shocked and offended? Where is it written? It’s
good to be shocked and offended…If we have nothing that makes us feel shocked,
how do we know what our value system is?”
_ Janet Strickland, Former Chief Censor of Australia
The article goes onto give an introduction to censorship,
definitions, characteristics, considerations, and types of censorship. I found the section that included a bit of
history of censorship to be interesting.
The word censor comes from Ancient Roman times, when the “regulation of
the moral, as well as the political, life of a people was considered a proper,
if not necessary, role of government.” (Credaro)
In order to better understand where censorship is headed, we
need to know where we are coming from.
Here is a list of a few every interesting sites about the history of
censorship. Please post anything you
found shocking, interesting, or emotion invoking.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Quotes from Blue Valley North High School student Sasha Mushegian in The Kansas Star. Sasha spoke out against efforts to remove some of her favorite books from her school's curriculum.
To read the entire article: http://www.kidspeakonline.org/sasha.htm
"Yes, we're not completely mature yet; sure, we often make bad decisions — but maturation is a process. There's no magical age at which we mentally and emotionally become adults."
"How can you expect children to mature if you don't expose them to books in which reality is messy and confusing, morals are not immediately clear, making the right decision requires analysis of subtleties, and characters make the wrong choices? How do you expect students to think for themselves if you never expose them to situations that are challenging and unfamiliar (yet still safely contained within the pages of a great work of literature)?"
"I doubt that the teenagers having promiscuous sex and using drugs are doing so because they read too much and have come across Chris Crutcher and Kate Chopin."
"I just about started crying when I read the indictment of All the Pretty Horses. It seemed to me narrow-minded to ignore the tragic beauty of this coming-of-age story, to refuse to think about the questions it raises about modernity, to disregard Cormac McCarthy's original use of language, focusing instead on the character's cursing, having sex and fighting."
Friday, March 23, 2012
Media Censorship
The excerpt below was taken from www.projectcensored.org, an organization dedicated to preventing censorship in the mass media.
How often do you think this happens in America today? How do you feel about the corporate influences in the media? Is the mass media still reliable? Do you believe what you see in the news?
WHAT IS MODERN CENSORSHIP?
At Project Censored, we examine the coverage of news and information important to the maintenance of a healthy and functioning democracy. We define Modern Censorship as the subtle yet constant and sophisticated manipulation of reality in our mass media outlets. On a daily basis, censorship refers to the intentional non-inclusion of a news story – or piece of a news story – based on anything other than a desire to tell the truth. Such manipulation can take the form of political pressure (from government officials and powerful individuals), economic pressure (from advertisers and funders), and legal pressure (the threat of lawsuits from deep-pocket individuals, corporations, and institutions).WHAT IS MEDIA ACCOUNTABILITY?
In our view, the only valid justification for declining a news story is that in a medium limited by time and space, another news story was simply more important to the people of the community, whether local, national or international. While admittedly a subjective process, it is nonetheless, a process to be undertaken by the news people themselves (the investigative journalists and editors), NOT by the managers and CEOs of their “parent company.” No professional journalist or researcher should ever have to face the destruction of his or her career (or life) simply because they wanted to tell the truth. While no two people will always agree on what story is more important than another, a system where the working reporters and editors run the newsroom would at least provide a fertile environment for debate, dissent and critical thinking.The growth of independent media and journalism in recent years shows that people throughout the world yearn to hold not only their leaders accountable, but their media sources as well. For that reason, the Project Censored research program continues, in its small way, to support and highlight those who tell the truth about the powerful (no matter the consequences) and are relentless in their quest to hold Big Media accountable for their decisions.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Florida Mom Wants YA LibraryBooks Labeled, Segregated
Florida Mom Wants YA LibraryBooks Labeled, Segregated
This article from the School Library Journal talks about labeling books, especially in school libraries, to warn students when books may have inappropriate content. She isn't asking for the books to be banned. She is asking for them to be labeled according to their content.
What do you think? Is it appropriate? Is this a form of censorship? Would you support this in your library? Do you think it would work?
This article from the School Library Journal talks about labeling books, especially in school libraries, to warn students when books may have inappropriate content. She isn't asking for the books to be banned. She is asking for them to be labeled according to their content.
What do you think? Is it appropriate? Is this a form of censorship? Would you support this in your library? Do you think it would work?
Monday, March 19, 2012
To go along with the Banned Books post that Geniece put up on Saturday, here are some interesting links:
The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom
www.ala.org/oif
The First Amendment Center
www.firstamendmentcenter.org
The Freedom to Read Foundation
www.ftrf.org
The National Coalition Against Censorship
www.ncac.org
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (for my friend Brett)
www.cbldf.org
The American Civil Liberties Union
www.aclu.org
The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom
www.ala.org/oif
The First Amendment Center
www.firstamendmentcenter.org
The Freedom to Read Foundation
www.ftrf.org
The National Coalition Against Censorship
www.ncac.org
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (for my friend Brett)
www.cbldf.org
The American Civil Liberties Union
www.aclu.org
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Banned Books Week: Celebrate Your Freedom to Read.
