Status Line
- General Information
- September 2006
- Issue: 205
What's Up on the Web?
It is fitting that the back-to-school season includes two national observances that address the topic of intellectual freedom: Banned Books Week (September 23-30, 2006) and Constitution Day (September 17). What follows are web resources that pertain to these events and remind us of the vital presence of libraries as educational institutions and promoters of intellectual freedom.
From the American Library Association's "Banned Books Week" page http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm, the "Frequently Asked Questions" and the "Frequently Visited Pages" provide links to numerous interesting resources including lists of challenged books and authors dating back to 1990, and statistical information categorizing and quantifying incidents by year, by the type of challenge (e.g., offensive language, sexual explicitness), by initiator (e.g., parents, elected officials), and by type of institution being challenged. A "Book Burning" page http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bookburning/bookburning.htm chronicles censorship activities, both recent and past, in this country and around the world.
Numerous tips and guidelines for addressing attempts to remove or restrict access to materials are provided on a "Dealing With Challenges" page at http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/challengesupport/dealing/dealingchallenges.htm. The New York Library Association, via its Intellectual Freedom Committee, also provides such resources online, including the Intellectual Freedom Manual, available in HTML and PDF formats at http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=104.
A related observance occurring just prior to Banned Books Week is Constitution Day on September 17th which commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on that day in 1787. Constitution Day, Inc. http://www.constitutionday.com/ promotes and facilitates the celebration of this event each year by coordinating the simultaneous nationwide recitation of the Constitution's preamble. This year, the recitation takes place on Monday, September 18th (in order to allow schools to participate) and is being led by former Secretary of State and retired Gen. Colin Powell at 2 p.m. ET. The recitation can be viewed live from the Constitution Day, Inc. web site or downloaded from the site later.
Another organization participating in the Constitution Day celebration is the National Constitution Center, a museum located in Philadelphia in the Independence Mall complex. The Center's web site not only offers numerous resources for celebrating Constitution Day http://www.constitutioncenter.org/constitutionday/display/MainS/Home, but also offers interesting ways to learn more about the Constitution online. The Interactive Constitution http://www.constitutioncenter.org/constitution/ allows you to explore the Constitution in a variety of ways: section by section, by keyword, by topic (e.g., affirmative action), or by Supreme Court case. The text of the applicable section(s) is provided at the top of the page and then displayed below are explanations from the book TheWordsWe Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution by Linda R. Monk (Hyperion/Stonesong Press, 2003). Placing the Constitution within the larger context of U.S. history from 1607 to 2003 is Centuries of Citizenship: A Constitutional Timeline http://www.constitutioncenter.org/timeline/, an informative and entertaining interactive multimedia educational resource.
One way to illustrate the role of libraries in promoting intellectual freedom and lifelong learning is to look at their statistics. In terms of volume alone, the number of libraries and the amount of services they provide help paint an impressive picture of libraries as an educational force. OCLC took this approach in 2003 with its report Libraries: How They Stack Up which is still available online at http://www.oclc.org/reports/2003libsstackup.htm. In 2005, the concept of the OCLC report was applied to New York State and New York's Libraries: How They STACK UP! was published. It is accessible from the New York State Library web site at http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/stackup.htm.
[Ann Gunning, Member Services Librarian, Nylink]