Banned Books Week

Inspired by its American counterpart, the Banned Books Week will take place between the 22^nd and the 28^th of September.

The Banned Books Week is a campaign intended to encourage reading “in spite.” The focus is on the books that function in the world of literature as sparking sexual, political, or moral controversy; books that are often labelled as scandalous. The idea itself was developed in the United States and the first edition took place in 1982. The basis for the whole idea is the famous First Amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteeing the fundamental civic freedoms of religion, press, speech, petitioning, and assembly. Amnesty International is also involved in the campaign, pointing attention to those areas of the world where freedom of speech is punished and writers suffer penal consequences for their works or where freedom of speech is restrictively limited by the state.

In Poland, the event is coordinated by the Bibliosfera web portal. The authors propose ways of carrying out the idea in library space, register places taking part in the campaign, and provide basic materials: a list of the banned books with descriptions and the “Did you know that…?” print-ready posters. In Krakow, the Provincial Pedagogical Library, which, together with several dozen other libraries in Poland, will attempt to win new readers and generate more interest among the existing ones by means of promoting interesting cases in the history of literature, has joined the campaign.

More information is available at bibliosfera.net/zakazane-ksiazki-2013