Questions About Controversy

Censorship: Banned Books

Muskingum University Library "Banned Books Display" (9/7/2006) via Flickr. Attributin-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License

I've decided to focus on the controversy surrounding censorship and banned books in libraries for Project 3. However, I'm still unsure of how I want to discuss the controversy, and what specific parts of the controversy I will address. In this post, I will figure out what I may still need to understand about this debate to achieve a position from which I can argue. I will postulate questions regarding key factors of my controversy in order to understand what things I may want to investigate and argue about.

Who

• Who exactly challenges / bans books?
• Who protects freedom of information?
• Who decides how to deal with / respond to book banning and censorship?

What

• What is the process of banning a book?
• What makes a book a contender for being banned?
• What are some key events in the history of censorship and book banning?

When

• When did book banning and censorship actions peak?
• When did libraries begin to fight back?
• When was censorship at its lowest levels?

Where

• Where do these books actually get banned from?
• Where can you find exclusive sites for banned materials?
• Where does the concept of banning and censoring information come from?

How

• How do libraries fight against censorship?
• How does book banning survive in this advanced day and age?
• How can we put a stop to censorship?