Every year, schools and libraries face attempts to remove books. Banned Book Week, an annual event celebrating the freedom to read, begins Monday, Sept. 22, at The University of Akron Bierce Library.
Introduced by the American Library Association, the event highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
Bierce Library will celebrate freedom to read with student-designed displays, interactive exhibits and programming. In addition, faculty, staff and student volunteers from the UA community will provide dramatic readings of excerpts from banned and challenged books from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 24, in the Bierce Library lobby.
Students are encouraged to post a “Caught Reading Banned Books” photo on Instagram with the hashtag #uafreadom using props at a photo booth station in the lobby of Bierce Library.
All events are free and open to the public.
Here is the list of the Top 10 Challenged Books in 2013. For more information, visit Banned Books Week online.
About the University Libraries
The University Libraries provides state-of-the-art access to broad and diverse scholarly resources and innovative technologies to empower users to evaluate their information needs, identify and access reliable sources, and successfully transform information into knowledge.
Media contacts: Denise Henry, 330-972-6477 or henryd@uakron.edu, or Stephanie Dawson Everett, 330-972-7224 or sdawson@uakron.edu.