Browse through Keith Michael Fiels' Report to Council & the Executive Board for an overview of highlights and goings-on with ALA's Offices and Divisions.

For a second consecutive year, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s award-winning "And Tango Makes Three," a children’s book about two male penguins caring for an orphaned egg, tops the list of ALA's 10 Most Challenged Books.

The 2007 list includes three books that haven't been included in the Top Ten list before: “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes; “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman; and “TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle.

“Free access to information is a core American value that should be protected,” said Judith F. Krug, director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Not every book is right for each reader, but an individual’s interpretation of a book should not take away my right to select reading materials for my family or myself."

For more than 15 years, OIF has released the list of most frequently challenged books, based on reports we receive in the office. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. In 2007 we received 420 reports on efforts to abolish materials from school curriculum and library bookshelves.

Public libraries, schools and school libraries report challenges to OIF, but a majority of challenges go unreported.

The "10 Most Challenged Books of 2007" reflect a range of themes, and comprises the following titles:

1. “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell

Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

2. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence

3. “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language

4. “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman

Reason: Religious Viewpoint

5. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain

Reason: Racism

6. “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker

Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language

7. “TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

8. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou

Reason: Sexually Explicit

9. “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris

Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit

10. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Off the list this year are two books by author Toni Morrison--"The Bluest Eye" and "Beloved," both challenged for sexual content and offensive language, were #5 and #9, respectively, on the 2006 Top Ten list.

The Top Ten list is featured in many libraries' and schools' Banned Books Week exhibits and events. This year's Banned Books Week celebration begins on September 27 and runs through October 4.

For more information on book challenges and censorship, please visit Challenged and Banned Books. For help with challenges, visit Support for Dealing with or Reporting Challenges to Library Materials. For ideas on how to celebrate Banned Books Week, visit Action Guide, Suggested Activities.

Women in the Running
By Maya Schenwar

Whether or not we elect a female president this year, the US has a long way to go when it comes to political gender equality.

America has pretty much agreed that, whether or not Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, she will have made history. However, no matter the outcome of the primary season, the struggle for women's voices to be heard in the political sphere will be far from over. Despite all the focus on Clinton's gender over the course of her campaign, there's been surprisingly little discussion of the gender makeup of the political system as a whole.
...more here.

“Something’s crossed over in me.”

The role of women in librarianship reflects culture at large. Hillary Clinton is the first woman ever to win U.S. primaries. This is a woman's triumph and reflects a national change of attitude about the role of women at the top of the ticket (whether she wins or loses).Public librarianship today is comprised mainly of women (about 80% of public library workers are women)and the historical evolution of the role of women in the field must be viewed as a reflection of the role of women in the larger society. It was not until the work of Weibel, Maack, and Hildenbrand that the historical library past vis-a-vis women’s central role began to be reclaimed. And it is only in the recent decades that the history of public librarianship has come to be understood against the backdrop of race, gender and class as so cogently analyzed by Pawley.
Librarianship has been ahead of society-at-large with extraordinary women public library directors. I found this editorial by Susan Faludi today to have relevance to all women.

In the final stretch of the primary season, she seems to have stepped across an unstated gender divide, transforming herself from referee to contender.

What’s more, she seems to have taken to her new role with a Thelma-like relish. We are witnessing a female competitor delighting in the undomesticated fray. Her new no-holds-barred pugnacity and gleeful perseverance have revamped her image in the eyes of begrudging white male voters, who previously saw her as the sanctioning “sivilizer,” a political Aunt Polly whose goody-goody directives made them want to head for the hills.

CITATIONS

Weibel, K., Heim K. M. Ellsworth, D.J. The Status of Women in Librarianship, 1876-1976. Oryx Press, Neal-Schuman:Phoenix, 1979;
Maack, M.N. "Toward a history of women in librarianship: a critical analysis with suggestions for further research." Journal of Library History 17 (1982), 164-185;
Hildenbrand, S. Reclaiming the Library Past: Writing the Women In. Ablex: Norwood, NJ, 2000.
Pawley, C. "Reading Apostles of Culture: The Politics and Historiography of Library History,'” Foreword to reprint of Apostles of Culture by Dee Garrison. University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.