Central Michigan University Libraries Celebrates Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week was started in 1982 by Judith Krug, longstanding member of the American Library Association and former director of the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom. This event occurs during the last week of September each year and highlights “...the value of free and open access to information...” and “... the harms of censorship ( https://www.ala.org/bbooks/banned).” Banned Books Week has a different theme each year, and the 2024 theme is “Freed Between the Lines,” a theme centered around how books can give people freedom and how banning books can take away that freedom.

Central Michigan University Libraries has many books that have been banned or challenged in the United States. Three of these books are To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Some CMU librarians believe these books helped them find freedom while reading. For Ann Kucera, the Manager of Library Systems, Their Eyes Were Watching God helped her find freedom through the work’s presentation of Janie, a character who finds “...freedom through her journey of self-discovery.” Similarly, for Aparna Zambare, one of Central Michigan University’s Research and Instruction Librarians, To Kill a Mockingbird helped her find freedom in the character of Atticus Finch, specifically in his ability to be free from judging others before understanding what they have experienced. Finally, for Kathy Irwin, the Dean of Central Michigan University Libraries, The Kite Runner allowed her to find freedom within the book’s pages through acknowledging that she has the freedom to read whatever she wants and giving her the opportunity to find commonalities with “...people regardless of who they are and where they live.”

In the United States, most book bans or challenges happen in public or school libraries. People who use these libraries or who are members of the community usually start these efforts. If they succeed, the book is either taken out of the library or made more difficult to access. Those who push for these bans often believe the library should meet their needs and that people who have different interests can find the challenged books somewhere else. Those who disagree with book bans, however, say that just because some books make people uncomfortable doesn't mean they should be banned. They believe no one group should have the power to remove books from the library. While the CMU Libraries hasn’t faced any book challenges, we know this is a complicated issue and hope that highlighting books in our collection that have been banned elsewhere will spark meaningful discussions.