Banned Book READ-OUTS! Scheduled For Albany, Troy and Saratoga Springs

Per the NYCLU

Lovers of books and free speech will be celebrating Americans’ constitutional freedom to read at three Banned Book READ-OUTS! later this month in the Capital Region. At these events, local citizens read their favorite passages from books that have been banned or challenged.

This year’s events are scheduled for:
· Albany Public Library, 161Washington Avenue, Wednesday, September 28 at 6 pm.

· Saratoga Springs Public Library, 49 Henry Street, community room, Sunday, September 18 at 3 pm.

· Market Block Books, 290 River Street in Troy, Friday, September 30 at 7 pm.

Each year there are hundreds of attempts to ban books in schools and libraries throughout the country. Melanie Trimble, Director of the Capital Region Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said, “Our Constitution gives us the right to read what we want and the best way to preserve this freedom is to exercise it.”

This year’s banned book celebrations are focusing in particular on the subject of diversity. The American Library Association (ALA) estimates that more than half of all banned or challenged books are written by authors of color or represent groups or viewpoints outside the mainstream. Trimble said, “It’s distressing to see that, in our diverse country, there is so much effort spent on trying to muzzle diverse voices.”

Even when such attempts at censorship are turned back, they often have a residual dampening effect. Teachers may shy away from including challenged books on reading lists; libraries and bookstores may shrink from featuring them on their shelves.

In the past year, the three most challenged books have been Looking for Alaska by John Green; Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, and I am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings. Many of our greatest novels have been among the most consistently challenged works. Some examples: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, Ulysses, Invisible Man, The Call of the Wild, Native Son, Rabbit, Run and An American Tragedy.

This year, banned websites are also receiving attention. Excessive and unbalanced filtering of websites has become a growing issue in schools. The American Civil Liberties Union, for example, notes that many serious LGBT sites are often blocked, while religious sites aimed at convincing LGBT youth to change their sexual orientation or gender identity and sites that foster hate speech against LGBT people are not blocked.

For example, The Trevor Project, a lauded website devoted to suicide prevention among LGBT youth, is commonly blocked by schools, but the National Organization for Marriage site, which advocates against marriage equality, often goes unfiltered.

Local sponsors of these banned books READ OUTS! are the Albany, Troy and Saratoga Springs public libraries, the Capital Region Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs and Market Block Books in Troy.

Banned Book Week: Ensuring Everyone Has a Choice

In honor of Banned Books Week - September 21-27, 2014 Meryl Jaffe thought she'd share clips from articles and resources to ensure that everyone has the option to read what they choose.

This year, Banned Books Week 2014 events and celebrations will emphasize a thematic focus on comics and graphic novels.

So in the spirit of spreading awareness of how schools, libraries and individuals can fight censorship, below, are some wonderful links both from School Library Journal, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and additional recommended resources:

School Library Journal has two outstanding articles that discusses comic and graphic novels in schools: the challenges they face and why it's a fight worth fighting. Teaching With Graphic Novels by Brigid Alverson, School Library Journal September 8, 2014 relates that:

This is the paradox of graphic novels: The visual element that gives them their power can also make them vulnerable to challenges. Researcher Steven Cary calls this the “naked buns” effect...

At the same time, graphic novels are increasingly used in the classroom. For over a decade, public librarians have been promoting graphic novels as literature, and researchers have studied their benefits in educational settings.

NYCLU Banned Books Week Event at Albany Public Library

On Tuesday, September 23rd, 6PM, the New York State Civil Liberties Union, Capital Region Chapter will sponsor a local ReadOut! at the Albany Public Library Main Branch!

A ReadOut is an event where local actors, writers, poets, and prominent community leaders read brief excerpts from books that have been banned or challenged in America. Historically, people have read from children books, classics, and modern works of literature.

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.

One of this year's readers will be APL Executive Director Scott Jarzombek.

If you have any questions regarding the event, feel free to contact Joanna Palladino at Joanna.Palladino@gmail.com or John Cirrin at millais@nycap.rr.com

BANNED BOOKS READ-OUTS IN ALBANY AND TROY, SEPTEMBER 24 AND 27

ALBANY—The Capital Region Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union will sponsor two “Read Outs” during this year’s national Banned Books Week. The events in Albany and Troy will feature regional notables—actors, writers, politicians, poets, and activists of all types—reading from books that have been banned or challenged in the United States.

