Celebrating the Freedom to Read - Banned book Week is September 27–October 4, 2008

Began in 1982, American Library Association reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

This year, 2008 marks Banned Books Week’s 27th anniversary

The following is taken from the American Library Association on censorship
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/ftrstatement/freedomreadstatement.cfm

The Freedom to Read Statement

"The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack. Private groups and public authorities in various parts of the country are working to remove or limit access to reading materials, to censor content in schools, to label "controversial" views, to distribute lists of "objectionable" books or authors, and to purge libraries. These actions apparently rise from a view that our national tradition of free expression is no longer valid; that censorship and suppression are needed to counter threats to safety or national security, as well as to avoid the subversion of politics and the corruption of morals. We, as individuals devoted to reading and as librarians and publishers responsible for disseminating ideas, wish to assert the public interest in the preservation of the freedom to read."