Banned Book Week

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Fundies

[Prudence]

Originally Posted by SzczerbiakManiac

Fundies

What I've heard anecdotally (and the stats presented may support this) is that it's mostly the "monitoring my own child is too difficult and therefore the world must conform to my standards" set. Parents. The ones whose televisions apparently lack a power button. It's for the chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiildren! Many might also be fundies, but my impression is that they focus more on the "witchcraft" or "occult" angle and the biggest complaint is language.

[Alex]

Banned Book Week is a giant misnomer and I got in hot water at library school for calling it a giant scam.

Very few of the books on the list have been banned. Mostly they are books where someone has attempted to have them banned. In most cases they've failed. Everytime a wacko parent goes to the school board demanding some book be removed from the library, regardless of what actually happens then it is a candidate for the list.

And it isn't just fundies. It isn't fundies that demand that Huckleberry Finn be removed. And if I went to the school board to say that the school libraries shouldn't have intelligent design textbooks in their science collection then that would go on the list.

Plus, the vast majority of the list are elementary school library challenges which is where "censorship" is most appropriate.

But saying that while interest groups out there would like various books taken out of public view very few actually succeed wouldn't be a huge fundraiser for the ALA.