De Forest, Heather

Henderson, Susan

LaBelle, Shannon

SFU Library Digital Publishing (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver)

  BCLA Browser: Linking the Library Landscape            Volume 1, no. 2 (2009)  http://bclabrowser.ca  ISSN 1918-6118  Freedom to Read Week at UVic and SFU By Susan Henderson, Shannon LaBelle and Heather De Forest.   University of Victoria Libraries Freedom to Read Week displays at the University of Victoria Libraries were the catalyst for six media interviews in one week. Radio, print and television coverage focused on censorship in Canada, the mind of the censor, and the recent challenge to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale that occurred in January, when the Toronto Public School Board decided to review the book after receiving one complaint from a parent of a Grade 12 student.     Susan Henderson is the UVic Libraries Communications Officer.           Simon Fraser University Library SFU Library promoted Freedom to Read Week with a display of banned and challenged books and an interactive poster that encouraged members of the SFU community to identify banned and challenged books they have read.     Throughout Freedom to Read Week, visitors to the SFU Library web site were invited to take an online quiz to answer questions about intellectual freedom. Five students received prizes for their participation, and one prizewinner stated that the quiz, which was created in-house, was “very informative.”  On February 25, 2009, a small group of SFU librarians read aloud from banned and challenged books in the lobby of the W.A.C. Bennett Library. Passers-by listened to excerpts from Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, Craig Thompson’s Blankets, Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, and the anonymously written Go Ask Alice.   Shannon LaBelle is a Reference Librarian at Simon Fraser University Library.  Heather De Forest is the Liaison Librarian for Geography, Urban Studies and Public Policy  at Simon Fraser University Library.  Freedom to Read Week display at the McPherson Library, UVic Libraries. Interactive Freedom to Read Week poster on display at the W.A.C. Bennett Library, SFU Library.  © Catherine Louie 

Freedom To Read Week at UVic and SFU

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SFU Library Digital Publishing (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver)