BBW: The Reasons for Challenges

The Office of Intellectual Freedom at the America Library Association compiles the lists of reasons for book challenges across the country.  Challenges vary, but the most common are: offensive language, sexually explicit, and materials unsuited to the age group.

You can find more statistics from the last twenty years at the American Library Association's website.

BBW: Frequently Challenged Books & Authors

Are you interested in learning a little more about Banned Books?  The American Library Association maintains plenty of web resources that provide you with the information for some of the most frequently challenged materials in libraries and how those lists are generated.  They include:

• ALA's Frequently Challenged Books Guide
• Banned and Challenged Classics
• Top Ten Frequently Challenged Books Lists (by year)
• 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books by Decade
• Most Frequently Challenged Authors of the 21st Century

According to ALA, some of the most frequently challenged authors are:

2012: Dav Pilkey, Sherman Alexie, Jay Asher, E.L. James, Ellen Hopkins, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Patricia Polacco, John Green, Luis Alberto Urrea, Alvin Schwartz, Dagberto Glib

2011: Lauren Myracle, Kim Dong Hwa, Chris Crutcher, Carolyn Mackler, Robert Greene, Sonya Sones, Dori Hillestead Butler, Sherman Alexie, Suzanne Collins, Aldous Huxley, Harper Lee, Eric Jerome Dickey, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Dav Pilkey, Cecily von Ziegesar

2010: Ellen Hopkins, Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, Sonya Sones, Judy Blume, Ann Brasheres, Suzanne Collins, Aldous Huxley, Sherman Alexie, Laurie Halse Anderson, Natasha Friend

2009: Lauren Myracle, Alex Sanchez, P.C. Cast, Robert Cormier, Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, Stephen Chbosky, Chris Crutcher, Ellen Hopkins, Richelle Mead, John Steinbeck

2008: Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, Philip Pullman, Lauren Myracle, Jim Pipe, Alvin Schwartz, Chris Crutcher, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Rudolfo Anaya, Stephen Chbosky, Cecily Von Ziegesar

BBW: Virtual Read Out

Banned Books Week hosts a Virtual Read Out each year on it's YouTube Channel, where you can view authors, library staff, and concerned patrons reading from their favorite banned books and discussing issues of censorship.

One of the videos features Little Brother author Cory Doctorow discussing the importance of Banned Books Week and issues of censorship:

BBW: Top Ten Challenged Books in 2013

Each year, the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom compiles a list of the most frequently challenged books in the previous year.

According to ALA, a challenge is defined as:

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. The number of challenges reflects only incidents reported. We estimate that for every reported challenge, four or five remain unreported. Therefore, we do not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges.

With this in mind, 2013 saw 307 challenges that were reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom.  The previous year's top ten most challenged books were:

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
• Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
2. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
• Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
• Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
• Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
• Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
6. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
• Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
• Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
• Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
9. Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
• Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
10. Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
• Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence

BBW: What's the difference between a challenge and a banning?

Banned Book Week (BBW) 2014: What is the difference between a challenge and a banning?

According to the American Library Association:

"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." ~American Library Association's About Banned & Challenged Books

Looking to learn more on Banned Books Week?  Visit the American Library Association's Banned Book Week Website for information on Banned Book Week and the history of the event.

Banned Book Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, Sept 21-27, 2014

Banned Books Week this year will run from September 21-27, 2014.  From the American Library Association:

"Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Typically held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings. Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections. Imagine how many more books might be challenged—and possibly banned or restricted—if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society."

Check out the displays and most frequently challenged book lists throughout the library and take home a challenged book today!

New ScotsRead Titles

The following titles were just added to the ScotsRead Collection.  ScotsRead titles are part of a collection of best-selling and popular books located on the main floor of the library.  They are near the main study tables and have green labels on their spine.  Stop by to check out:

• Her Last Whisper: a novel by Karen Robards
• Daring: My Passages: A Memoir by Gail Sheehy

Research Tip: Research Process Guide

The Research Process guide, which is accessible from the Research Process tab on the library's homepage, will walk students through the steps required to complete a successful research project or paper.

You will find information on:

• Developing a Topic
• Selecting a Topic
• Develop Research Questions
• Identify Keywords
• Find Background Information
• Refine a Topic
• Locating Information
• Find Books
• Find Videos
• Find Articles
• Find Websites
• Search Strategies
• Evaluating Information
• Evaluate Sources
• Primary v Secondary Sources
• Types of Periodicals
• Using Information Correctly
• Notetaking
• Paraphrasing
• Legal/Ethical Information Issues
• Plagiarism
• Citation Styles
• Works Cited Examples
• Copyright

New Items at Hewes Library

New items are added to the Hewes Library Collection on a continual basis. Recent titles have included:

• Arsenal of Democracy by A.J. Baime
• One Summer by David Baldacci
• Stranger by Albert Camus
• Gandhi and Beyond by David Cortright
• Mitchell Goes Bowling by Hallie Durand
• Funerary Sculpture by Janet Burnett Grossman
• Feud: The Hatfields & McCoys by Dean King
• Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel
• Do Fathers Matter? by Paul Raeburn
• Dignity of Difference by Jonathan Sacks

Periodical of the Month: The Economist

Published by The Economist Newspaper Limited, The Economist is a weekly magazine which Hewes Library subscribes to in print and online. 

Established in 1843 to campaign on one of the great political issues of the day, The Economist remains, in the second half of its second century, true to the principles of its founder. James Wilson, a hat maker from the small Scottish town of Hawick, believed in free trade, internationalism and minimum interference by government, especially in the affairs of the market.

What, besides free trade and free markets, does The Economist believe in? "It is to the Radicals that The Economist still likes to think of itself as belonging. The extreme center is the paper's historical position." The Economist considers itself the enemy of privilege and predictability. It has backed conservatives such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. But it has also endorsed Harold Wilson and Bill Clinton, and espoused a variety of liberal causes: opposing capital punishment from its earliest days, while favoring penal reform and decolonization, as well as—more recently—gun control and gay marriage.

The Economist reports on and offers analysis of international news, world politics, business, finance, science and technology.  The print and online editions both offer sixteen news categories; including summaries on politics and business, surveys of countries and regions, obituaries, and reviews of literature and the arts.  Regular features include Economic and Financial Indicators, Leaders, and Science & Technology.

See more at: www.economist.com or on the Main Level of Hewes Library in the Current Periodicals section.

Hewes Library on Facebook and Twitter

Don't forget that you can follow Hewes Library on Facebook and follow Hewes Library on Twitter for the latest news, announcements, and hours updates.

Research Tip: Learn more about your Library Accounts

Want to learn more about your Library User Accounts? Each Monmouth College students, staff, or faculty member has two Hewes Library accounts.

1. Library / I-Share Account: Allows patrons to renew items currently checked out and to place requests for books through the I-Share Catalog. You can also maintain a list of favorites in the system.
2. ILLiad Account: Allows patrons to place interlibrary loan requests for articles and print materials that are not available in the I-Share catalog. Electronically received interlibrary loans requests can also be retrieved in a patron's ILLiad account.

Learn more about the differences between the two accounts and how to locate your username and passwords for each account.

Database of the Month: Business Source Elite

For the month of September, Hewes Library selected Business Source Elite as the database of the month.  Provided by EBSCO Host, BSE is one of the premier resources for journals and magazines in business, economics, and management.  Topics covered in the database include marketing, sales, international business, finance, banking, accounting, industry & trade, labor, public policy & administration, and more.  


Full text information is available for more than 1,110 business publications and more than 10,000 company profiles are available from MarketLine via BSE.  To compliment access to Business Source Elite, students and staff can find local and regional business news in Regional Business News, an additional database available on the Database A to Z page of the library's website.   Access to the database is available to current students, staff, and faculty of Monmouth College.
Some of the titles included in the database are:

• Academy of Management Review

• Accounting Forum

• Advances in Consumer Research

• American Economist

• Columbia Journal of World Business 

• Contemporary Economic Policy 

• Economic Affairs

• Economic Review

• Global Management Review

• Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy

• International Business: Strategies for the Global Marketplace

• Journal of Accounting Research 

• Journal of Management & Public Policy 

• National Tax Journal 

• Review of International Economics

• Studies in Comparative International Development 

Faculty: Don't forget your Course Reserves

If you are a MC faculty member and plan to place items on course reserve, remember that all of our course reserve information is available on our website along with the necessary forms.

Please allow 48 hours for processing. At times of high volume, especially at semester's beginning, processing may take longer. For this reason, we recommend that reserve forms be submitted well in advance of their anticipated date of first use.

Welcome Back to Campus!

Welcome back to all of our returning students, staff, and faculty and hello to all of MC's first year students!  We hope that your first week of classes went well.  If you need to learn more about your library accounts, please visit the Hewes Library homepage or read through the library's help documentation to learn more.