Banned Books Week– an annual celebration of challenged and banned books and the right to read them– kicked off on Sept. 26, and with it came the continued fight for the right to access that underlines the event.
The week initially began in 1982 following a surge in the number of books being challenged and banned across the United States, and since then the celebration has been sanctified by various national and international
organizations. Books can be challenged and banned through the support of individuals, communities, and other institutions on the basis of controversial content. Challenges and bans often entail a large calling for a particular book to be removed from a library or store.
These challenges are a particular threat for public institutions like schools and libraries, whose core job is to provide free and open access to information and material to a diverse population. This becomes especially important within communities that lack adequate access to necessary educational and provisionary infrastructure.
Challenges, then, are in effect an attack to the principle of a library, and this highlights the complicated nature of Constitutional protections – Americans are conditionally defensive of rights.
However, while libraries and access to the material are protected under The First Amendment and Intellectual Freedom Act– with the removal of books based on content qualifying as censorship and thus a violation of that Amendment and Act– they are also funded by federal and state governments, which means the political makeup of those governments– and therefore the values they embody– can influence how libraries are perceived and funded.
Pressure from communities and individuals can also cause libraries to lose respect in the public eye and divide the community they are trying to support, which can cause patron attendance and use of the facility to drop. A library may be impelled to follow through with the removal of a book in order to maintain funding and the trust of their community. While libraries are immensely important in acting as guardians to free and open information and access to resources, they are ultimately not funded or supported well enough to fully abate the pressure that comes from books that are challenged.
Cass County Public Library in Harrisonville, MO serves as a recent example of succumbing to his pressure. It is being pressured by community members to remove or relocate the book “It’s Perfectly Normal” by Robie H. Harris, a sexual education book. It showcases everything from gender identity to safe sex practices to masturbation, often using anatomically correct diagrams and descriptions. The book has been out and updated since 1994 and has practically been the poster child for challenged and banned books. The core controversy centers around the Cass County Library’s placement of that book in the Juvenile section, as opposed to the Young Adult or Adult sections.
The primary issue of challenged/banned books is that libraries are there to provide open access to all channels of information to all people, and by banning or removing a book they are also compromising that fundamental principle.
What is important is continuing to support libraries. Another important step is supporting legislation that provides greater funding and support for public libraries. Go out, support appropriate legislation, support your local library, and oppose book banning.