Colgate University Libraries News and Events

Do you know what this week is? Yes, Sept 27th means you’ve survived your first month at Colgate - congratulations! However, it’s also the beginning of Banned Books week, an annual event first begun in 1982. Books are typically challenged for all the right reasons, frequently to protect children from material deemed racist (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), too sexually explicit (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings) or that contain graphic language (The Color Purple). Differences of religious or political opinion also come into play (Golden Compass).

In his book Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other, Nat Hentoff writes that “the lust to suppress can come from any direction.” He quotes Phil Kerby, a former editor of the Los Angeles Times, as saying, “Censorship is the strongest drive in human nature; sex is a weak second.” (ALA banned books website 9/23/2008)

Why is this important to you? Take a look at the lists of most frequently challenged books at the American Library Association . How many of these books have you read - Harry Potter and …, Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye? Freedom to read without interference means that librarians all over the country examine and place books in age appropriate collections; handle challenges to those books fairly; and defend appropriate decisions. It means that here at Colgate, we do not give out information about who has checked out books or films from our libraries. You could even say that it means that there is a free flow of information from and about our government that is so necessary in a democracy.

This is a time when I stop and think about that freedom- I should probably do that more often.

So cuddle up with good book (banned, challenged, or not), and celebrate!