Tennessee online retailer Abunga is offering a new service to it’s customers. Censorship. When enough visitors to the site complain about a particular book, Abunga discontinues sales of the volume and removes it from it’s inventory. This has generated interests from several religious groups who would like to have a say in what is marketed to them.

Popular banning include books on evolution and climate change. Books on sexuality have not yet been heavily targeted. The business decision has caught the interest of academics who are watching closley to see the outcome. It has also generated much controversy with special interest groups.

In close 3-2 decision, the Nampa Public library Board voted to remove the The New Joy of Sex and The Joy of Gay Sex from library shelves. Supporting board members cited indecent material for children as the chief factor in their decision making.

This deliberations were instigated by library patron Randy Jackson and supported by Nampa businessman Larry Knapp who threatened to pull his $10,000 donation should the board vote against him. While the volumes have been removed from the circulation shelves, Library Director Karen Ganske will hold them until requested by library patrons.

Larry Knapp, a Nampa businessman, is withholding his $10,000 donation to the public library pending the boards decision regarding the ban of two sex manuals. This action was in support of Randy Jackson who is making his second attempt to have the manuals, The New Joy of Sex and The Joy of Gay Sex, removed from library shelves. Both Jackson and Knapp feel the materials are pornographic and inappropriate for a community library.

Jackson’s first attempt in 2006 was met with a decision by the board to relocate the books to a higher shelf. Jackson, dissatisfied with the ruling, is now making his case again with the boards two new members. Library Director Karen Ganske, who approved the purchase of the manuals, will follow whatever decision the board sees fit to make.

Dr. Kristen Ruth Bratt, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Penn State Altoona, was one of four recipients of the 2008 Public Scholarship Course Development Grants. Dr. Bratt received the grant for her project “Defending the Rights of American Children: Banned Book Defense Essays”.

As part of the project pre-service teachers will choose a book in danger of censorship, at the elementary school level, and mount a defense on student’s behalf. School children will also become involved, making their own arguements and delivering them through visual presentations on Constitution Day.

The Public Scholarship Course Development Grants are endowed by the Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy. The Laboratory engages both Penn State and the surrounding community in exploring ethics and practices in the modern discourse.

The Tuscaloosa County School Board has come to a decision on whether or not to ban the controversial young adult novel ‘Sandpiper’. The book, which revolves around themes of young sexuality, first came to the attention of the board when 10th grader Lysa Harding form Brockwood High School refused to return it. Harding stated that graphic references to oral sex make it inappropriate for a school library.

Harding’s Grandmother followed up with a formal complaint to the school who chose to allow the book to remain on shelves. After three months of deliberation the County Board has made its final decision to let the book stand. Their decision was made with vocal reluctance, citing that legal counsel determined that recent Supreme Court rulings have stated that the first amendment rights of youth can be affected by the removal of books from school libraries.

According to the American Library Association this is the first challenge which has brought against ‘Sandpiper’.

Public response has been strong for the book to remain. Copies of the book have been donated to the library and both individuals and organizations have offered to pay the late fee on the copy held by Harding.

The Board is now in the process of implementing more stringent screening procedures to ensure that books which contains material they deem to be vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate in nature will never reach their shelves in the first place.

Cyndi Treiber, a military om, has been protesting with other parents against a book that is part of the optional 2nd and 3rd grade reading program at the Magruder Elementary School library in York County, VA.  The disapproval stems from a portion of the book, addressing war, soldiers, and military casualties. Magruder argues that 42% of the district is made up of military families and presenting material about war to the children of soldiers is inappropriate.

Treiber is now making her third appeal to the district since march. In her first two attempts to ban the volume, the district examined the book with the help of committee members associated with military. After careful consideration and addressing Treiber’s issues, the committee found the book appropriate for children.

The library approval committee, who also has three members with military family, also took no issue with the books when it was first considered for inclusion in the library. Treiber has stated that despite these setbacks she will not back down until the book has been removed. The board must respond to Treibers latest appeal in the next forty-two business days.

After an intense outrcry from inmates, members of congress and religious groups the Bureu of Prisons repealed it’s decision to remove all but 150 ‘acceptable’ religious texts from the nations prisons. All religious materials that have been removed will be returned and most texts that were to be removed will remain in circulation.

The exception will be texts that incite violence or encourage radicalization which was the initial intention of the Chapel Library Project. The initiative was launched after  a 2004 Department of Justice report linking ‘dangerous’ religious texts to inmate violence. Critics are now waiting to see if the already removed materials will be returned in manner that complies to the Bureaus promises.

The most challenged book in school libraries this last year did not include violence, language or adult situations. It included penguins. “And Tango Makes Three” is the story of two male penguins who help a penguin couple who is having trouble incubating their own eggs.

The book is based on a true story, but this hasn’t stopped library patrons from calling for the books removal. The complaint apparently comes from the two male penguins having a perceived homosexual orientation.

Responses to the complaints have ranged from standing by the book, to relocating the book to the non-fiction section, to one school in North Carolina that pulled the book from library shelves though later returned it after protests from the community and the media.

The board of the Jackson-George Regional Library System which has been deliberating the removal of the book “Happy Endings: The Tales of a Meaty-Breasted Zilch” has come to a decision. The board voted to keep the book on library shelves saying that “If we order a book, we feel like it should be made available to the public.” The decision to keep the volume was not unanimous. The hold out was David Ogborn who went on the record equating the decision to running an adult bookstore.

While this book will be making it’s  way back on to the stacks this incident has brought about a policy decision which may block others. Until now the library ordered every book on the New York Times bestseller list of which this was one. It will now be up to individual libraries to decide which books from the list are appropriate for their patrons.

Young investigative reporter and Remapo High School student Andrew Gross thought he had a real scoop. After tracking down the parties involved and gathering background on his highshool’s drug culture, Gross wrote a hard hitting story covering the largest drug bust in his school’s recent history. When it came time to go to print he found his hard work was being blocked from publication.

Though Gross had performed his job in a professional and appropriate manner, district superintendent Paul Saxton pulled the article citing fears that releasing details of the event would damage the suspects chances at a fair trial, though the names of the students were never used.

Previous court rulings have upheld that schools have the right to monitor their publications, but the rulings were in instances where the material was categorically offensive or opened the school up to liability. Neither was the case in this instance, which Gross pointed out to school administrators.

Administrators agreed to let Gross run the story only if he removed all information about the incident which had been given freely and on the record by school officials or wait for the investigation and subsequent trials to conclude.