Once a year the American Library Association (ALA) holds an event celebrating the freedom to read, a freedom given to us in the First Amendment of the Constitution. This year's event will be held September 30 - October 6, 2012 and will highlight the benefits of free and open access to information, while at the same time highlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States in an effort to educate people about the harms of censorship.
According to the ALA website, they define intellectual freedom as the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. This definition provides the foundation for the Banned Books Week. The ALA uses this week to stress the importance of availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.
The ALA publishes a list of books that have been challenged or banned each year. These are the books highlighted during Banned Books Week. The list of challenged books are not just books that people merely express a negative point of view of. The books on the list have received requests to be removed from schools and libraries, thus restricting others right to access these titles. Even when the outcome to these requests results in the book staying on the shelves, and even when the person is a lone protester, the censorship attempt is real. Someone has tried to restrict another person's access to information and ability to choose for themselves. Attempts to censor can lead to voluntary restriction of expression by those who seek to avoid controversy. The books provided on the list are the books that have been documented as being challenged or banned. This is not a comprehensive list. According to ALA surveys, approximately 85 percent of the challenges to library materials receive no media attention and remain unreported. The list is also limited to books and does not include challenges to magazines, newspapers, films, broadcasts, plays, performances, electronic publications, or exhibits.
Here is the link to the list: Books Challenged or Banned in 2010-2011.
The list of books starts on page four.
Are there any books listed that surprised you? Which ones and why?
Do you agree with the banning of some of these books? Which ones and why?
Do you agree with ALA sponsoring an annual banned books week? Why or why not?
According to the ALA website, they define intellectual freedom as the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. This definition provides the foundation for the Banned Books Week. The ALA uses this week to stress the importance of availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.
The ALA publishes a list of books that have been challenged or banned each year. These are the books highlighted during Banned Books Week. The list of challenged books are not just books that people merely express a negative point of view of. The books on the list have received requests to be removed from schools and libraries, thus restricting others right to access these titles. Even when the outcome to these requests results in the book staying on the shelves, and even when the person is a lone protester, the censorship attempt is real. Someone has tried to restrict another person's access to information and ability to choose for themselves. Attempts to censor can lead to voluntary restriction of expression by those who seek to avoid controversy. The books provided on the list are the books that have been documented as being challenged or banned. This is not a comprehensive list. According to ALA surveys, approximately 85 percent of the challenges to library materials receive no media attention and remain unreported. The list is also limited to books and does not include challenges to magazines, newspapers, films, broadcasts, plays, performances, electronic publications, or exhibits.
Here is the link to the list: Books Challenged or Banned in 2010-2011.
The list of books starts on page four.
Are there any books listed that surprised you? Which ones and why?
Do you agree with the banning of some of these books? Which ones and why?
Do you agree with ALA sponsoring an annual banned books week? Why or why not?
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Autonomy: independence or freedom, as of the will or one's actions
The ethicist Kant believed that we are free and rational creatures and that we are autonomous. That is, we are free to make our own decisions. He also believed that in order to do this, we need unrestricted access to information.
In our library world, that means that all information should be open and accessible for our own evaluation. By making information available, we respect each person's autonomy and rationality. In order for a person to make choices, they need to be able to access all views and sides of an argument without restrictions. Then make up their own minds.
In Kant's world, having holocaust denial literature on the shelf is just as important as the The Diary of Anne Frank or Mein Kampf. And they should, if possible, have equal representation.
Here is a link on the subject of holocaust denial literature:
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/d/drobnicki-john/denial-and-libraries.html
As parents, librarians, teachers and truth seekers, how do we rationalize these ideas and how do we make sure we provide the right information? Do you believe in Kant's idea of unrestricted access to information?
The ethicist Kant believed that we are free and rational creatures and that we are autonomous. That is, we are free to make our own decisions. He also believed that in order to do this, we need unrestricted access to information.
In our library world, that means that all information should be open and accessible for our own evaluation. By making information available, we respect each person's autonomy and rationality. In order for a person to make choices, they need to be able to access all views and sides of an argument without restrictions. Then make up their own minds.
In Kant's world, having holocaust denial literature on the shelf is just as important as the The Diary of Anne Frank or Mein Kampf. And they should, if possible, have equal representation.
Here is a link on the subject of holocaust denial literature:
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/d/drobnicki-john/denial-and-libraries.html
As parents, librarians, teachers and truth seekers, how do we rationalize these ideas and how do we make sure we provide the right information? Do you believe in Kant's idea of unrestricted access to information?
Monday, March 12, 2012
American Library Association Bill of Rights
Our names are Samantha and Geniece, and our Censorship in
the Library blog is a project for our a masters program in Information
Services and Library Science. We are exploring people's view on
censorship and how libraries deal with censorship issues.
To kick off our blog, we are posting the Library Bill of Rights from the American Library Association website.
What do you think? Does it say enough? Not enough? Do you agree with the statements? Does it protect against censorship?
The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.
I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.
V. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.
VI. Libraries that make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.
Adopted June 19, 1939, by the ALA Council; amended October 14, 1944; June 18, 1948; February 2, 1961; June 27, 1967; January 23, 1980; inclusion of “age” reaffirmed January 23, 1996.
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