Those Dirty, Evil, Rotten Books!

Image courtesy of the ABAA (Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America).

Saturday, September 24, was the beginning of Banned Books Week for 2011. Sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, National Association of College Stores, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Council of Teachers of English, and the PEN American Center, this event has been held yearly during the last week of September since 1982.  It has also been endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.  Since 1982, over 11,000 books have been challenged.

Image courtesy of the Lake City Public Library.

The purpose is not only to encourage readers to examine works that have been challenged, but to also promote intellectual freedom in libraries, schools, and wherever books are read or sold.  Many groups celebrate banned and challenged books during this week and hold awareness campaigns.  The difference between a book that has been challenged and one that has been banned is that a challenged book is an attempt to remove it from a library or curriculum, while a banned one has been removed.

Amnesty International also observes this event by drawing attention to individuals who are persecuted because of what they write, circulate, or read.  Here is a link to featured individuals who have or are being oppressed, tortured, or imprisoned.

Lydia Cacho Ribeiro had to leave her home in
Mexico because of recent death threats for her
books exposing a child pornography ring and
the trafficking of women and girls.  Image from
 Amnesty International (see link above).

Banned Books Week is the only national observance of the freedom to read.  Last year there were 348 titles reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom that were challenged, and many more go unreported each year.  The Office of Intellectual Freedom collects their information from newspapers and reports submitted by individuals, all of which go into a database.  The Banned Books Week Resource Guide is updated every three years, and is available at your local library or can be purchased.  Click here for a PDF file on books challenged or banned in 2010-2011, and the reason(s) why.

Image courtesy ALA

The very popular Twilight series, by Stephanie Meyer, was challenged as being sexually explicit, violent, unsuited for its age group, and having a religious viewpoint.  Fortunately, it more than survived.  Currently irritating many a parent and parent group is the book And Tango Makes Three, which is about same-sex penguin parents, seen as promoting homosexuality to young children "against their will".  In fact, some may argue that being challenged is a good marketing ploy for a book.

This book is based on a true story of two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo
in New York who were given an egg to raise.  Co-author Justin Richardson was
quoted in an article in the NY Times:  "We wrote the book to help parents teach
children about same-sex parent families.  It's no more an argument in favor of
human gay relationships than it is a call for children to swallow their fish whole
or sleep on rocks."  Homophobic parents will be pleased to learn the pair has
since split up, and one of the males has paired with a female.

There is an argument whether there is indeed any censorship occurring, but former ALA (American Library Association) president Camila Alire has stated that there are hundreds of documented attempts to suppress access to written materials each year, and when a library is asked to restrict access, that is an attempt at censorship. Opponents argue that parents have the right to object to their children being exposed to certain literature, but since parents will differ as to what literature they object to, it seems that they need to take it upon themselves to limit exposure, and not try to force their decisions on everyone.

Image courtesy of Lee's Summit High School, Mo.

It is indeed fortunate that a majority of the books targeted during Banned Books Week were not banned or restricted, but that is because of the efforts of the cadre of librarians, teachers, booksellers, readers, and others in communities.  This celebration of the freedom provided by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution deserves the respect and thanks of free people who like to read freely. This reader thanks everyone who takes part - I am personally grateful to everyone who fights for accessibility to all books, whether I read them or not.

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Librarian Liberators

Chief librarian Madame Jocasta Nu from Star Wars Episode II:
Attack of the Clones.  Image courtesy www.starwars.com.

Is this your notion of a librarian - a gray-haired, bun-coiffed woman?  Of course, this one does not appear to have the requisite spectacles.  When I was teaching and tired of constantly putting on and taking off my glasses (I can see distance like a hawk, but can't read a menu without help) I started wearing an eyeglass necklace. One day after school my principal saw me walking out the door wearing them.  He laughed and teased me about how "only librarians wear those". I pointed to my husband (a librarian) who had come to pick me up, and said, "He doesn't."  My principal blushed, but that seems to be one of the common perceptions about librarians.

