Censorship or Selection? Academic Library Holdings Of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2007
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26443/el.v33i2.292Abstract
Academic libraries often serve as the protectors of challenged books. Pressure on public libraries to remove controversial works can and often does result in the restriction of access or removal of the work from those libraries shelves. Academic libraries, however, operate with a stronger sense of academic and intellectual freedom. To analyze how well academic libraries do in acquiring and making available books which appear on the American Library Association‘s Challenged Books list, the list for 2007 was analyzed in WorldCat to determine the number and overall percentage of academic libraries holding the titles. Overall, 29.94% of the libraries holding challenged books were academic libraries.References
American Library Association. Banned Books Week. What Was the Most Challenged Book of 2007? Available at: http://www.lita.org/ala/pressreleases2008/may2008/penguin.cfm. Accessed July 14, 2008,
In September of 2006, Vol. LV, No. 5, it was reported that the library of the University of the Incarnate Word, a private Catholic university in San Antonio, Texas, was reinstating its subscription to the New York Times. The subscription had been ordered cancelled by the Dean of Library Services who objected to the Times reporting on a secret government program to monitor international banking transactions. Accessed July 13, 2008. URL: https://members.ala.org/nif/v55n5/success_stories.html#sanantonio
Macleod, Ann Scott. American Childhood: Essays on Children‘s Literature of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Athens, GA : University of Georgia Press, 1994. p. 174
Ibid, p. 176.
Ibid, p. 176-177.
Ibid, p. 185,
Asheim, Lester. ―Not Censorship but Selection.‖ Wilson Library Bulletin 28 (September 1953) p. 6. Available at: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/notcensorship.cfm. Accessed June 30th, 2008.
Cain, Charlene C. ―Intellectual Freedom in Academic Libraries.‖ Louisiana Libraries 68(3) 2006; p. 29.
Asheim, Lester. ―Not Censorship but Selection.‖ Wilson Library Bulletin 28 (September 1953) p. 6. Available at: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/notcensorship.cfm. Accessed June 30th, 2008.
Ibid; Available at: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/notcensorship.cfm. Accessed June 30th, 2008.
Ibid; Available at: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/notcensorship.cfm. Accessed June 30th, 2008.
Ibid; Available at: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/notcensorship.cfm. Accessed June 30th, 2008.
Asheim, Lester. ―Not Censorship but Selection.‖ Wilson Library Bulletin 28 (September 1953) p. 6. Available at: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/notcensorship.cfm. Accessed June 30th, 2008.
Ibid; Available at: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/notcensorship.cfm. Accessed June 30th, 2008.
DeVinney, Gemma. ―Academic Librarians and Academic Freedom in the United States.‖ Libri 36 (March 1986) p. 30; and ―Tenure in Libraries‖ ALA Bulletin 40 (November 1946) ;. 451 (see reference 39).
See ―A Guideline for the Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure of Academic Librarians: Approved at ALA Annual Conference, June 2005.‖ College & Research Libraries News 66 (9) 2005; pp. 668-676.
Hirsch, Elaine Gass. ―You have kids‘ books?!‖ Promoting children‘s literature in an academic library.‖ Education Libraries: Children’s Resources, 31(3) Spring, 2008; pp. 13-16.
Education Libraries, Volume 33, Number 2, Winter 2010
Hirsch, Elaine Gass. ―On becoming a Children‘s Literature Librarian in an Academic Library.‖ OLA Quarterly 12(2) 2006; pp. 2-3.
Bay, Mark T. ―Selecting Children‘s Literature for Academic Librarians: Tips from the Trenches.‖ Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian 19(2) 2001; pp. 1-6.
Hirsch, Elaine Gass. ―You have kids‘ books?!‖ Promoting children‘s literature in an academic library.‖ Education Libraries: Children’s Resources, 31(3) Spring, 2008; p 13.
Bay, Mark T. ―Selecting Children‘s Literature for Academic Librarians: Tips from the Trenches.‖ Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian 19(2) 2001; p. 2.
