Banned Books

Discussion of banned books over at Pen.org:

596 Books Banned by Department of Defense Schools Include Titles on Democracy, Feminism, Racism

United Against Book Bans

ALA's got a new report on the number of books banned.  Yuck! (and not only yuck but something we all need to oppose).  There's a form to join the campaign as well as a link to the (fast approaching) Banned Books Week (10/1-10/7).  We all need to get involved!  Let Freedom Read!

Illinois House Votes for Internet Filtering on Library Computers

The Illinois House just passed a law to require internet filtering on all computers in the public libraries.

From what I understand this would affect all public access computers -- not simply those used by children.

If that's the case this is really setting up the public library as a third rate service for adults who don't need government telling them what they can and cannot look up.

I'm not talking porn here -- I'm talking about the right of adults to unfettered access to the Net for legitimate purposes.

If there's an illegal site, fine, tell the FBI! But don't impose on us some fake watered-down version of the Net just because we're at the library and not at home or at Starbucks.

Washington Post Issues Correction on Fairfax County Library Story

The original story that appeared in the Washington Post about Fairfax County's weeding of classics from its collection raised a nationwide "firestorm of outrage".

Now WaPo Ombudsman, Deborah Howell, reports that the weeding wasn't perhaps as sweeping as orginally suggested:

The story said that "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" are among the titles that hadn't been checked out in two years and that could be eliminated. Those books have been checked out; it would have been better to say that some copies of those books may not have been checked out in two years at some branches and could be weeded out. Kirkpatrick and Clay say there was never any intention of weeding out all copies.

Complete article here...