Beginning in 1982, The American Library Association (ALA) has celebrated Banned Books Week annually during the last week in September. The goal of this weeklong event is to keep the concept of literary freedom at the forefront of Americans' minds.
Intellectual Freedom and Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week is based upon the central concept of intellectual freedom and those ideals set forth in The Intellectual Freedom Manual. Namely, that two elements are met:
- That all people have the right to "to hold any belief on any subject and to convey their ideas in any form they deem appropriate"; and
- That society treats all beliefs equally by means of providing "unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used, the content of the work, and the viewpoints of both the author and receiver of information".
These elements ensure that people have the right to express their opinions, no matter how unpopular they might be, and gives people the right to have access to information of widely varying opinions "for all who wish to read them".
How Books Get Banned: The Challenging of Books
A majority of the books that appear on lists and information in regards to Banned Books Week are not actually banned, they are instead challenged. This distinction is minor, but it is important to note because books that are categorized as "challenged" simply mean that someone has attempted to get the book in question banned, which could ultimately result in the book being banned from schools, libraries and bookstores.
If a book is banned, its access is restricted to everyone. Thankfully, most books remain un-banned and free to anyone who wishes to read them, in part due to the efforts of the ALA and its widespread promotion of banned books week.
Any single individual or group can challenge a book, and most challenges are initiated by parents, according to the ALA.
Common Reasons Books are Challenged
According to the ALA, the top three reasons for the challenging of a book are: that the book has "sexually explicit" content, that the book contains "offensive language" and that the book is "unsuited to the age group" it is being promoted too.
All of these reasons are based solely on an individual or group's own beliefs and cannot be applied to the general public, as stated by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Essentially, that a free society should not have restraints imposed on them that will limit the availability of information to them.
Common Activities That Take Place During Banned Books Week
While each school, library and bookstore may have their own Banned Books Week activities catered to their specific goals, there are some nation-wide activities that commonly coincide with the event. These activities generally include public readings from challenged/banned books and authors and symposiums where the topic of literary censorship is discussed.
Literary censorship has always been a hot-topic among parents and teachers, and continues to be. While one can understand the desire to protect children from obtaining something that a parent or teacher deems inappropriate, it is equally important to provide society with the freedom to decide for themselves whether something is offensive. Furthermore, by banning access to literature, society is being cheated of information that cannot and should not be stifled because of another's opposing viewpoint(s).
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