Banned Books Week at the DHS Library

 

 

I believe Banned Books Week was a success. We had many great conversations with both students and teachers discussing what happens when others challenge or ban books.  We talked about why books had been banned, if any had been banned at our library, or in our distirct.  We checked out books, gave away bookmarks and buttons, and had fun.

 

There were many things we did in order to prepare for this week. The week before "Banned Books Week" the librarians combed through all of the ALA banned books lists and enlisted the help of our student workers to pull every book that we had on our shelves.  The books were then grouped together and displayed on the tops of our shelves for easy access.

 

 

Then we created buttons for the students and staff to wear if they checked out one of our banned books the following week...

 

 

We also picked 20 of those books, printed them out, and created QR codes explaining why these books had been banned from other libraries. These print outs and QR codes were displayed in our windows at the front of our library. Then students and staff could use their Smartphones to find out why these books had been banned in other communities,

  

 

 

These little things, along with a few morning announcements, were all we needed to do in order to celebrate the freedom of reading.  It was a great way to recognize the 30th Anniversary of Banned Books Week!

For more ideas, try http://pinterest.com/tahaneyj/banned-books-week/