Vile, John R. Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues, 1789-2002. 2nd edition. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2003. pp. 532-533.
American Library Association. Office of Intellectual Freedom. Intellectual Freedom Manual 5th edition. Chicago : American Library Association, 1996; p. 283.
Original publication dates for the titles are: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884); And Tango Makes Three (2005); The Chocolate War (1985); The Color Purple (1982); The Golden Compass (1995); I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1969); It‘s Perfectly Normal (1994); Olive‘s Ocean (2003); The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999); and TTYL (2004);
―Number of Libraries in the United States and Canada‖ The Bowker Annual 2007 52nd Edition. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc., 2007. p. 407.
American Library Directory 58th edition, 2005-2006. Medford, NJ: Information Today, 2005; v. 1, p. xii.
American Library Directory 58th edition, 2005-2006. Medford, NJ: Information Today, 2005; v. 1, pp. xii-xiii.
Olsgaard, John N. and Olsgaard, Jane Kinch. ―Authorship in Five Library Periodicals.‖ College & Research Libraries 41(1) (1980); p. 50.
Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences. Digest of Education Statistics, 2007. Available at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008022. Accessed December 18th, 2009.
Public Library Funding data from IMLS http://harvester.census.gov/imls/compare/PeerVariableNumeric.asp
United States Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Compare Academic Libraries (2008 data). Available at: http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/compare/index.asp?LibraryType=Academic
Black, Norman and Black, Merele. Divided America: the Ferocious Power Struggle in American Politics. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2007; pp. 1.
Ibid; p. 2.
Ibid; p. 3.
Nivola, Pietro S. and Brady, David W. Red and Blue Nation? : Consequences and Correction of America‘s Polarized Politics. Stanford University : Hoover Institution on War, Revolution & Peace, 2008; pp. 127-148.
Gastner, M. T.; Shalizi, C.R., and Newman, Michael J. ―Maps and Cartograms of the 2004 Presidential Election.‖ University of Michigan, 2004. Website available at: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2004/. Accessed January 6th, 2010.
Google Maps. Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2009. Available at: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&source=embed&t=h&msa=0&msid=112317617303679724608.00047051ed493efec0bb8&ll=38.68551,-96.503906&spn=32.757579,56.25&z=4. Accessed January 7th, 2010.
Strothmann, Molly and Van Fleet, Connie. ―Books that Inspire, Books that Offend.‖ Reference & User Services Quarterly 49(2) (2009) p. 165.
Ibid, p. 165.
Berman, Sanford. ―Inside Censorship.‖ Progressive Librarian 18 (2001); p. 49.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Everything we publish is freely available. In the spirit of encouraging free open access journals, Education Libraries applies the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL) to all works we publish (read the summary or the full license legal code ). • Authors retain copyright and grant Education Libraries right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Under the CCAL, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to read, download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy articles in Education Libraries, so long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers. In most cases, appropriate attribution can be provided by citing the original article in Education Libraries. For any reuse or distribution of a work, you must also make clear the license terms under which the work was published. This broad license was developed to facilitate open access to, and free use of, original works of all types. Applying this standard license ensures your right to make your work freely and openly available. By submitting a manuscript for review, author(s) acknowledge first publication rights are granted to Education Libraries. Submission of a manuscript implies that the work described has not been published; that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; and that its publication has been approved by all coauthors and the responsible authorities at the institute where the work was conducted. As publisher, we are providing a process for your intellectual property to be reviewed by and distributed to your peers. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain all necessary permissions for the inclusion of copyrighted materials, such as figures and tables from other publications, and to pay any and all necessary fees. Appropriate credit should be shown in the body of the work. Previously published work will not be considered for publication; we do not accept any simultaneous submissions. Education Libraries will, however, accept manuscripts based on presentations made at conferences sponsored by the Special Library Association, at the discretion of the co-editors.