The first Read-Out will be held on Tuesday, September 24 at 6 pm at the University Club, 141 Washington Avenue, Albany. The second event will take place as part of Troy Night Out on Friday, September 27 at 6 pm at Market Block Books, 290 River Street, Troy.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Melanie Trimble, NYCLU Chapter Director, said, “Our Constitution gives us the right to read what we want, and the best way to preserve that freedom is to exercise it. At a time when pervasive governmental spying on citizens is in the news daily, it is crucial that people come out to demonstrate their passionate commitment to constitutional freedoms.”

Every year there are hundreds of attempts to suppress books in our schools and libraries. During the first decade of our current century, the Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association (ALA) recorded 5,099 challenges to books nationwide. And, since most banning attempts do not get widely reported, the organization estimates that the real number of attempted suppressions is at least four to five times higher.

Heading the most recent list of the country’s most frequently challenged books is Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series. Runner up is Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Many of America’s greatest novels have been the most consistently challenged works, among them: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, Ulysses, Invisible Man, The Call of the Wild, Native Son, Rabbit, Run and An American Tragedy.

Many attempts to ban reading material are not necessarily mounted in the parts of the country where one might predict them to be. Substantial clusters of challenges can be found on both the East and West Coasts. One recent ALA survey, for example, counted five incidents each in Connecticut and Pennsylvania but only one each in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama. Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts recorded four challenges each. Nevada and Utah had none. Oregon had eight. The most active states were California, New York, Texas, Wisconsin and Florida which all recorded between 10 and 13 challenges apiece

National sponsors of Banned Books Week are the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, Freedom to Read Foundation, National Association of College Stores, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, National Coalition against Censorship, National Council of Teachers for English, PEN American Center, Project Censored.

Top 10 Books Library-Goers Want Banned

From PARADE:

A charming picture book, a Pulitzer Prize winner, a memoir, and a beloved children’s series—no genre was safe from complaints from offended readers in 2012. Captain Underpants, Fifty Shades of Grey, and Beloved were among the most “challenged” books last year, according to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

The top 10 most controversial books, which the ALA released, was determined by the number of “formal, written complaints filed with a library or school requesting that a book or other material be restricted or removed because of its content or appropriateness.” In total, 464 complaints were filed in 2012, up from 326 in 2011.

Bill Moyers: The Bane of Banned Books

Bill Moyers addresses banned books and ALA's Banned Books Week

When I was growing up in East Texas we didn't have any money for books. My reading room was the small local library run by an organization of business professional women. To this moment, I can remember checking out my first two volumes - one was Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days; the other was a primer on Greek and Roman mythology (don't ask me why.) Years later, when I walked into the much larger library at the state college as a freshman, I was practically overwhelmed. I looked down row after row of books and periodicals and thought: "Wow! All this for me?!” Some of the best hours of my life were spent in that library. I even considered majoring in library science, so that I could be near those books.

Which is one reason it pains me today that even in this modern day and age, some folks in communities across America are saying: "No. That Book ISN'T For You” and for reasons that have nothing to do with the community, the school, or the reader - and everything to do with prejudice.

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom reports 326 attempts last year to remove or restrict books from school curricula and libraries. Add those to thousands of formal complaints filed with a library or school in the last two decades - complaints about a book's content or appropriateness. Can you believe some people don't want other people to read Brave New World, The Color Purple, To Kill A Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, The Kite Runner, A Wrinkle in Time, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Light in the Attic, the Harry Potter series, and – ironic if not surprising – Fahrenheit 451.

Think of it: some of the most inspiring and mind-opening words ever written, threatened with removal because they offended a self-deputized vigilante over who wants to deny an entire community's curiosity and passion to learn.
Censorship is the enemy of truth - even more than a lie. A lie can be exposed; censorship can prevent us knowing the difference. This is one reason that on my public television broadcast, Moyers & Company, we call out the censors every time we can. And it's why we're so grateful to the ALA – as well as the librarians, writers, booksellers, publishers, and neighbors who stand with the Association in observing the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week, taking place this year from September 30 – October 6."

Read the rest and watch the video.

Books, Borges and Those Internet Predictions

by Cara Meadows

For many bookworms, there really is no comparison: a real hardback made of paper and properly bound beats any other manifestations of intellectual content hands down.

Witness, however, this ironic observation seen not long ago on the online social network Twitter, and which went something along the lines of: "There's nothing like the feel and smell of a first-generation Kindle!" Electronic books have clearly arrived in force – and it's not possible to miss how they too originally struck their early adopters.

How quickly technology advances – and yet, in some ways, how slowly too.

The virtues of an analog world

The analog world, that world beloved of the bookworms, has – more often than not – been popularly judged as occupying a far less resilient place than that of the digital. Smartphones, PCs, PDAs, e-book readers – all these very physical objects seem to many unpracticed, and particularly young, eyes to sustain a presence much closer to the permanence that was the Victorian Industrial Revolution than the fragility of Dead Sea Scrolls.

