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Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

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Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#41

Where banned=not paid for with public funds. Words have meanings. The books are still available, just not in schools.

Would it be correct to say they were banned from public libraries in those areas? And thus they were banned?

More like"after review, not carried"

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#42

I like to use "The Turner Diaries" as a kind of litmus test for people who don't want to ban books. I notice that, while all of the books this article calls out specifically are available at the Brooklyn Public Library - per their online catalog, "The Turner Diaries" is not and neither are any books by its author - either his real name or pseudonym. The Turner Diaries, for reference, is a white supremacist novel that…

But is it a book with literary value? There’s a lot of books in the world, why do you feel this one is essential for a library to stock?

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it be correct to say they were banned from public libraries in those areas? And thus they were banned?

More like"after review, not carried"

I guess what I am asking, is that in some states I am under the impression that the state legislature got involved. If library staff maintain autonomy and can carry whatever they want, I wouldn't say it is banned. If the state government got involved and provided a list of books to remove from public libraries, then to me that is banned. I know in some states such lists were produced by legislature, but I don't know if those initiatives passed.

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#44

Where banned=not paid for with public funds. Words have meanings. The books are still available, just not in schools.

I think this is being disingenuous because a library deciding not to buy a book is different than the executive or legislature saying that the library cannot buy a book. You are implying what is happening across the country in conservative states is the former when it is more often the latter. Choice is being removed from the people who run the libraries. They are the people who best know what books their communities want and need, not the politicians.

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#46

I like to use "The Turner Diaries" as a kind of litmus test for people who don't want to ban books. I notice that, while all of the books this article calls out specifically are available at the Brooklyn Public Library - per their online catalog, "The Turner Diaries" is not and neither are any books by its author - either his real name or pseudonym. The Turner Diaries, for reference, is a white supremacist novel that…

[deleted]

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#47

How silly. As though there are gangs of teenagers throughout the country that can’t get “banned” books, whatever that means, despite having the freaking internet, and books being basically free. As though they’re living in communist China or something! Kids can buy these books, and get all sorts of other vile pornographic material online well before their teenage years. Local school boards are not the CCP and they ha…

>Why not actually save literature by promoting the reading of great books?

Isn't that what is being done?

Or, is 'great', defined only by yourself?

As for Shakespeare - i love the stuff, but my goodness, i would never suggest it for a kid: not for content, but more that it's in an almost foreign language. Why make them suffer?

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#48
I think this project is great and I fully support it. However, it's only a list of books challenged by mostly christian conservatives dealing with race and gender. Left-leaning progressives challenge books ALL the time. This is bristling to hear, but it's true. Books that are deemed to contain racist or sexist words or images are challenged every year. Huckleberry Finn, Dr. Seuss books, books about Christopher Columbus. Go find the video of zealous high school students throwing out books they don't like in an attempt to "decolonize" the shelves. Go read about how librarians intentionally weed books they find offensive. [1] Sorry, but that is a book challenge whether you like it or not. Different people are offended by different things and they don't want you to see the books that piss them off.

I don't like any book banning or book challenges, we also need to keep the problem in perspective. There are 100,000+ libraries and ~170 million library card holders in this country. The vast majority of these challenged are from coordinated groups like Moms For Liberty who just hand over huge lists all at once. Each of those get counted as a "challenge". I sharply disagree with Moms For Liberty but this threat seems largely exaggerated.

[1] https://bookriot.com/weeding-racist-books-at-libraries/

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought Archive.org only stores public domain stuff. Libraries normally have both historic and modern books. For example, I see "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" on BPL's ebook list. But I can't find that book on Archive.org.

Archive.org has OpenLibrary.org as a sibling organisation. It's a "proper" library so you can check things out. I'm not sure exactly how it works, in legal terms, but it's great for obscure books. It also has Diary of a Wimpy Kid available to borrow digitally: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8483260W/Diary_of_a_Wimpy_Ki...

Based. I didn't know about that. And Wikipedia says Aaron Swartz https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Library
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