Far from being the mousy, shushing, bespectacled, gray women of most people's perceptions, librarians come in a variety of packaging (including "guybrarians") and can be ardent defenders of their beliefs.  Take the ALA (American Library Association), for example.  They have promoted books, ideas, learning, and the freedoms due them.  Founded in 1876,  they took on the task of supplying library materials and services through their Committee on Mobilization and War Service Plans (later called the War Service Committee) in 1917.

This was at the invitation of the War Department's Commission on Training Camp Activities to provide library service to the U.S. soldiers and sailors in the U.S., France and other locations.  The ALA was one of seven welfare groups affiliated with the Commission.  The ALA's wartime program, The Library War Service, was directed by Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, and later Carl H. Milam.

In the three years between 1917 and 1920, the ALA, whose membership was about 3,300, managed some remarkable achievements:  they raised $5 million in public donations through two campaigns; they established 36 camp libraries with $230,000 in funds from the Carnegie Corporation; they distributed approximately 7-10,000,000 books and reading materials; and provided library collections to over 500 locations, including military hospitals.

The work of the Library War Services continued after World War I. Importantly, permanent library departments were created in the Army, Navy, and Veteran's Bureau.  The American Merchant Marine Library Association was founded in 1921 for the purpose of  establishing and promoting professional library services to personnel of the American Merchant Marine, U.S. Coast Guard ships, stations, lightships, and lighthouses.

But perhaps most importantly was establishing the American Library in Paris, initially in 1918 but officially in 1920.  This was founded by community support and with 30,000 books left over from the Library War Service.  It is a private, non-profit association and is now the largest English-language lending library in Europe.  Their motto is atrum post bellum, ex libris lux, or "after the darkness of war, the light of books".

One of the first trustees was Edith Wharton.  Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein were early patrons, and contributed to the Library's periodical Ex Libris, which is still in publication as a newsletter.  Patrons such as Archibald MacLeish and Thornton Wilder borrowed books.  Stephen Vincent Benét wrote "John Brown's Body" there in 1928.  When Sylvia Beach closed Shakespeare & Company in 1951 she donated books from her lending library to the American Library in Paris.

Image by Elaine of www.europeaupif.com.

During the Nazi occupation of France, when French Jews were under threat, the Library operated an underground service, lending books to Jewish members.  In 1952, Director Ian Forbes Fraser barred the door to an inspection visit by McCarthy cronies Roy Cohn and Joseph Schine, who were touring Europe in search of "red" books in American libraries (the American Library in Paris is incorporated in the U.S.).  Today the Library is part of the American University in Paris.

Although, sadly, no such guild exists, this image can be purchased on a tshirt or
tote bag at this site.  The motto means "we know what you read, and we're not saying".

The ALA continued during World War II with its efforts to provide services to the armed forces.  The Victory Book Campaign in the 1940s stimulated civilian book donations.  This project was a favorite of FDR, and is a reflection of the perception of the war as a struggle between democracy and fascism.  It was a joint effort of the ALA, American Red Cross and the United Service Organization (USO).  All together 10 million books were delivered.  They were received, sorted, packed, and shipped by librarians.

These two images are courtesy of www.ohiohistory.org.
They were published by the US GPO and distributed by
the Office of War Information, Division of Public
Inquiry to many U.S. libraries in 1942.

Being a librarian means knowing how to access all types of information.  It also means protecting the freedom of information and helping everyone gain access. Librarians are often moral activists.  Wars are fought on all different kinds of fronts, and the ones that keep information and privacy free are of the utmost importance to us all.  It's comforting to know that there is a trained army ready to fight and protect us from intellectual tyranny.

Caption on sash reads "Read me my rights".
Image courtesy of Flickr.

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Unless otherwise noted, images courtesy of the ALA.

This button can be ordered from the ALA.  It was inspired by
documents from the FBI which revealed a series of emails in
which FBI agents complained about "radical, militant librarians".
This button raises awareness of the overreaching aspects of
the U.S. Patriot Act.

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