The Canisius College Library joins libraries throughout the country in the American Library Association’s (ALA) Annual Banned Books Week which runs September 25 until October 3.
Beginning Monday, September 28 from Noon to 1:30 p.m., and continuing at the same times daily through Friday, October 1, the library will host the 2nd Annual Read Out: It’s Your Right. All Canisius faculty and staff are invited to read aloud from one of hundreds of books banned or challenged in this country every year. The event will take place in the Library’s Innovation Alley – the casual meeting area adjacent to the DVD’s near Tim Hortons. Last year, approximately 80 people shared their favorite “banned book” passages with a lively crowd. Books from the Library collection will be available to encourage readers.
Among titles that have been banned by school boards, governments, libraries and publishers:
The Tales of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
The entire Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling
Ulysses – James Joyce
Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer
The Tenth Circle – Jodi Picoult
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
To Kill A Mocking Bird– Harper Lee
The Bible
The Koran
Since 1982, ALA’s Banned Book Week-Celebrating the Freedom to Read has been observed during the last week of September to remind Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. ALA is the official professional organization for librarians and celebrates “the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular, and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of reading materials expressing those viewpoints for all who wish to read them”.
Anyone who would like to “read out” at a specific time should use the sign-up sheets available at the Library’s Reference Desk starting Wednesday, September 8. For more information about the Read Out and other events surrounding Banned Book Week, contact Kathleen DeLaney at delaneyk@cansius.edu or Ext. 2916
Submitted by: Kathleen DeLaney, archivist/reference librarian, archives & special collections
