The Lumpkin Learning Commons raised awareness for the freedom to read during Banned Book Week from Sept. 24 to Sept. 30. Banned Book Week is an annual event promoted by the American Library Association (ALA) that takes place in libraries across the nation. For one week, libraries everywhere celebrate books commonly censored by different institutions and groups.
Blackburn’s Banned Book Week was organized by head librarian and director of the Lumpkin Learning Commons Brian Hickam. “The American Library Association represents public libraries, K through 12, and academic libraries,” Hickam said. “Primarily books are challenged in public libraries and schools, but it does happen right literally in colleges too.”
Hickam commented that Blackburn regularly takes part in this event: “The students informed me that they do a monthly display, or at times, they did two a month. I thought it’d be a nice idea to bring attention to whatever it may be each month through different types of displays and different locations throughout the Learning Commons. But I said, ‘The one I’d like you to do is Banned Books, and all of the other months of the year, you guys can choose to do whatever you want’ and the reason I asked them to do that is because I don’t think everyone is aware [of book censorship].”
Hickam believes that students need to know that there are still controversies about books even today. He stated that books rarely get banned anymore, but they most certainly get challenged every year. “Two Boys Kissing” by David Levithan, “Looking for Alaska” by John Green and “Eleanor & Park” by Rainbow Rowell were among the top challenged books “out of 323 challenges recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom” in 2016, according to ALA’s website.
“The takeaway is that our intellectual freedoms shouldn’t be dictated by others. You’ve got the right to tell your kids about what they can and cannot do, but you shouldn’t be telling me about my kids,” Hickam said. “Of course there are things on the Internet or in a book that you wouldn’t want a 7-year-old to necessarily come across, but you don’t control the community. You never win the war on censorship.”