Banned Books Week was celebrated this year from September 25th - October 2nd. Annually libraries offer creative displays, presentations, and new methods to educate about censorship, book challenges, and explain why free societies should have access to all points of view. Intellectual freedom is a requirement in a free society and allows us all access to a wide variety of available information. Even when information is unpopular or not within our personal belief system, it is important that we not censor information for others.
View this ALA Chart: Number of Challenges by Year, Reason, Initiator, & Institution
It is interesting to note that there were only 29 challenges to academic libraries. Academic institutions encourage diversity of ideas and exposure to many perspectives and points of view.
View ALA's Frequently Challenged Books of the 21st Century
The issue of intellectual freedom and access to information will always be one that is discussed, reviewed, and challenged at times. Every library has a policy to deal with challenged materials. Every patron has a right to make their objections known. Every reader in our society has a right to the information they want or need.
Libraries make it possible to uphold the ideals of intellectual freedom and to provide access to information without the filter of censorship.
One particularly interesting case is that of the Pernkopf Anatomy Atlas and medical libraries. You can read an article about this here.
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