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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We will continue to bring you the latest news about censorship in writing and will hopefully have the first episode of the Freedom Readers podcast in early 2008.

Keep those pages turning!

-Michael Martinez-Mann

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.

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 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.

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.