Special Topic Paper: Banned Books & the Freedom to Read

For my special topic paper, I chose to write about banned books and the freedom to read since banning books has been a recent topic of debate in my home. I have always been interested in the reasons that people have for banning books, but as an MLIS student, that interest has become even more crucial since I will be further establishing a career as a librarian. The American Library Association (ALA) defines banned books after defining challenged books, and their definition is simply "the removal of those materials (American Library Association, 1996-2023b). To go in-depth with banned books, the body of my paper covered resources, how banned books can be promoted, and how to counteract negative feedback about the books.

As far as resources, I tried my best to not just provide list after list, but I did want to provide a variety so that the readers of my paper could understand that banned books do not just occur in one area of literature. The lists covered children's, teens, and adult books, and the lists also make a point to detail why the specific books were banned so that readers understand. In my search for promotional ideas, I found a wonderful resource from the ALA  that presented a wide variety of possibilities for promoting banned books, and they ranged from simple to detailed. A personal favorite that I pointed out in my paper used black light flashlights to help patrons understand why certain books were banned, which I thought was clever (American Library Association, 1996-2023c).

After covering resources and promotional ideas, my final section of counteracting negative feedback drew from another ALA article as well as an article from Book Riot in which the author profiled one case of a librarian being confronted with a banned books issue. The librarian mentioned to the author that librarians in general should "document positive and negative feedback for these books," which I agreed with (Ellis, 2022). Additionally, the ALA brought up a point about how librarians should basically remain neutral in dealing with patrons, and that was something I hadn't previously considered too much (American Library Association, 1996-2023f). Overall, I feel like this deep dive into banned books was helpful as I look to enter my career after graduating this May, and I'm looking forward to using this knowledge.

** While I only used a few references in my actual summary, I wanted to share my entire references list just in case it could help someone else out with the topic, so it is below!

References

American Library Association (1996-2023a). Banned & challenged classics. Banned & Challenged Books. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics

American Library Association (1996-2023b). Banned book faq. Banned & Challenged Books. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/banned-books-qa

American Library Association (1996-2023c). Banned book week display ideas. Banned & Challenged Books. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/bannedbooksweek/ideasandresources/display

American Library Association (1996-2023d). Frequently challenged books. Banned & Challenged Books. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks

American Library Association (1996-2023e). Get involved. Banned & Challenged Books. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/bannedbooksweek/ideasandresources/activity

American Library Association (1996-2023f). How to respond to challenges and concerns about library resources. https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/respond

Ellis, D. (2022, September 13). How librarians can counter lies from book banners. Book Riot. https://bookriot.com/counter-lies-from-book-banners/

Milas, L. B. (2022, February 7). The frequently banned books everyone should read. Paste. https://www.pastemagazine.com/books/book-recs/frequently-banned-books-everyone-read-lists-censored/

Sutcliffe, A. (2022, August 30). 28 banned books that every kid needs to read. Tiny Beans. https://tinybeans.com/kids-books-and-childrens-books-that-are-banned-books/