Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Banned books, Celebrating
A good librarian will celebrate freedom of information and the diversity of ideas by celebrating Banned Books Week at the library. The best way to do this is to round up all the really nasty books in your library and lock them all up in a glass display case.
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13 comments:
Damn. You must have visited my library without me knowing. That is exactly what we do because heaven forbid we actually invest in books that may be attractive enough to check out. Displays have been a bane I have been writing about in my journal for a while. And here I thought it was just me.
Wouldn't it be prudent to ban a few more books, too, as an investment for future celebration?
I'm currently enamored with "Bland Books week"
We have a wonderful display. And not behind glass. However, we have had patrons challenge the books on display already.
I hope the library takes them up on it because then the challengers would have to actually 'read' the book they challenged. BWahahahah!
You sure it isn't "Band Books Week" ... you know, all John Philip Sousa and so on.
In my library, we would always lock them (the typical banned books) in the requisite glass case, and then forget where we put the key.
Eventually it would become a cabinet of wonders, forgotten like all the rest.
haha! brilliant!
When I did a banned book display way back when, I set up a black bookcase in the display case, put black vertical stripes down the front, and got permission to leave the glass case open. People seemed to like liberating the books from the jail cell.
Corny visual metaphor, I know, but whatever works.
Got to love the face of the indignant patron who needs to document the reason why a particular book should be banned from the library in a library form. Ours is about 4 pages long and ensures that nothing is ever re-considered because no one bothers to fill out that form.
haha, the old 'drown them in bureaucratic paperwork' trick! worse still you actually make them read what they are challenging and form a coherent argument about why no-one else should be able to access it! Hahahahaha! Genius! When all else fails, bore them to death with committee discussions :)
I have always thought that unobtainable book displays were counter-productive..."Oh, no, you can't check out that book, it will ruin my display."
I had a staff member who hated displays -- "All that work, then someone comes along and takes a book and the display is ruined." [head*desk]
My favorite Banned Book display was the books peeking out of plain brown paper wrapping tied with string. You know those books MUST be illicit!
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