Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an event that is held each year in order to create awareness of books that are banned, by spotlighting banned or challenged books and encouraging the ability of readers everywhere to have free and open access to information and discussion surrounding these banned books as well as taking an active part in keeping literature uncensored. Much of the week is focus on celebrating the freedom to read as well as placing a particular emphasis on the rights granted to us by the First Amendment. Banned Books Week celebrates the right of individual to have access to any and all times of material regardless of whether they express uncommon or unpopular viewpoints. Banned Books Week seeks to highlight certain books that have been banned or that have been challenged (a term for when someone attempts to ban a book) but fortunately due to the efforts of the people at the ALA (American Library Association) most of the books that they feature have not been banned.

The ALA also provides a lot of helpful materials on their website (www.ala.org) in the way of posters, display pieces, suggestions and ideas for how to get involved during Banned Book Week in your area. Many of these can be easily downloaded off of their website as well. They give plenty of helpful activities that can be implemented very easily as well as a lot of resources for finding out about challenged books in your area, events near you for Banned Books Week as well as various ways to exercise your rights. The ALA suggest sponsoring events, making sure Banned Books Week is mentioned on your local radio, going to school board meetings, volunteering at a school or library and so forth.

They also give ideas of having booths at festivals with T-shirts and posters to help make people aware as well as putting up badges on your website, joining various foundations like the Freedom To Read Foundation or the Intellectual Freedom Action News to stay informed and involved. They also encourage people to write letters to editors, library directors, principals, and so forth supporting the freedom to read, and have all types of books available to the public. They also provide an online store where T-shirts, posters, buttons, badges, flyers, pamphlets, and many other helpful materials that can aid a person in getting the word out about Banned Books Week. On top of that they also provide examples of proclamations, letters to the editor, and various other examples of ways you can reach out to leaders in your community in order to get them to be aware of any challenged books and to insist that your right to read what you choose remains protected.

Banned Books Week is a great way to drum up support when it comes to preventing books from being censored or even challenged and it can help create a lot of awareness so that the right people can take action to ensure that we keep our ability to read what we please. By supporting Banned Books Week you can be a part of keeping literature uncensored so that future generations can enjoy them just like we have been able to.