Archives for April 2022

Theme of Earth Week 2022 is Food Sustainability and Climate Change

Castleton is celebrating this Earth Week with the theme of Food Sustainability and Climate Change. See all the CU Earth Week events here.

The Library is promoting lots of relevant reading and other learning materials. See our Earth Week guide focusing on food waste. See the list of related books on display and come check some out! Of course we have many, many more books on topics like climate change, sustainable agriculture, humans’ relationships with animals and plants, toxicology, the natural world. Read all about it and appreciate our Mother Earth even more.

The Library’s Earth Week book display has special artwork this year from international student Aurooba Shafquat from Pakistan, pictured below. This is what Aurooba has to say about this project:

We exist because of the earth we have. If we damage it, we damage ourselves, we darken our future, we give our children a life they would not want because for all their lives they would have to struggle for things as minimal as clean air to breathe or clean water to drink. This month the library has a book display and poster to spread awareness to the students of Castleton about the environment and how we can save it. The poster has different messages for every one, do spare a few minutes to come and read what the poster says to you.

Most Banned Books of the Year

The American Library Association has announced its list of the most “banned” books of 2021.

“The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 729 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2021. Of the 1597 books that were targeted, here are the most challenged, along with the reasons cited for censoring the books:

  1. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
    Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, and because it was considered to have sexually explicit images
  2. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
  3. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
  4. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
    Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for depictions of abuse and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
  5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, violence, and because it was thought to promote an anti-police message and indoctrination of a social agenda
  6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references and use of a derogatory term
  7. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
    Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and degrading to women
  8. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Banned and challenged because it depicts child sexual abuse and was considered sexually explicit
  9. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
    Reasons: Banned, challenged, relocated, and restricted for providing sexual education and LGBTQIA+ content.
  10. Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.”

What can you do to stand up against censorship and for intellectual freedom? Many things. For example:

As a protest against the recent increase in book censoring activity nationwide, the New York City Public Libraries are offering free digital library cards to people across the U.S. from now through May, to enable access to the books others would censor, and many more–the opposite of banning them. Libraries celebrate and protect your freedom to read freely, we hope you will join us.

Autism Acceptance Month

#Celebrate Diversity

Graphic by library volunteer, Adam Shard

April is Autism Acceptance Month. The Library is putting together a book display so our community can learn more about autism and neurodiversity and the experiences of neurodiverse people.

See the list of books we are collecting for the display.

What does it mean to be neurodiverse?

“Neurodiversity is both a philosophy and an emerging civil rights movement. Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence John Elder Robison has written this defining neurodiversity. 

Acknowledging and appreciating the wide range of human neurologies, including Autism and ADHD, for example, while also acknowledging and appreciating the challenges of brain difference, is key to neurodiversity.

‘Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general. Who can say what form of [brain] wiring will prove best at any given moment?” Harvey Blume, “Neurodiversity:  On the Neurological Underpinnings of Geekdom’ The Atlantic “

From the Neurdiversity Initiative website, William and Mary College

Read an explanation of the term neurodiversity from The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies.

Some more resources