Yet the Dead Sea Scrolls survived where many engineering feats of the 19th century have not. Who, then, is to say which is the more permanent?

Traditional books in their very many forms have often lasted for centuries. Other more modern forms of intellectual content, however, find sustaining their integrity rather more of a challenge. Remember that Sony Betamax video recorder you lovingly invested in all those decades ago? How many of its videotapes can you now play and enjoy? Either the tapes themselves have disintegrated under the weight of mere decades or the recorder itself has long ago given up the technological ghost. All that's left to remind you of the experiences you once enjoyed is the recliner sofa you used to curl up on.

Or there's that digital music collection which cost thousands of dollars to build up – only to be totally incompatible with your brand new player.

On the other hand, what about those shelves creaking under all those books? How old is the oldest edition? A century? Maybe two?

When was the last time you needed to recharge that collection of Edgar Allan Poe stories? Or replace a damaged paperback because you'd dropped it? Or pay all over again for the loss of an entire collection of whatever it might be because for some unfathomable reason a wretched electronic device no longer wants to load its content properly?

The birth pains of the digital world

All the above examples – and very many more – are obviously the birth pains of a brave new world. This world talks to us of interconnectedness – and it's true: whilst an electronic PDF file may not be the kindest thing on the eye, the ability to not only send but also limitlessly search a 300-page document in a split-second click of a mouse should not be underestimated.

It does, however, bring its own very complex challenges. The recent battles over SOPA and PIPA here in the US and elsewhere have shown that the tension between the singularity of a real book – or, for that matter, the old-fashioned videotape or vinyl LP – and the capacity online content has to almost infinitely reproduce itself is not, in the short-term, going to be easily resolved; nor perhaps will it ever be – at least, not to everyone's satisfaction.

The Babel we've inherited

In the real world of real books, meanwhile, the Argentine writer and librarian Jorge Luis Borges seems to have predicted some aspects of the latter-day Internet as long ago as 1941, in his astonishing story "The Library of Babel" . Here, a massive library of interconnected rooms contains all the possible versions of a 410-page book:

Though the majority of the books in this universe are pure gibberish, the library also must contain, somewhere, every coherent book ever written, or that might ever be written, and every possible permutation or slightly erroneous version of every one of those books.

The similarities are, indeed, striking – at least for anyone able to see beyond the fireworks of unthinking engagement. Just imagine, in fact, what the proponents of SOPA might one day have to say about a library which contained millions of slightly different versions of one of their favorite movie titles. Perhaps such libraries already exist.

In this brave new generation of interconnected content, where self-publishing and self-revelation have become the norm, the massive and currently unstoppable flow of information still awaits the ancient organizer and filter roles which the noble profession of librarian continues valiantly to provide. While so much of what is now done in the book-publishing and intellectual-content trades seems to resist useful differentiation and observation, there will surely come a time when the traffic becomes simply untenable. Whether this will lead to a restriction on its production and movement, as those in favor of SOPA and PIPA might argue in favor of, or, on the other hand, to a greater importance being placed on the value which librarians everywhere add for their users is difficult to predict.

Meanwhile, those who love books in all their shapes, sizes and forms must continue to preach to those who – in a hyperlinked age – might have forgotten the pleasures of being walked down a path of writerly ingenuity and spirit.

A PDF may fly round the world in a second and find its keywords perfectly searched in the blink of an eye – but a real book commands its readers to hold onto its wisdom for a lifetime, and is never forgotten by those who may stumble across its beauty.

Bio: Cara Meadows is a writer and researcher living in London. She has five years experience in the industry and has spent a lot of time traveling with her job. She specializes in publishing and marketing but is happy to write about just about anything.

NYCLU TO HOST BANNED BOOK EVENTS IN ALBANY AND TROY

ALBANY—This fall, the Capital Region Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union will host events in Albany and Troy that celebrate Americans’ cherished freedom to express ideas and opinions, even if they are unorthodox or unpopular.

The Albany “Read Out” event will be held at the Upstate Artists Guild Gallery at 247 Lark Street on Saturday, Oct. 2 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

On Friday, Sept. 24 the chapter will host a “Read Out” event during the Troy Night Out celebration from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 260 Broadway, corner of Third and Broadway in downtown Troy.

Each year these “Read Out” events bring together well known local writers and media personalities to read from their favorite banned and challenged books. This year’s roster includes: Frankie Bailey, author of mystery novels and non-fiction histories, including Wicked Albany: Lawlessness and Liquor in the Prohibition Era; Diane Cameron, Albany writer and teacher whose columns appear in the Times Union; Joe Donahue, host of WAMC’s daily Roundtable program; Libby Post, founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and frequent media commentator; and Dan Wilcox, poet and peace activist who has hosted regular “open mic” poetry events at the Social Justice Center since 1997.

