4 posts tagged “libraries”
Two fabulously successful censorship strategies were highlighted in the news this last week.
According to an interesting little Time article, our new favorite bible-banging, gun-toting VP candidate
"...continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor."
On the other opposite side of the country, grandmother JoAn Karkos paid a $100 fine for refusing to return It's Perfectly Normal to the Lewiston Public Library, calling it a "sex initiation book." But the bright side (and there is almost always a bright side in censorship cases like this), as reported in an ABC News article?
"Karkos' grip on the book hasn't stopped children from viewing it at the library. When news of her crusade first hit the media in the fall, Speer said, the library received eight copies in the mail, five of which are now on the shelves."
Two more reasons to celebrate Banned Books Week at the end of the month!
I learned this week that my beloved Sheffieldian Long Blondes will be making the long trip across the pond to play Minneapolis! (oh, and a few other towns...) To prolong the magic of such good news, I began rereading a bunch of web sites about Screech Louder and Co. My first stop was the bible, allmusic.com. As if to confirm that all is right in the world, the publicity shot that turned up was the gang hangin' out at the library. Sigh...
Now if only ALA would use shots like these for their Read Posters instead of superimposing random celebrities over goofy clip art backgrounds (Exhibit A), maybe people would actually be inspired to Read. Of course, library graphic design is a whole other post, if not blog...
I just had a woman at the library asking for this book,
who was wearing a dirty old flannel pajama top that looked similar to this:
Really. Make yourself at home.
Yes, it's time once again to celebrate your and my freedom to read. It's Banned Books Week, Sept. 29 - Oct. 6 this week! The American Library Association's pirate theme is a bit awkward, in true ALA style (how many free-speech crusading pirates have you read about?), so I've decided to celebrate Banned Books Week by fantasizing about what I would throw onto the bibliobonfire if I weren't such an enlightened, freedom-loving liberal. (Yes, I do feel smug and superior when I add one of my small-minded right-wing customers to the reserve list for Ann Coulter's latest piece of crap.) Here are my picks:
1. Ann Coulter, of course. Well, maybe just her books.
2. The Chicken Soup books. There are so many to choose from! Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul? Chicken Soup for the Shopper's Soul?
3. The complete Bill O'Reilly oeuvre
4. Dr. Laura's series of creepy children's books featuring giant child caricatures with small-headed families
5. Anything by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, but especially the Left Behind: The Kids series
6. The P.I.G. Guides (see earlier post)
7. Christina Hoff Sommers' "feminist" writings
If you weren't the enlightened, open-minded, evolved person that you are, what books would you incinerate?
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