Banned Books

What is a Banned Book?

Books have been banned as long as there have been books and continue to be banned or challenged even today. COM Library stands firmly behind freedom of speech and the American Library Association (ALA) code: “We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources.” A banned book is a book that may be:

• removed from a library or libraries;

• not allowed to be published;

• not allowed to enter an entire country;

• not allowed to exist: to be physically destroyed, typically by burning, such as the notorious book burning in Nazi Germany.

• The most extreme form of banning is the death or demand for the death of the author, as during the Inquisition, or more recently with Salman Rushdie.

• A challenged book is one that someone has tried to ban, but did not succeed.

Why are Books Sometimes Banned?

The reason to ban books generally boils down to ideas that are perceived as dangerous in some way to an individual, group, or government that does not want other people to have access to that idea, whether the idea is about God, government or society.

Many books have been banned or censored in one or more of these categories due to a misjudgment or misunderstanding about the books contents and message. Although a book may have been banned or labeled a certain way, it is important that the reader makes his/her own judgements on the book. Many books that have been banned or censored later were dropped from banned books lists and were no longer considered controversial. For this reason, banned books week occurs yearly to give readers a chance to revisit past or recently banned books to encourage a fresh look into the controversies the books faced.

Banned Books Information

Books have been challenged or banned through the ages for a variety of reasons including sexual content, religious content, and political content. See the American Library Association, list of the 10 most challenged Books each year. Celebrate your freedom to read - check out a banned or challenged book today!

• Banned and Challenged Classics

• Some N.J. Schools Under Siege from Those Trying to Get Books on Race, LGBTQ+ Pulled From Shelves

• Gearing up for the Challenge: Tips for Tackling Censorship 

• ALA Statement on Book Censorship

• NJASL Book Challenges Handbook

Key Search Terms

Here is a list of terms that you can use while conducting research on banned and challenged books.

Censorship

Intellectual Freedom

Book burning

Book banning

Freedom to read

Forbidden books

Challenged books 

Things to Consider

• What happens when people are denied access to books and the ideas contained in them?

• What happens when an author’s right to freedom of speech (in this country) is denied?

• Is it a coincidence that some of the greatest books ever written are also some of the most banned or challenged books

Definitions

Challenge:

An attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group.  A banning is the removal of those materials.  Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.

Censorship:

A change in the access status of material, based on the content of the work and made by a governing authority or its representatives. Such changes include exclusion, restriction, removal, or age/grade level changes.

Intellectual Freedom:

The right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.

Challenges to Library Materials

Discussion, with definitions, of how and why materials are challenged.

Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q&A

Overview of the issues in Q&A format