ABFFE and ALA Launch Banned Books Week Web Site—Sign Up Today!

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the American Library Association (ALA) have launched a Web site to help bookstores and libraries promote Banned Books Week, which will be held this year from Sept. 27 through Oct. 4. The Web site, www.bannedbooksweek.org, is intended to help the public learn about Banned Books Week and suggest ways they can support it. Its key feature is a list that visitors can use to find participating bookstores and libraries in their communities. Bookstores and libraries that would like to be listed can submit details of their Banned Books Week celebration directly to the Web site. To submit information, click here.  Once the information has been reviewed, it will be posted.

ABFFE makes it easy for booksellers to participate in Banned Books Week by providing an online handbook on its Web site, http://www.abffe.com/banned2007.htm. The handbook describes a variety of activities, including the creation of simple displays and ideas for organizing easy events like readings from banned books.

ABFFE is also running a sale on Banned Books Week products, including a new FREADOM bookmark that is priced at only $5 for 100.  There are also deep discounts on FREADOM T-shirts, buttons and stickers.  The T-shirts are available in charcoal and forest green, as well as the traditional blue and black.  Booksellers can order T-shirts customized with their store logo for just $1 extra per shirt (with a 24 shirt minimum for customized orders).  Customized orders must be received by September 3 to guarantee delivery in time for Banned Books Week. To download an order form, click here.

For the first time this year, ABFFE will also offer Banned Books Week bracelets that feature cover art from frequently challenged books.  Created by artist Carolyn Forsman, the bracelets are available in adult and young adult versions.  
Click here to view the bracelets.

For further information about Banned Books Week, contact Rebecca Zeidel, (212) 587-4025 ext. 13; rebecca@abffe.com.
 

Bookstore Program Prompts Congressmen to Speak Out

Two members of Congress from different parties joined in speaking out in favor of legislation to protect the confidentiality of news sources after participating in a program in late July co-sponsored by Arundel Books in Seattle, ABFFE, and the MLRC Institute.  Following a discussion of the proposed federal shield law to defend journalists’ right to protect the anonymity of their sources, Rep. Jay Inslee (D) and Rep. David G. Reichert (R), who represent districts in the Seattle area, both agreed to contact members of their parties in the Senate to urge passage of the bill, the Free Flow of Information Act (S. 2035).  The bill has passed the House and is currently before the Senate. The program was filmed for public access television and can be viewed here.

The Seattle program was one of more than 20 events featuring reporters that are occurring in bookstores around the country.  ABFFE joined the MRLC Institute in launching the reporters’ programs in 2006 at a time when government officials were increasingly demanding that reporters reveal the sources of the confidential information that appeared in their stories.  The MLRC Institute is a not-for-profit educational organization focused on the media and the First Amendment.  The reporters’ talks program is supported by a grant from the McCormick Foundation.

ABFFE is currently seeking bookstores for a new series of reporters’ talks about the impact of the Internet on journalism.  Bookstores interested in hosting a reporter should e-mail Chris Finan, chris@abffe.com, or call him at (212) 587-4025, ext. 15.

To read more about the reporters' programs, click here.
 

ABFFE Thanks Bookstores for Selling the FREADOM Gift Card

ABFFE extends a special thank you to the 32 bookstores that have agreed to sell its new FREADOM gift card beginning next month.  Stores that offer the FREADOM card agree to donate 10 per cent of the value of the cards to ABFFE.  So far, the program has raised over $25,000.  The following stores are participating in the 2008-2009 program:

ARKANSAS
Nightbird Books, Fayetteville
That Bookstore in Blytheville, Blytheville

CALIFORNIA
Books, Inc., San Francisco
Cover to Cover, San Francisco
Hicklebee's, San Jose
Kepler's Books & Magazines, Menlo Park
Leaves of Grass Books, Willits
Skylight Books, Los Angeles

COLORADO
Boulder Books, Boulder
Maria's Bookshop, Durango
Off The Beaten Path Bookstore, Steamboat Springs
Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver

