Banned Books Week Open Mic

This week the Library celebrated Banned Books Week with a series of different activities.

Throughout the week I am promoting Banned Books in Library Lessons, discussing why books get banned and some of the more famous ones.

We also had a “Banned Books Mugshot Station” where students could have their photo taken with a banned book. Images were then uploaded into Photoshop where I was able to ensure only the book and the Banned Books logo was highlighted in colour.

 

The Library hosted a Banned Books Open Mic which was a roaring success. Students read passages from banned books. These were typically books that I had display as many of our students were shocked to learn that The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Captain Underpants were banned books!

 

 

This was a fantastic way to highlight how lucky we are that books don't get banned as often as some countries. The students were very interested and engaged, lots of fun! It was also a way for our Student Library Assistants to showcase their hosting skills as I gave most of the control over to them.

They introduced new speakers, talked about banned books and what they meant to them and kept the crowd under control. It was really heartening to see how far they've come!