Banned books: your ticket to freedom

Two Banned Book Week displays, reminders of the importance of our freedom to read, will be available for viewing at the Library during regular library hours. You may be surprised to learn what titles are being challenged and banned in America today.

In addition to the two displays, FOL & CRFP invite the public to hear librarian and intellectual freedom activist Candy Morgan give a presentation on Your Freedom to Read on Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. in the library's Sprint/Baker Gallery.

Morgan, chair of the Freedom to Read Foundation Board and longtime member of the American Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee, has been the recipient of numerous professional awards for her strong support of intellectual freedom including: the Freedom to Read Foundation Roll of Honor Award (2002); the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington William O. Douglas Award (2004); and the ProQuest/SIRS Intellectual Freedom Award (2005).

Banned Books Week was established in 1981 to bring to the attention of the general public the importance of the freedom to read and the harm censorship causes to our society.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Association for Free Expression, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Association of American Publishers, and the National Association of College Stores.

"The reason more books aren't banned is because the community residents with librarians, teachers and journalists speak out for their freedom to read," said ALA President Leslie Burger.

For more information about this program call the library, 493-1132.