LIBRARIES

Celebrate the freedom to read during Banned Books Week, September 26th through October 3rd. An annual event since 1982, Banned Books Week is sposored by the American Library Association and other professional organizations for authors, journalists, publishers, and booksellers. The celebration is an on-going effort to raise awareness of censorship attempts in the United States.

Each year, groups around the country seek to ban books from library shelves for reasons such as violence, sexuality, and profanity. In the past, classic works of literature like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Grapes of Wrath have been targeted by book banners. In 2008, more than 500 titles were challenged.

Visit the Downtown Campus Library’s Banned Book Week exhibits to learn more about banned books. And read a banned book this week. For suggested titles, visit Challenged or Banned Classics.

To see where book censorship occurred in 2008, visit:
http://bannedbooksweek.org/Mapofbookcensorship.html.

Two curators from the WVU Libraries’ West Virginia & Regional History Collection will travel to the Huntington Museum of Art on Sept. 20 to speak about art and rare books.

John Cuthbert, WVRHC Curator, and Harold M. Forbes, Rare Books Collection Curator, will speak as part of an exhibit titled “American Masterpieces from the Daywood Collection,” which focuses on the contributions of Arthur and Ruth Dayton.

“The Daytons were likely the most significant collectors of fine art and rare books in the history of our state. They were also generous philanthropists,” Cuthbert said. “Their legacy lives on in the collections of the WVU Libraries and the Huntington Museum of Art as well as in the Daywood Foundation, which Mrs. Dayton founded to provide support for higher education and other worthwhile endeavors.”
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