BATTLEFORD — The Battleford Public Library is getting ready to process some lawbreakers next week with a mugshot station and banned book display for Freedom to Read Week from Feb. 18 to 24. Carla Lamontagne, the branch’s librarian, says the display and mugshot station will help drive home the point of Freedom to Read Week, a point which she …
The Waterloo Catholic District School Board is restricting access to four books with LGBTQ themes selected as part of a provincial program intended to engage elementary and secondary school students in reading a diverse range of books. https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/access-to-books-with-lgbtq-themes-restricted-by-ontario-s-waterloo-catholic-district-school-board/article_241b8c55-cc83-5c0b-aec0-6b9d5118cfc5.html
Community member says requests ‘not a censorship issue,’ argues books constitute pornography It’s been a long year at the South Central Regional Library. A push that began last summer to remove a few children’s sexual education books from the southern Manitoba library system has since bubbled up into accusations its staff are pedophiles, as well as a …
Once obsessed with fighting COVID mandates, far-right groups have settled on a new target: drag performers who read books to children at public events. What’s really fuelling all the angry protests? https://www.sudbury.com/the-big-read/the-big-read-drag-queen-storytime-has-sparked-a-new-chapter-of-hate-in-ontario-6855779
‘If we want to be promoting joy of reading, we need to have diverse books for students to access.’ A Tyee Q&A.
Libraries have become ‘battlegrounds for other political motivations,’ says Oxford’s Richard Ovenden. Those serious matters were described in a talk entitled Libraries as Defenders of Open Society that Ovenden gave at the Toronto Public Library in February 2023 as part of its Freedom to Read Week. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/libraries-richard-ovenden-1.6785115
Facing smear campaigns and death threats, librarians are on the front lines of what they call an urgent battle for intellectual freedom. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/03/02/culture-war-stacks-librarians-marshal-against-rising-book-bans/
A new collection at the Toronto Reference Library is spotlighting books that were once censored, removed or challenged in North American schools and libraries as part of Freedom to Read Week.
Chilliwack, B.C., RCMP took the unusual step Wednesday of confirming that books in the community’s school libraries do not, in fact, contain child pornography.
Publisher Penguin Random House announced Friday it will publish “classic” versions of Roald Dahl’s children’s novels after it received criticism for cuts and rewrites that were intended to make the books suitable for modern readers. https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/roald-dahl-collection-reissued-1.6758995