Banned Books Week

"Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight." - Stephen Chbosky

"Books unite us. Censorship divides us."

What is Banned Book Week?

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community - librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types - in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

A heavy chain with a padlock is wrapped around a book.
A stack of books with titles such as Banned, Objectionable, and Censored are on fire.
The word “Silence” in the title appears as a red stamp above a row of gray books.
A heavy chain with a padlock seemingly wraps around the book’s cover.

Young minds - young brains - need stories and ideas like the ones in those [censored and banned] books in order to grow. They need ideas that you disagree with. They need ideas that I disagree with. Or they'll never be able to figure out what ideas they believe in. -Lev Grossman

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The whole principle [of censorship] is wrong. It's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't have steak. -Robert A. Heinlein

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All of us can think of a book...that we hope none of our children or any other children have taken off the shelf. But if I have the right to remove that book from the shelf - the work I abhor - then you also have exactly the same right and so does everyone else. And then we have no books left on the shelf for any of us. -Katherine Paterson

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We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. -John F. Kennedy

"Think before you speak. Read before you think."

Library materials are vetted based on the adopted ACC Library Services Collection Development policy. As part of the ACC collection, these materials are available for currently registered ACC students, faculty, and staff.