Stumbled across this via boingboing.
PABBIS Book Excerpts A fascinating list of books that have been challenged in school classrooms and libraries. With detailed description on what was found objectionable in the books.
One of the most interesting things is this list is done by the challengers, Parents against bad books in schools (PABBIS). (I think they are out of Fairfax County, Virginia). Although I get the feeling that PABBIS is not anti-librarian, per se, they definately do not like the ALA or ACLU.
They also list on the site their instructions on what to do if you find a book to which you object. Honestly, the smartest thing to do (if you find something to which you object) would be to start with your local school/city/university policies regarding objectionable material--your local teacher/librarian/principal can tell you how to start the process. PABBIS also has a sample form to use while evaluating a book to see if you object to it...while not the most scientific tool it is unique and enlightening.
Even if you don't agree with why they challenge a certain book (I've read and enjoyed a large number of the books on their list)--it is very interesting to see why they challenged a certain title.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
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2 comments:
Don't you think it's a little bit interesting that PABBIS is based in the same location as Family Friendly Libraries (which certainly *is* anti-libraries, anti-librarian, and anti-ALA)? I don't see a big difference between the two groups, and suspect that their memberships overlap. In any event, most groups that are established specifically for the purpose of restricting access to an arbitrary list of books aren't concerned with library policies; I'm sure some of your readers from the OKC Metropolitan Library System can provide further commentary on that. :-)
You bring up a very good point and I do agree that most groups that are established specifically for restricting access aren't concerned about policies and tend to try to usurp them (e.g. go directly to the media, politicians, etc) and then complain when they don't get the results they like. Of course then you also have the rare group which exploit the policies--but that's like saying lobbyists exploit our political system. ;-)
I think the most interesting thing with the PABBIS site is to actually see the challengers thought process spelled out. And how many of the quoted lines taken out of context do sound horrid. And then of course some of the "offensive" content would have never occurred to me as being offense and then the sample objectionable material form well...it was interesting to see what detail challengers tend to pay attention to (many of which I tend to skim over when reading).
I guess the PABBIS site was a study in the mind of the book challenger for me. I would actually be interested in seeing a study which showed MRI results (or something similiar) of the book challenger vs. the non-offended...where exactly does the offensive material register and is it social or physiological that makes something naughty.
Ok, enough rambling--thanks for reading LibraryStories and keep the good thoughts coming! :-)
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