Books are banned or challenged every year in communities across the nation for any number of reasons. Here’s a small sampling of books that have been banned or challenged in the U.S. during the past decade: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; The Color Purple by Alice Walker; Beloved and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison; Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov; Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut; Sophie’s Choice by William Styron; and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien.

Banned Books Week has been celebrated each year since 1982. It is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Association of American Publishers, and the National Association of College Stores. It is also endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.
The NYCLU Capital Region Chapter is the local branch of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which is the state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. The Capital Region Chapter serves eight counties: Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren, and Washington.

It's Banned Book Week

This is my favorite piece I've come across this season. It was written last year by a librarian, a tremendously detailed response to someone who wanted a book banned.

Banned Book Library

Out of a locker, no less.

National Banned Books Week

Stolen heavily from APL's Elissa Kane:

The Albany Public Library invites you to join us in celebrating National Banned Books Week, next week, the only national celebration of the freedom to read.

Launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries, more than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. People challenge books that they say are too sexual or too violent. They object to profanity and slang, and protest against offensive portrayals of racial or religious groups - or positive portrayals of gays and lesbians.

According to the American Library Association, more than 400 books were challenged in 2007. The 10 most challenged titles were:

1. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell - Children's picture book - Two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches.

2. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier - Young Adult fiction - A high-school freshman who refuses to participate in the annual fund-raising chocolate sale is forced to defend his convictions.

3. Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes - Young Adult fiction - On a summer visit to her grandmother's cottage by the ocean, twelve-year-old Martha gains perspective on the death of a classmate, on her relationship with her grandmother, on her feelings for an older boy, and on her plans to be a writer.

4. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman - Young Adult fiction - Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - Young Adult fiction - A nineteenth-century boy, floating down the Mississippi on a raft with a runaway slave, becomes involved with a feuding family, two scoundrels pretending to be royalty, and Tom Sawyer's aunt, who mistakes him for Tom.

6. The Color Purple by Alice Walker - Adult Fiction - The lives of two sisters--Nettie, a missionary in Africa, and Celie, a southern woman married to a man she hates--are revealed in a series of letters exchanged over thirty years

7. TTYL by Lauren Myracle - Young Adult fiction - Chronicles, in "instant message" format, the day-to-day experiences, feelings, and plans of three friends, Zoe, Maddie, and Angela, as they begin tenth grade.

8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou - Adult memoir - The poet recalls the anguish of her childhood in Arkansas and her adolescence in northern slums.

9. It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris - Young Adult non-fiction - Providing accurate, lucid, unbiased answers to nearly every conceivable question children may have about sexuality, It's Perfectly Normal is here to help.

10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - Young Adult fiction - A series of letters to an unknown correspondent reveals the coming-of-age trials of a high-schooler named Charlie.

I'm so proud that they're all available right here at the Albany Public Library!!!

APL has great Banned Books displays with many titles pulled together for your easy perusal.

Montana: Library holds hearing on gay-sex book

In Helena. The responses include this one:

If books deemed as immoral are banned from public libraries than the bible needs to be banned also. Within its covers are topics of homosexuality, incest, mutilation, and other heinous activities. I am NOT advocating the removal of the bible, or any other book that has been approved by the library's collection review committee. Morality can not be legislated.

A few words in defense of books

From the 10/7/2007 Times Union: Albany Public Library, residents mark national Banned Books Week

Albany Public Library and the NYCLU Celebrate Your Right to Read

Banned Books Week is September 29 to October 6

On Saturday, October 6, at 2:00 pm, Albany Public Library, in partnership with the New York State Civil Liberties Union, Capital Region Chapter, celebrates America’s freedom to read! The program, which will be held at the Main Library, 161 Washington Ave., will feature local actors and community leaders will read from books that have been banned or challenged in America. Local poets also will be reading selections from their own works and NYCLU members will discuss current challenges to intellectual freedom and free speech. The readings will take place in the large auditorium of the Main Library.

Now in its 26th year, Banned Books Week calls Americans’ attention to the fragile nature of the First Amendment, which is under constant onslaught by censors and those who would control what citizens read and think.
Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Association of American Publishers. It is also endorsed by the Center for the Book, a program of the Library of Congress.
For more information on Banned Books Week go here.

For more information on the program at Albany Public Library contact the library’s Public Information Officer, John Cirrin at 427-4344.