MBLC Blog

Tag: ala

  • Nine Massachusetts Libraries Receive ALA Grant

    The American Library Association (ALA) recently announced the recipients of the Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC): Focus on Small and Rural Libraries grant. Nine Massachusetts libraries were included in the second round of grantees.

    The libraries include:

    Belding Memorial Library Ashfield
    Field Memorial Library Conway
    Millbury Public Library Millbury
    Sargent Memorial Library Boxborough
    Dighton Public Library Dighton
    Town of Southborough Southborough
    Scituate Town Library Scituate
    Elizabeth Taber Library Marion
    Whelden Memorial Library West Barnstable

    Participating libraries receive training in how to lead conversations through an ALA e-course on basic facilitation skills; host at least one conversation (in-person or virtual) with community members on a chosen topic; and receive $3,000 to support community engagement efforts. Grant funds may cover a range of expenses, including staff time and collections and technology purchases.

    You can read more about the project in this press release.

  • Banned Books Week 2016

    It’s humpday of Banned Books Week 2016. This year’s focus is on diversity in literature; books that get banned or challenged are disproportionately written by diverse authors.

    celebrate diversity for banned books week, september 25-october 1, 2016

    For the uninitiated, Banned Books Week is “an annual event celebrating the freedom to read… it highlights the value of free and open access to information, [and] brings together the entire book community; librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types, in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.” More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982, according to the American Library Association (ALA).

    Throughout the U.S. at libraries, schools, universities, and other institutions, “read-a-thons” and “read-outs” of books banned over the years will increase awareness of both censorship and the importance of the freedom to read. This year, virtual read-outs from around the country are featured on their own YouTube channel as well.

    the top ten most challenged books of 2015 - titles & authors listed below image

    2015 Book Challenges in Detail

    (from the Banned Books Week website)

    1. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
      Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
    2. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
      Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”).
    3. I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
      Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group.
    4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
      Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”).
    5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
      Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
    6. The Holy Bible
      Reasons: Religious viewpoint.
    7. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
      Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”).
    8. Habibi, by Craig Thompson
      Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
    9. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
      Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence.
    10. Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
      Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).