Books are a gray area...

Books are a gray area...
Photo by austinevan

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

One of us...

I found this blog for another library school's intellectual freedom class (of particular interest to me because I'm currenly enrolled in a similar course). But this is a post by one of the students about book censorship,

http://libintellectualfreedom.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/book-censorship-and-intellectual-freedom/


The statistic that at least a book a day is challenged is sort of scary. And since the history of Anthony Comstock was so prevelent in the book Purity in Print, I especially liked the question about if interlibrary loans could fall subject to the 1873 Comstock laws. Something to think about the next time you order a book!

LibBie

Monday, December 1, 2008

Time flies like the wind...

but fruit flies like bananas!

So in studying views on censorship through time, I came across some resources to share. Along with the book and websites below, here are a number of articles about and views of censorship from 1897 through 2007.


The Boston public library and books that tend to encourage anarchic doctrine. (October, 1897). Bookman, 6, 88-89.

Sayers, W.C.B. (1928). The banning of books in libraries. Library Review, 1 (5), 184-187.

Foster, H. H. Jr. (1957). The “Comstock load.” Obscenity and the law. Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Political Science. 48(3), 245-258.

Meyers, D. (1977, February 15). Boys and girls and sex and libraries. Library Journal, 102(4), 457-463. Retrieved November 18, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database.

Eidus, J. (1992, Oct.). Censorship from without; censorship from within: chilling trends. ANQ. 5(4), 188-190.

O’Sullivan, M.K. and O’Sullivan, C.J. (2007). Selection or censorship: libraries and the intelligent design debate. Library Review, 56 (3), 200-207.

and the ones from below...

Websites related to censorship:

National Coalition Against Censorship. (2008). NCAC - National Coalition AgainstCensorship. Retrieved 11/4/2008 from: http://www.ncac.org/home.cfm.

Parents Against Bad Books in Schools. (2008). Controversial and challenged books in schools -PABBIS. Retrieved 11/4/2008 from: http://www.pabbis.com/.

American Library Association, (2008). American Library Association: Banned Books Week. Retrieved 11/4/2008 from: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.cfm.


And a book:

Boyer, P. S. (2002). Purity in print: Book censorship in America from the gilded age to the computer age, 2nd edition. Madison, WS: University of Wisconsin Press.