In library-world, American Library Association’s (ALA) Banned Books Week is a big deal. New data comes out about the rise in banned and challenged books in schools, public, and (occasionally) academic libraries while reports of new state laws penalizing teachers and librarians for providing books to children spread far and wide.

To offer the Fresno State community opportunities to consider and engage with this issue, the Library presents “Banned and Challenged Books,” an exhibition exploring the issue of censorship and the freedom to read throughout the United States. Filled with thought-provoking imagery, facts and data from the ALA on challenged literature, the exhibition serves as a reminder of the threat and impact of censorship on the intellectual life of Americans.

The exhibition opens during the ALA’s Banned Books Week and runs from Sep. 23 to Oct. 18 in the Pete P. Peters Balcony Gallery on the 3rd Floor during the Library’s regular operating hours.

Additional Library-sponsored programming includes a CineCulture panel discussion and screening of "ABCs of Book Banning" in the Peters Education Center Auditorium (by the Save Mart Center) at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20 and a screening of Butterfly in the Sky: The Reading Rainbow Story from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2 in the Leon S. Peters Ellipse Gallery on the Library’s 2nd Floor.

For information or to arrange class visits, please contact librarian Arantes Armendariz in Research Services at 559.278.2174.