Free Republic

Banned Book Weeks celebrates the freedom to read, the freedom to choose and the freedom to express one's opinion, even if it is unorthodox. Sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) since 1982, it has become an annual event reminding Americans not to take this democratic freedom for granted.

BELLEVUE, Wash. (AP) -- Students who wished their school librarians a nice summer on the last day of school may be surprised this fall when they're no longer around to recommend a good book or help with homework. As the school budget crisis deepens, administrators across the nation have started to view school libraries as luxuries that can be axed rather than places where kids learn to love reading and do research.....

A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit filed by a former Ohio State University librarian who said he was forced out of his job because of his conservative Christian beliefs. U.S. District Court Judge William Bertelsman ruled that the university’s Mansfield campus did not violate Scott Savage’s civil rights by being hostile to his beliefs. In 2006, Savage was asked to serve on a committee to develop a required reading list for incoming freshmen. He noticed that every book was either liberal or promoted what he called a gay agenda. So Savage recommended four conservative books – and that’s...

A Japanese serial graphic novel genre popular with young teens has raised the ire of a Crestview mother whose teenage son got hold of an adult version of the genre from the Crestview Public Library. “Manga” depicts highly stylized adventure and, occasionally, violence in fantasy settings. Margaret Barbaree, founder of a citizens’ group called Protect Our Children, presented examples from a manga book to the Crestview City Council last week that she described as “graphic” and “shocking,” taken from material she said is “available to children” at the Crestview Public Library. “My son lost his mind when he found this,”...

Liana Lupas, curator of the Rare Bible Collection at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York, with one of the first Bibles translated into the language used by American Indians. (CNS/Bob Roller) By Beth GriffinCatholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) -- Liana Lupas stands out in New York, even by the standards of a city that defines itself with superlatives and seems to have world-class specialists in every conceivable discipline. She calls herself "the only librarian in the world who takes care of one book." Of course, that book is "the" Book, the Bible. And in two decades...

The great Library of Alexandria, established by Ptolemy II (circa 280 BC), has come to symbolize the receptacle of knowledge of Classical civilization. This great repository was barbarously razed in the Middle Ages. At its height, the Library contained an estimated forty thousand volumes on a wide variety of topics. It held works on astronomy, mathematics, physics, medicine, and philosophy -- many of which were copied from the hieroglyphic and cuneiform texts of the Egyptians and Babylonians. It also stored histories of all the countries of the known world: histories of Egypt, of Babylonia, of Persia, of the lands of...

Though the Glenn Beck clips are classic examples of the nonsense this nitwit pushes out all day on his radio and TV shows, the interview with Samantha Bee from the CPAC future is the funniest thing I ever did see. Gunfloss... All independent voters should be rounded up, hog tied, have their eyelids stapled open like Alex and forced to watch this 3 minute video. One viewing would be enough for these 40% of the voters to end of all this crazy right-wing crap once and for all.

... One year ago, a new library designed by world-class architect William Rawn opened on Mattapan’s Blue Hill Avenue, a street rarely associated with first-class anything. [...] But the highlight of the new library was its young adult room. [...] In reality, some of the young people are throwing punches, hurling insults, and tossing furniture in the space that Rawn designed as an “oasis of safety.’’ It doesn’t happen often, but often enough to draw negative publicity and discourage some adults from patronizing the library. The good kids who easily outnumber the thugs know what comes next. “People will say...

Fort Worth Public Library officials have told Parker County Republican Congressional candidate Mike Brasovan to find another site for a "grassroots voter training" campaign event Saturday originally scheduled for the East Regional Library. City policy restricts library meeting rooms to nonpartisan events that are not connected to a specific candidate, assistant director Sheila Scullock said.

A federal law banning lead and other toxic substances in products for children 12 and under has raised new concerns. Some libraries have pulled children's books that were printed before 1986 because lead was used in printer's ink before then. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the chances of those books containing lead harmful to children is low. At least two libraries didn't want to take any chances and removed the books from their shelves. The Consumer Product Safety Commission interprets the new federal law to include books but hasn't weighed in on whether older books could cause...

