UM commemorates freedom of speech, freedom to read
By: Sara Patterson
Issue date: 9/23/09 Section: News
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"I've read some of these," he said, pointing to titles such as The Catcher In the Rye, Ulysses and The Great Gatsby.
And he read them in class in Estonia, but some schools have and continue to prohibit their inclusion in the curriculum.
To spotlight these books, The University of Memphis will read controversial selections from a lectern in the rotunda of the Ned R. McWherter Library next week as part of national Banned Books Week.
"Banned Books Week is a celebration of the freedom to read," said Tom Mendina, University Libraries spokesman. "Which, from the viewpoint of librarians, is one of the basic American freedoms."
The University of Memphis has been celebrating BBW with the American Library Association for five years, said Mendina, and has a steady following.
"We're certainly getting a lot of volunteer readers this time, I'm sure of that," he said.
Most of the books featured during BBW, ranging from Harry Potter to The Grapes of Wrath, were not banned by libraries but were brought into question by citizens in an attempt to keep the books off the shelves.
"Imagine how many more books might be challenged - and possibly banned or restricted - if librarians, teachers and booksellers across the country did not use BBW each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights," states the ALA's website.
University President Shirley Raines will read to a group of students at 1 p.m. Wednesday from Shel Silverstein's A Giving Tree.
Volunteer readers will begin each day at 11:30 a.m. and continue until about 1:30 p.m. Sept. 28-Oct. 2.
Freshman foreign languages major Steve Coonz said the week's activities sounded interesting.
"I'm fairly conservative in my values, but I feel people have a right to choose their own influences," he said. "I feel no need to read something that glorifies violence or immorality, but people have a right to act for themselves."
Children's books are the most popular genre to be challenged.
"I can see more legitimacy in banning children's books, especially if the subject matter is questionable," said Coonz.
Coonz said children often grab books from the shelf without supervision or permission, making it more understandable for a parent to challenge the library's content.
The American Library Association's website features a map which pinpoints individual cases where books are challenged.
According to the map, in Murfreesboro in 2007 Peter and Iona Archibald Opie's I Saw Esau: The Schoolchild's Pocket Book was challenged at the Cedar Grove Elementary School after a complaint that the book's illustrations were "absolutely offensive in every way."
The book is a collection of schoolyard jokes, riddles, insults and jump-rope rhymes and is illustrated by Maurice Sendak.
More than 500 books were challenged last year, according to the ALA website, but nearly 80 percent of the challenges go unreported.