Banned Books Week, September 25 - October 1

This post is cut-and-pasted from the Banned Books Week website: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/bannedbooksweek.


Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community; librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types, in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.

Check out the frequently challenged books section to explore the issues and controversies around book challenges and book banning. The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted with removal or restrictions in libraries and schools. While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available. This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read.

The Top 10 Most Challenged Books for 2015 were:

1. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
2. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
   Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”).
3. I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
   Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group.
4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
   Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”).
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
   Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
6. The Holy Bible
   Reasons: Religious viewpoint.
7. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
   Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”).
8. Habibi, by Craig Thompson
   Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
9. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
   Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence.
10. Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
    Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).

Each title is available through our Library system and the SCLENDS consortium catalog.



Reminder #1: The Beaufort County Library system will be closed Wednesday, October 5th for Staff Development Day. Regular hours resume on Thursday October 6th.

Reminder #2: The Beaufort District Collection and the busiest branch libraries begin new hours of operation on October 1st. Please be sure to check the schedule for your favorite branch library.

New hours for the Beaufort District Collection are:

• Mondays 9 am to 5 pm
• Tuesdays by advance appointment only. Contact gracec@bcgov.net or call 843-255-6468 to schedule.
• Wednesdays by advance appointment only. Contact gracec@bcgov.net or call 843-255-6468 to schedule.
• Thursdays 9 am to 5 pm 
• Fridays 9 am to 5 pm (This is an extension of public service by 2 hours each Friday.)
• Saturdays and Sundays closed