Coming next month:
New Lenox Public Library will commemorate the September 11th attacks with a bulletin board display and related book display.
September is also the month for Banned Books Week (September 26th-October 3rd.) Again, we will be featuring a bulletin board and book display highlighting books that have been challenged or banned over the years. Watch for more on Banned Books Week in a later post!
It's National Chicken Month, National Prime Beef Month and Update Your Resume Month, so watch for book displays on those topics as well. We hope to see you soon @ your library.
4 comments:
You are a public library, not an American Library Association library. Please be honest. No books have been banned in the USA for about a half a century. See "National Hogwash Week."
Thank you for your comment. You are correct that we are public library; we also happen to be a member of the American Library Association. While most books that are challenged are not banned, thanks to the cooperative work of librarians, library boards and the public, there are still instances of books being banned all over the country. For example, last winter, the Intermediate School in Minooka, IL banned the book The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney from their school library after a parent complained about the book. For additional information on Banned Books Week, including lists of the most commonly challenged books by year, see http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm
Why do you so proudly proclaim allegiance to the ALA and promote it as you have? Given "American Library Association Shamed," by Nat Hentoff, Laurel Leader-Call, 2 March 2007, I ask anyone reading this to explain why the ALA views book burnings, bannings, and jailed librarians in Cuba as NOT censorship, and why people legally keeping children from inappropriate material IS censorship.
Why does the ALA not only refuse to assist jailed Cuban librarians, but go further and actually thwart efforts by others to assist them? Why should members of the public consider the ALA to be authoritative on the definition of what is censorship in local public libraries?
Indeed, why should local libraries care one whit about an organization actively blocking efforts to assist jailed and beaten Cuban librarians and associated censorship and book burnings?
Thank you for sharing your concerns. Unfortunately, this Reader's Advisory blog is designed to highlight fiction of interest to our community and to provide a forum for literary discussion, not debate complex, international issues. The International Federation of Library Associations would be better suited to address your concerns, as they deal with international situations such as the one you raised. Thank you for illustrating our mutual commitment to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
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