The final four of our 2012 Krug Fund grant recipients for Banned Books Week 2012 programming.  Amazing. 

RFK REK Library

The Robert E. Kennedy Library at California Polytechnic State University was a 2012 Krug Fund grant recipient for a banned author talk, Read-Out, and wall-sized Infographic featuring the most frequently challenged books of the last decade, among other events. http://lib.calpoly.edu/books/banned/

Lawrence (Kan) Public Library

Lawrence (Kan.) Public Library was awarded a 2012 Krug Fund grant for "Banned Books Week Trading Cards,” a daily giveaway of baseball-like cards depicting the artwork and "statistics” of various banned and challenged books. Other events sponsored by the library will be a Read-Out, photo booth, panel discussion of local writers and attorneys with experience dealing with book challenges and "Cozy up to a Banned Book,” an interactive installation wherein patrons can sit in a recliner and read various library books. http://www.lawrence.com/news/2012/sep/30/collect-em-all/ 

St. Catharine College

St. Catharine College (Ky.) received a 2012 Krug Fund grant for a cook-out, chalk drawings and their fifth annual, three-day-long Banned Books Week Read-Out. They also will sponsor an essay contest for local high school students. http://www.sccky.edu/

Simon Sanchez High School

The final 2012 BBW feature is Simon Sanchez High School (Guam), for Read-Outs, posters and a "Roadside Wave,” featuring celebratory boards and signs. This will be the first commemoration of Banned Books Week for the school, based in Yigo on the northernmost part of Guam. In 2000, the school library was decimated by a typhoon, and to date, not all of the resources have been replaced. This is the first Judith Krug Fund grant for an organization in a U.S. territory. http://www.simonsanchez.org/

Freedom to Read Foundation staff, and a few trustees, were excited to be in Kansas City last week for the terrific 2nd Joint Conference of Librarians of Color.  Between the provocative programs - including one featuring FTRF Executive Director Barbara Jones that discussed challenges to books by authors of color, as well as the Tucson Unified School District book removal situation - and the other great events (particularly the opening reception at the fabulous KC Public Library), it was a wonderful experience.

On Friday, FTRF sponsored a reception at which we met dozens of librarians, many of whom were already members (or fans) of the Freedom to Read Foundation, and quite a few of whom were hearing about FTRF for the first time.  Barbara and newly elected Vice President Julius C. Jefferson, Jr. both talked about how important FTRF is to the library and reading communities, and encouraged attendees to become members and help spread the word.

Also on Friday, FTRF cosponsored with REFORMA a "50 for Freedom of Speech" Read-Out that brought attention to the Tucson situation and featured readings from many of the books that were removed from classrooms when the Mexican American Studies program was shut down.  A full house heard selections that both celebrated Latino culture and heritage and encouraged thoughtful reflection - the very point of Read-Outs.

We look forward to more of these events at conferences and other gatherings across the country in the coming months. Stay tuned to this blog and/or our Facebook page and Twitter feed to find out when and where we'll be - and if you know of events you think we should be at, please let us know!

We are pleased to announce that the Freedom to Read Foundation is a national promotional partner of AASL's Banned Websites Awareness Day.  Now in its second year, Banned Websites Awareness Day was created to raise awareness of the overly restrictive blocking of legitimate, educational websites and academically useful social networking tools in schools and school libraries.  Check out the press release here.

Banned Websites Awareness Day will take place on Wednesday, October 3, 2012.

Among the activities for BWAD is a free webinar, "How to be a Ninja Warrior Filter Fighter!"  Presented by Gwynyth Jones, this session will focus on how overly restrictive filtering affects student learning and what school librarians can do to fight restrictive filtering in their schools.

The webinar, which will take place at 7:00 p.m. EDT (4:00 Pacific) is open to both AASL members and non-members.

Another national partner for BWAD, the ACLU, has a lot of resources available via its "Don't Filter Me" project, inspired by the discovery that many school library filters were blocking pro-LGBT material.  FTRF's general counsel Theresa Chmara addressed this issue and others in her July 2012 memorandum on filtering.