The Pecos Campus Library is located at CGC Pecos Campus (LIB) at 2626 E. Pecos Road, Chandler AZ, 85225
Library Resources: Research assistance, Databases, Course Reserve, General Collection, Study Spaces, Computers and Printers.
Fall 2024 Hours
August 19 - December 12, 2024
For the Fall Semesters, we will be closed:
Contact:
The Williams Campus Library is located in Bridget Hall on the CGC Williams Campus at 7360 E Tahoe Avenue, Mesa AZ, 85212.
Library Resources: Research assistance, Databases, Course Reserve, General Collection, Study Spaces, Computers and Printers.
Fall 2024 Hours
August 19 - December 12, 2024
For the Fall Semesters, we will be closed:
Contact:
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This year, CGCC is thrilled to welcome back the Banned Books Readout in the Pecos Library! September 23, 10am on the first floor of the Library.
Watch our Banned Books Panel, offering various perspectives on book challenges from writers, readers, and legal expert. Click here to launch WebEx meeting on September 26, 4pm
Finally, click through the pages linked on the left for more information on the trend of restricting libraries and access to books through state laws, as well as other news and details about this year in Banned Books. |
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From the American Library Association (ALA):
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools. By focusing on efforts to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. Typically (but not always) held during the last week of September, the annual event highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community — librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas.
In a time of intense political polarization, library staff in every state are facing an unprecedented number of attempts to ban books. ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom documented 1,247 demands to censor library books and resources in 2023. The number of titles targeted for censorship surged 65% in 2023 compared to 2022, reaching the highest levels ever documented by OIF in more than 20 years of tracking: 4,240 unique book titles were targeted for removal from schools and libraries. This tops the previous high from 2022, when 2,571 unique titles were targeted for censorship. Titles representing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals made up 47% of those targeted in censorship attempts.
The theme for Banned Books Week 2024 (September 22-28) is "Freed Between the Lines." We can find freedom in the pages of a book — but book bans and censorship threaten that freedom, along with many other rights and institutions. During Banned Books Week 2024 and beyond, let’s share our love of right to read and the freedom found in books. Let’s be Freed Between the Lines!
What are banned books? "Whether the controversial content they contain has been found "offensive" on political, religious, sexual, or other grounds, they are removed from libraries, bookstores, and classrooms in an effort to keep the public from being harmed by ideas, information, or language that does not conform to societal norms." Possessing banned books during certain periods of history and even today in places of extremist political or religious regimes, may be regarded as "an act of treason or heresy, punishable by death, torture, prison, and other forms of retribution."
In the past, banned books were burned. Massive organized book burnings can be traced back to China and the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE). The "most infamous book burning in the 20th century" occurred as Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party came to power in Germany when university students burned more than 25,000 books in Berlin’s Opera Square that did not align with Nazi ideals on May 10, 1933.
Lombardi, Esther. (2023, April 5). Banned Books: History and Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-banned-book-738743
