Banned books - another question

[serenadust]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "davewitley" 
<dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:

<snip> 
> However, I'm a little puzzled (perhaps because, as an un-American, 
I 
> get by without a constitution and we don't seem to have 
> this 'challenging' phenomenon here in the UK) as to what the aim 
of 
> the ALA is on this issue.
> 
> As I understand it, it is not the government, or some official 
body, 
> that tries to get books removed from library shelves - this is 
> ordinary citizens making a challenge to their (local?) libraries.
> 
> So what does ALA want?  To take away the right to challenge the 
> material on library shelves?  Or just to educate the population so 
> that they use that right in a different way?  What is the purpose 
of 
> the right existing at all?  If (as someone suggested) having a 
> book 'banned' (from libraries, of course, not shops or homes) is a 
> breach of constitutional rights, how can the right to challenge be 
> contitutional?
> 
> Given that the USA has a population of over 300 million, and there 
> are perhaps a few thousand (mostly failed) challenges a year, yes, 
> the ALA may be right that there are too many of them, but the 
> overwhelming impression left is that the USA does indeed do what 
it 
> says on the tin - support freedom of speech and the freedom to 
read.


Thanks David, I had the same thoughts myself.  The list of books on 
the "banned" list haven't been banned at all, for the most part.  As 
I understand it, they are ones who have been challenged most 
frequently, but very few (if any) have actually been removed from 
any library shelves anywhere in the US.

The mere suggestion of books being banned is sure to excite the 
passions of anyone who loves books and reading.  However, the notion 
that any citizen, even a total crackpot, has the right to file a 
challenge and the opportunity to make his case supporting the 
challenge, doesn't seem like such a bad thing to me (particularly 
since it rarely results in any meaningful action). It just seems 
like the usual, noisy democracy in action.  I can't help but wonder 
what the ALA is trying to accomplish in having a "Banned Books Week" 
at all.  It seems slightly misleading to me.

Is there any mechanism in the UK, or any other countries outside the 
US, for citizens to register a complaint about materials available 
in public or school libraries?  If so, I wonder if any records are 
kept for the purpose of tracking which books receive the most 
challenges.  It would be interesting to see how this sort of thing 
is handled else where.  My suspicion is that there is either no 
formal process for these sorts of challenges, or that other 
countries simply don't bother with tracking and reporting the 
results to the public, but of course, I have no evidence to support 
this.

Jo Serenadust, curious