BANNED BOOKS WEEK:  Celebrating the Freedom to Read

September 26 – October 3, 2009

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.  Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week.  Banned Books Week stresses the importance of making available unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targets of attempted bannings.  Fortunately, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections. 

A list of frequently challenged books is available from the American Library Association at:  http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/index.cfm

Come and see the display at Dublin Library of books that have been the subject of proposed banning!  This display is located  by the large type books by the public access computer terminals.