Every year, VLA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee sponsors a Banned Books Week Display contest.
We hope to encourage libraries of every type to educate their users on the dangers of censorship in a free society. The prize is simply this recognition and the attendant bragging rights.
This year first prize goes to the Bateman Library at the Langley Air Force Base. Their display combined a prison like setting with informative signs giving the reasons the books had been banned. Caution signs bore messages like “Caution This Book May Cause Thinking” All of this was under the inspired theme “Free People Read Freely”
Bedford Public Library’s display came in a very close second. Dangerous books were displayed in plain brown paper wrappers with explanations of their banning. Patrons could take home a bookmark to facilitate their own illicit reading. A part of the display dealt specifically with the issue of censorship of children’s reading.
This year the IFC also wants to give special recognition to the Jefferson Madison Regional Library and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression for their Banned Books week observation at “The Wall” in Charlottesville. Using a grant from the Judith Krug Memorial Fund a professional artist created a mural of banned books amidst the flames of censorship. This was paired with a screening of the classic film “Fahrenheit 451” a wonderful pairing indeed.
Congratulations to the winners and to all of us who work every day to make sure that free people can read freely.
-The 2011 Intellectual Freedom Committee