Lincoln police nabbed a man at a public library where they say he'd been approaching teenage girls. On Friday, police were listening at the 14-year-old girl's end of a phone conversation in which Mohammed Nadeem allegedly arranged to meet her at the library for sex. And, they waited there to arrest him when he arrived. They booked Nadeem, 4800 N. 15th St., Apt. 111, on suspicion of attempted sexual assault in the first-degree. Prosecutors have not yet charged him. In the affidavit for his arrest, police said Nadeem, 22, sat next to the 14-year-old at Eiseley Library Thursday and asked...

This just in: Those demented fascists at the Miami-Dade School Board are banning books again. A careful check of school libraries shows there is not a single copy to be had of Babbette Cole's Mommy Laid An Egg, Or Where Do Babies Come From? You can take that title very literally, by the way; the book includes several colorful illustrations of Mommy and Daddy performing the act that leads to babies -- on skateboards, in a bouncy Space Hopper, in balloons in mid-air. Oh, and because Mommy Laid An Egg is a product of modern, nonsexist pedagogy, equal time...

School Libraries May Soon Be Historyby Paul C. Clark Staff Writer January 22, 2009 Some local educators are imagining a future in which schools have no libraries. Quick, thoroughly unscientific visual surveys of the libraries – called "media centers" in eduspeak – of Guilford County high schools of late give the impression that they're hardly beehives of activity, at least as far as books are concerned. The percentage of space dedicated to books instead of computers seems to have shrunk over the years, and a scan of the shelves turns up relatively few newly acquired books. The use of the...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider attempts to revive a 1998 law intended to protect children from Internet pornography, ending a legal conflict dating to the administration of President Bill Clinton. Without comment, the court handed down an order declining to take the case of Mukasey v. A.C.L.U., No. 08-565. The administration of former President George W. Bush, through Attorney General Michael Mukasey, had asked the justices to review the law. The American Civil Liberties Union has been a leading foe of the statute. The Child Online Protection Act has been the subject of court battles...

Mayor Nutter said yesterday that five of the 11 library branches once scheduled to close permanently on Thursday are instead on track to be taken over by private foundations, wealthy individuals, companies, and community development corporations. ( ... ) "Libraries are much more than repositories for books. We know this," said Nutter, who ordered 11 of 54 branches closed as part of a larger plan to address a $1 billion five-year budget gap. "They are the absolute complete nexus of community life." Nutter made his remarks at a City Hall news conference where he was loudly heckled by dozens of...

Like the Willie Horton case in the 1988 campaign only worse. It goes to the heart of who and what all-too-many among the left-wing of the Democratic Party really are. I was hoping that this would become a major issue in this campaign. Perhaps it's not too late - if enough people will join in to make it one - though email, websites, letters to the editor and calls to family and friends.   Excerpt: "If You want to know who they really are - i.e. all-too-many on the left-wing of the Democratic Party, the "Progressives" who idolize Barak Obama...

As part of the microscopic scrutiny applied to Sarah Palin’s record, the public has been told that as the incoming Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska in 1996, Palin dared to ask the town librarian what would happen if anyone objected to an inappropriate book. She merely inquired, but "anti-censorship" activists, perpetually filled with visions of a trash can full of burning books, exploded. At the time, the Anchorage Daily News captured the librarian, one Mary Ellen Emmons, putting up her First Amendment dukes. “I told her clearly, I will fight anyone who tries to dictate what books can go on the...

There's a childhood epidemic sweeping Minnesota and the nation. Its warning signs aren't fever or skin rashes. The symptoms are behavioral -- and unmistakable. Consider a recent, particularly virulent outbreak of the affliction in Maplewood, N.J., as reported by the New York Times. In the last few years, out-of-control kids from the middle school have overrun the town's library after school. They routinely mouth off to librarians, disrupt common areas, leave restrooms a shambles and race about, sometimes almost knocking over elderly patrons

Much of the substance of this election comes down to this question: "do we want people with values like those held by the leadership of the American Library Association - in general - and Judith Flint and Amy Grasmick - in particular - to be in control of this country and guiding its children?

...the nature and extent of Sen Obama's left-wing agenda doesn't seem to have penetrated into the awareness of the American public...They just don't associate him, the "Progressive" movement and the Democratic party with the kinds of infringements...that have come to be seem as "normal" in everyday life...things such as...parents being threatened for spanking their kids...public libraries that let paedophiles in - while keeping Christians at bay...kids being punished in school for drawing pictures of their soldier relatives...