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BANNED BOOKS WEEK 2018: Sept. 23 - Sept. 29

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Coordinated by the American Library Association (ALA), the week brings together a community of people and events to highlight the harms of censorship. This year, with the slogan "Banning Books Silences Stories" libraries and organizations across the country are highlighting these stories pulled from the stacks.

What books are banned?
One such title is housed in our general shelves and also on our rare books shelves (limited edition presses). "A Farewell to Arms" published in 1929 by Ernest Hemingway (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954) is on the top 100 most challenged banned books list and on the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th Century. It has been banned for salacious content, a 'sex' novel, burned in Nazi book burning fires, and criticized for the 'all too real' depictions of war.

Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.
― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms (Chpt 27)

In this year's top ten challenged books, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee makes the list again. This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, considered an American classic, was challenged and banned because of violence and its use of the N-word. Join us and listen to Randy Umstead, one of our Baylor faculty members, read Atticus Finch's closing arguments speech from this classic story.



Keep reading for more information from ALA on this important topic.

Q: What is the difference between a challenge and a ban?

A: A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group.  A banning is the removal of those materials.  Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.  Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection.

Q: Why are books challenged?

A: Books usually are challenged with the best intentions—to protect others, frequently children, from difficult ideas and information. See our Notable First Amendment Cases page.

Censorship can be subtle, almost imperceptible, as well as blatant and overt, but, nonetheless, harmful. As John Stuart Mill wrote in On Liberty:

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

 

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Moody Memorial Library, we are counting down 50 unique items from the special collections housed in the half-century-old building.
This month we are highlighting four books also considered to be works of art. The Baylor Libraries' Book Arts Collection, which began in 2007, contains over 1200 items, most of which are known as “artist’s books.” In the broadest definition, artist’s books are the creations of artists working in the medium of the book or with the “idea of the book.” Enjoy these treasures chosen by this collection's curator, Sha Towers.

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#16 : Panorama by book artist Julie Chen (2008). Limited edition of 100 copies.

 

#15 : Sometimes I Pretend: A Poem by poet Naomi Nye and book artists Peter and Donna Thomas (2014). Limited edition of 35 copies.

 

#14 : Smoke by book artist Amy Pirkle (2013). Limited edition of 30 copies.

 

#13 : Wide White Holes by book artist Katya Reka (2013). One-of-a-kind artist’s book.

 

 


You can access these materials by arranging a visit with our special collections staff! To make an appointment, please visit our web page:

https://www.baylor.edu/lib/CentralLib/centralspecialcollections/

This post is part of the 50 for 50 series highlighting 50 unique and fascinating items found in the Central Libraries' special collections. The series is being held as part of the ongoing celebration of Moody Memorial Library's 50th anniversary.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Moody Memorial Library, we are counting down 50 unique items from the special collections housed in the half-century-old building. This month we are investigating a handful of our early medical books.

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#20 : Clinical notes on uterine surgery with special reference to the management of the sterile condition by J. Marion Sims (New York, 1866).

 

#19 : De homine figuris, et Latinitate donatus a Florentio Schuyl by Rene Descartes (Lugduni Batavorum, 1662).

 

#18 : The medical and surgical history of the War of the Rebellion (1861-65) / prepared, in accordance with acts of Congress, under the direction of Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes, United States Army (Washington).

 

#17 : Primitive physic: or an easy natural method of curing most diseases by John Wesley (Philadelphia, 1791).

 

 


You can access these materials by arranging a visit with our special collections staff! To make an appointment, please visit our web page:

https://www.baylor.edu/lib/CentralLib/centralspecialcollections/

This post is part of the 50 for 50 series highlighting 50 unique and fascinating items found in the Central Libraries' special collections. The series is being held as part of the ongoing celebration of Moody Memorial Library's 50th anniversary.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Moody Memorial Library, we are counting down 50 unique items from the special collections housed in the half-century-old building. This month we are showcasing a handful of items related to the American Revolution.

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In honor of Independence Day, we are investigating a small sampling of our rare books connected to our nation's birth.  Happy Fourth of July!

#24 : A thanksgiving sermon on the total repeal of the Stamp-act by Nathaniel Appleton (Boston, 1766).

The Stamp Act of 1765 was a direct tax on the colonies on printed materials.  After months of protest, Parliament repealed the Act in March 18, 1766. That same day, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, affirming Parliament's authority in the colonies.

 

#23 : An address to Protestant dissenters of all denominations by Joseph Priestley (London 1774). 

 

#22 : American patriotism farther confronted with reason, scripture and the constitution by John Fletcher (Shrewsbury, 1776).

 

#21 : The remembrancer, or, Impartial repository of public events (London, 1775).

Published by English journalist John Almon, this is the first volume of a seventeen-volume collection of colonial government documents and press reports from various colonial newspapers documenting the events of the American Revolution.


You can access these materials by arranging a visit with our special collections staff! To make an appointment, please visit our web page:

https://www.baylor.edu/lib/CentralLib/centralspecialcollections/

This post is part of the 50 for 50 series highlighting 50 unique and fascinating items found in the Central Libraries' special collections. The series is being held as part of the ongoing celebration of Moody Memorial Library's 50th anniversary.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Moody Memorial Library, we are counting down 50 unique items from the special collections housed in the half-century-old building. Join us this June as we travel through some of the unique government documents in our collection with Sinai Wood, Baylor's Associate Professor and Documents Librarian.

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As we highlight the 50th anniversary of the opening of Moody Library and how that was a game changer for students, faculty, and staff at Baylor in 1968; we can also look back at what a game changer it must have been when our new government made good on its promise of government information to the people. The result of which has been enduring access to government information and libraries throughout the United States have rich and unique holdings because of this.

 

#28 : "Report of the Secretary of Agriculture" United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. : U.S. G.P.O., 1888

 

#27 : "Annual report. 1879-80" Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology

 

#26 : "Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, 1879, v. 12" by F.V. Hayden, United States geologist in charge...

 

#25 : "Army Recipies. 1946 War Department Technical Manual; TM 10-412" United States War Department, Washington, U.S. GPO


You can access these materials by arranging a visit with our special collections staff! To make an appointment, please visit our web page:

https://www.baylor.edu/lib/CentralLib/centralspecialcollections/

This post is part of the 50 for 50 series highlighting 50 unique and fascinating items found in the Central Libraries' special collections. The series is being held as part of the ongoing celebration of Moody Memorial Library's 50th anniversary.