Thursday, September 9, 2010

LIS Classroom Resources on Censorship

In honor of ALA's Qu'ran reading in protest of the book burning that's scheduled for September 11, I thought I would post a couple things to spark discussion about censorship in the U.S.
The ALA announcement for the reading can be found here. It gives you an insight into why the ALA decided upon the reading, and why ALA members think it's important.

I love this map because it provides a visual aid for understanding the distribution (and the rather large number!) of books bans and challenges in the U.S. from 2007-2009. It's a Google Map, so you can click on each of the incidents for more information.

The OIF Blog (from the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom) has quite a few posts related to censorship. These are a good jumping-off point for learning about and discussing censorship because you get to read the views of multiple people from the office.

Recently, my classmate Billie Cotterman passed this news report along to me that talks about declining internet freedom around the world. It's based on the Google Transparency Report, which is an interactive map of government requests to remove information, and is a great tool for learning about and discussing censorship internationally.

Does anyone else know of any other sites that either educate readers about censorship or that would be useful in a classroom discussion? I would love to see them!

That's all I have time for right now--I'm on my way out the door to talk at (and enjoy!) the Libraries and Print Culture conference in Madison this weekend. I'll post about my thoughts when I return.

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