Student Theses
Date of Award
Spring 2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Library Science/Master of Life Sciences (MLS)
Language
English
First Advisor
Dr. Ping Li
Second Advisor
Mrs. Arlene Laverde
Abstract
Book banning or challenging is a complex issue, in which a person takes issue with a book in the library‟s collection, complains to the librarian, and sometimes demands that the book be removed from the collection entirely. Books for young adult audiences are especially at risk, and the reasons why these books are challenged or banned are numerous. By reading fifteen different young adult books from between the years of 1990 and 2016, the researchers performed a content analysis to look at the reasons why books may be challenged or banned. They also looked for trends or patterns in books from the 1990s and 2000s to compare and contrast them. Researchers found certain trends in book challenges or bans, but no clear differences between the 1990s and 2000s. By contrast, the reasons for book challenging or banning seems to have remained consistent over the years. This means that librarians must be mindful of viewpoints that have been a part of American society since the 1990s, and how these viewpoints affect information access.
Recommended Citation
Birro, Amanda; Pappas, Jennifer; and Cimino, Briana, "YA Banned Books Analysis" (2018). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/qc_etds/13
Included in
Cataloging and Metadata Commons, Collection Development and Management Commons, Information Literacy Commons, Scholarly Communication Commons, Scholarly Publishing Commons
Comments
Amanda Birro, Jennifer Pappas and Briana Cimino, students of the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College of the City University of New York. This research paper was submitted to Dr. Ping Li as partial requirement for completion of the degree of Master of Library Science.