The shelves at the Gadsden Public Library are a little emptier today.

The shelves at the Gadsden Public Library are a little emptier today.
Library personnel on Monday began following through on last month’s announcement that books that at some point had been banned either in the United States or another country would be temporarily pulled from circulation.
They will stay off the shelves — the spaces will remain empty, aside from a notation as to why the books are missing — until Sept. 23, the beginning of Banned Books Week.
It’s being done in conjunction with this year’s Gadsden Reads, which has chosen a book that fits with the theme: Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451.” That novel details a future society in which books are banned and burned if found (the title is the temperature at which paper ignites).
The move already has caused a stir in some quarters from people who saw the word “banned” and looked no farther, and are angrily accusing the library of doing the very thing it’s trying to spotlight and protest.
Library officials have said their goal is to stimulate conversation about the issue. The off-base reaction confirms such a conversation is badly needed in this community.
It’s one thing to have an abstract discussion about people on the other side of the planet being denied access to books. It’s different when you get hit in the face with it at home, in a country that for more than 200 years has prized free thought and free expression, but continues to see its share of efforts to ban books from school reading programs and elsewhere.
We’re also not just talking about modern works whose language, frankness about sex or challenges to conventional norms offend sensibilities.
We’re talking about children’s books by Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak; classic novels like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “To Kill A Mockingbird,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Gone With the Wind,” “Moby Dick” and, yes, “Fahrenheit 451”; plays by William Shakespeare; and pretty much every book that’s considered holy by the world’s religions, including the Bible.
Gadsden State Community College’s library also is participating, in a different way. It’s restricting the items, not removing them. However, anyone requesting them will have to say “why,” plus anyone who wants to temporarily “ban” a book for any reason will be able to do so, no questions asked.
We wonder how many self-appointed censors will go there. We’re more interested in how patrons of both libraries will respond to these temporarily barren shelves.
We rather hope they don’t like it. That’s the best way to ensure it never happens for real.
http://www.gadsdentimes.com/opinion/20130827/our-view-a-temporary-taste-of-book-banning
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