CONNECTICUT
Hickory Stick Bookshop, Washington Depot

FLORIDA
Books & Books, Miami

ILLINOIS
Books On First, Dixon

KENTUCKY
Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville

MASSACHUSETTS
Brookline Booksmith, Brookline

MINNESOTA
Book Shelf, Winona

NEW HAMPSHIRE
White Birch Books, North Conway

NEW YORK
Red Fox Books, Glens Falls
River's End Bookstore, Oswego

OHIO
Sacred Path Books & Art, Cleveland

OREGON
Annie Bloom's Books, Portland
Grass Roots Books and Music, Corvallis

PENNSYLVANIA
Chester County Book and Music Company, West Chester

UTAH
Arches Book Company, Moab

VERMONT
Flying Pig Bookstore, Shelburne
Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick

WASHINGTON
Eagle Harbor Book Company, Bainbridge Island
Square One Books, Seattle
Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park
Village Books, Bellingham
 

Publisher Releases New Series on Classic Banned Books

Enslow Publishers has released a new series about authors of fiction whose books are challenged frequently.  The Authors of Banned Books series for young adults features the stories of book challenge controversies involving the works of J.K. Rowling, John Steinbeck, Madeleine L'Engle, Mark Twain, and Robert Cormier.  The books contextualize the censorship incidents with historical background, discussion questions, and timelines to help readers approach the controversies from different angles.  Click here to learn more about the series.

Judge Strikes Down Indiana Bookstore Registration Law

On July 1, a federal judge in Indianapolis struck down an Indiana law requiring bookstores and other retail establishments that sell even a single “sexually explicit” book, magazine, video or recording to register with the state as an "adult" business and pay a $250 license fee. “Clearly, a vast array of merchants and materials is implicated by the reach of this statute as written,” Judge Sarah Evans Barker declared in a written opinion. “A romance novel sold at a drugstore, a magazine offering sex advice in a grocery store checkout line, an R-rated DVD sold by a video rental shop, a collection of old Playboy magazines sold by a widow at a garage sale – all incidents of unquestionably lawful, non-obscene, non-pornographic material being sold to adults – would appear to necessitate registration under the statute.” The Indiana Attorney General has announced that he will not appeal the decision.

Barker agreed with ABFFE, Big Hat Books of Indianapolis, Boxcar Books and Community Center of Bloomington and the other plaintiffs that the law would have a chilling effect on the sale of constitutionally protected works. To avoid being labeled an “adult” store, retailers would have been forced to suppress the sale of almost all works with sexual content. “There can be no doubt that compliance with such a vague mandate will be unduly burdensome, will have a chilling effect on expression, and will fail to provide ordinary people with a reasonable degree of notice as to the law’s requirements; the Constitution demands no less,” Barker said. Click here to read bookseller reactions to the decision in Bookselling This Week. Click here to read Barker’s opinion.
 

Judge Sets October 3 Hearing in Oregon Case

A federal judge in Portland has set October 3 as the date for a final hearing in the challenge that ABFFE, six booksellers, and a coalition of groups have filed in an effort to overturn portions of Oregon's "harmful to minors" law.  U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman scheduled the hearing on the motion for a permanent injunction on June 30 after denying a request for a preliminary injunction.
 
Oregon House Bill 2843 makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail to allow a minor under 13 to view or purchase a “sexually explicit” work. Booksellers have challenged the law because it does not include a requirement that a book or magazine be judged as a whole in determining whether it is illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court requires such a test to protect works that contain only a few sexually explicit images or passages. Booksellers also object to the lack of an exemption for material that has serious literary artistic, political or scientific value for minors—another Supreme Court requirement. To read more about the case, click here.
 

The ABFFE Book of the Month for August is We Will Be Heard: Voices in the Struggle for Constitutional Rights Past and Present by Bud and Ruth Schultz (Merrell), 978-1-8589-4441-8. Through interviews and photographs, scholars Bud and Ruth Schultz present the stories of over 90 individuals who spoke out against the government, and often against the status quo in their communities.  The portraits show the history of the fight for free speech and the right to dissent through personal perspectives of both famous and lesser-known individuals, including former Japanese internment camp detainee Fred Korematsu and Janet Nocek, who resisted the FBI’s attempt to subpoena library records. Click here to read an interview with Bud Schultz. To read about recent ABFFE Book of the Month selections, click here.

Show Your Support for Freadom!

ABFFE's popular, newly-redesigned “freadom” t-shirts, buttons, bookmarks, and bumper stickers are available during Banned Books Week and all year round.  To order online, visit the ABFFE store.

For further information, contact Rebecca Zeidel, (212) 587-4025, ext. 13; rebecca@abffe.com.