Utah State Today press release: Thursday, September 23, 2010

Exhibit and Panel Discussion Highlight Banned Books Week at USU 

Everyone at Utah State University, as well as the community at large, can participate in the American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week, Sept. 25-Oct. 2. 

Highlights of the week include a Banned Books Week exhibition, Lighting a Match: Destruction and Enlightenment through Ages of Intolerance, assembled by Merrill-Cazier Library. The exhibit highlights the role librarians play as gatekeepers, defending free access to knowledge and protecting first amendment rights. The task is not always an easy one — censorship takes many different forms.

Also planned is a panel discussion held in conjunction with the exhibit that features academic, public and children’s librarians, as well as representatives from the press and ACLU of Utah. The panelists will discuss First Amendment rights, censorship, the Patriot Act and banned or challenged books and why free, open access to information is critical to a democracy.

The opening reception for Lighting a Match and the panel discussion are Sept. 30, 7 p.m., Merrill-Cazier Library, Room 101. The panel discussion and reception are free and open to the public.

Lighting a Match examines key social, political, religious, artistic and moral factors that fuel censorship arguments.

“Consensus on censorship issues is hard to come by if everyone thinks their criteria are the right criteria,” said Kathy Schockmel, exhibit organizer.

The usual position of libraries and library associations is one of inclusiveness and, according to a 1989 position statement from the Library Association, “commitment to the widest possible freedom in the dissemination of information within the limits of the law.” Libraries should provide materials (except the trivial) in which users “claim legitimate interest.” Lighting a Match offers new ways of thinking about censorship, tolerance and information control, Schockmel said. It provokes dialogue about the place of censorship in a country founded on the Bill of Rights.

“The exhibition raises questions — when is an idea dangerous or offensive; who decides?” she said.

Additional activities include a continuous free showing of the film Fahrenheit 451 Oct. 2, beginning at noon and running through 9 p.m. at Merrill-Cazier Library, Room 154. The 1966 film, directed by Francois Truffaut, is based on Ray Bradbury’s classic novel and presents a frightening vision of a future without literature. The movie is open to the public.

Source: Merrill-Cazier Library