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.

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