Saturday marked the end of the 28th annual Banned Books Week. A display stood in the main lobby at Olin Library all last week allowing students to voice their opinions about the event and the books that were acknowledged.

Although no legislation can be used to ban books, schools and libraries have the right to exclude particular books from circulation. Sponsored by the American Librarians Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, the McCormick Freedom Museum and the Newberry Library, Banned Books Week celebrates the right to read and the First Amendment by recognizing controversial literature in libraries across the nation.

“The right to free speech is fundamental to democracy. Different viewpoints develop values that allow us to become individuals,” said Anne R. Kenney, the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian. “Good scholarship can be appreciated from different viewpoints.”

Five years ago, the University began taking measures to increase awareness of Banned Books Week, with Libraries across campus spearheading the initiative. “I’m proud to say that librarians across the country are on the forefront of protecting these literary works,” Kenney said, noting that reactions to the effort have been noticeable. “The biggest response from students has been [the choice of ] books [included] on the list,” Kenney said. Titles include Winnie-the-Pooh, Charlotte’s Web and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Individuals and groups challenge the content of material in libraries across the country a variety of purposes. According to the ALA, the primary motives behind attempted bannings have been family values, political views, religion and minority rights. Books have been contested for themes ranging from the presence of profanity and violence to pedophilia and the promotion of euthanasia. The books in question are subject to a formal challenging process, under which the material can be restricted from individual libraries.

One of the fundamental objectives of Banned Books Week has been to increase accessibility to the banned books. “People presume that you can get access to any book regardless of bans, but many cannot,” said Angela Maycock, associate director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom.

Maycock, speaking on behalf of the ALA, believes that in diverse communities, libraries need to provide diverse literature. The Office for Intellectual Freedom conducts Banned Books Week as an awareness campaign which aims to promote, “freedom to choose, read and think for ourselves,” Maycock said.

Contributing to the effort, libraries throughout campus offered material to promote the event. The mission of the event at the University has been to remind students that free speech is not always guaranteed and needs protection, according to Kenney.

However, the current effort at Cornell may be insufficient. “I never even heard it was going on,” said Michael Cannizzro ’11. According to Cannizzaro, only having a display in Olin may be hindering the success of the event. In addition to promoting awareness on campus, the library administration has considered using e-mail notification and Facebook to inform students of the event.

Although the event is meant to celebrate free speech, proponents of Banned Books Week respect the right to question the appropriateness of books. “Parents have the right to choose what their children should or shouldn’t read,” Maycock said. This sentiment is expressed formally in the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights. However, Maycock went on to say that the opinions of some should not put restrictions on an entire community, and the University shares this opinion.

“The influence should be parent-child, not parent-institution in this case,” Kenney said.

Despite criticism, many of the books on the list have been continually taught through all levels of academia. Over the summer, the University chose John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath for the New Student Summer Reading Project, a book that has been widely contested since it was first banned in 1939. According to Kenney, good scholarship can be appreciated from all different perspectives.

Many books on the list are notable for their literary quality and craftsmanship, not necessarily for the controversy surrounding them. The prestigious Radcliffe Publishing Course — a venerable graduate program at Columbia University that teaches all aspects of magazine and book publishing — released a list of the top 100 novels of the 20th century in 1998. 42 of those books also appear on the ALA’s list of widely-challenged books.

In 2008, over 500 books were challenged in schools and public libraries throughout the nation. The majority of them remained in circulation due to efforts on part of teachers, librarians, parents and students.