Hazard tape drapes the library’s new collection which includes a eugenic manifesto, an adolescent staple, a memoir on identity, and science that flirts with fiction. The third week of September is Banned Books Week in the Netherlands, and the University Library is celebrating this week and the freedom to read by unveiling its Banned Books collection.
Institutions may ban books they claim corrupt morals, threaten power structures, spread harmful messages, and undermine certain views. The University Library has gathered a repertoire of varied books that are banned by different institutions globally. The books are assigned to a category among politics, religion, education, and science based on the reason for their banning.
In some cases, a book’s prohibition seeks to suppress a narrative, as in the case of Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe. The Banned Books collection bring us to consider why books with progressive dialogues on sexuality, race, and gender are so-often censored. Another case is J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. This book has been banned by bookstores to counter Rowling’s anti-transgender views and by religious institutions to impede the allure of witchcraft.
Mein Kampf
Alas, the University Library acknowledges responsibility to provide the tools for research and education, tools that would be very few if every controversial author was excluded. In other cases, such as Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, access to a book purports harm. The Banned Books collection highlights that access to such texts equips us to prevent their actualization. In a case such as this, we must wonder if a book can be held accountable for what a reader does with it.
The proud smiles and heartfelt presentations at the collection’s opening indicate the hopeful light this collection sheds on the future of knowledge exchange. The Banned Books collection confronts us with omnipotent questions precipitating in institutions and campuses all over the world: should some knowledges be forbidden? Are we entitled to a freedom of knowledge?
Luckily, with this collection housed in the Library Lounge, curious readers can find out on their own. All the books of the collection are available for loan and a registry of who borrows what is not recorded after the books are returned. Follow the hazard tape and bask in the freedom to read what you shouldn’t read.