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Book Bans & Censorship: Stay Informed

A guide in the fight to protect all people's intellectual freedom and right to read

It's not about burning the books; it's about labeling the ideas. And there's a short and direct line between labeling ideas as profane and dehumanizing people. -Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom   Banned Books Shelf image

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This can also have much wider implications, beyond students and schools. “A society in which book banning is acceptable is no longer a free society,” Eidelman says. “It is instead one in which the government tells the people what books to read—and therefore what ideas to encounter and, ultimately, what to think. It weakens education and prevents people from learning to think for themselves.”

Source: What Is Book Banning and How Does It Affect Society? 

Elizabeth Yuko, April 18th, 2022

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Terms to Know

Book Challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, often from a school curriculum or library collection, based on the objections of a person or group. Most book challenges are unsuccessful and the material remains in the school or library. When a book challenge does succeed it often results in a book ban.

 

Book Ban is a form of censorship in which private individuals, government officials, or organizations remove books from libraries, school reading lists, or bookstore shelves because they object to the content, ideas, or themes present in the texts.

 

Censorship is the changing, suppression, or prohibition of speech, writing, media, ideas, and public information that is deemed subversive of the "common good". Things that are censored are often considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security and the way of life. Censorship can be conducted by governments, private institutions and other controlling bodies.

 

Censorship Practices (The Four R's)
  1. Redaction: when someone crosses or marks out certain texts or images on a page
  2. Relocation: when material is moved from an area where it is accessible to its intended audience to another area where it is not readily accessible
  3. Restriction: when a limit is placed on who can access particular materials
  4. Removal: when material is withdrawn from a library collection or a curriculum in order to eliminate access (aka a ban)

 

Intellectual Freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction

 

Academic Freedom is 1) a scholar's freedom to express ideas without risk of official interference or professional disadvantage; 2) the freedom of teachers, students, and academic institutions to pursue knowledge wherever it may lead, without undue or unreasonable interference

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