Our groundbreaking ceremony was a great success today. We were so lucky to have many important members from our community present, including the mayor, council members, and even students from local schools! We are very excited that our new building will be ready in just 14 months! Thanks again to everyone who showed their support today, here are some pictures from the event:
This month’s article was written by Librarian Mary-Catherine Crose, enjoy!
The philosopher Voltaire once wrote, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” At Tulare Public Library we stand by the idea of intellectual freedom for everyone. One way we do this is by promoting Banned Books Week. Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox, unpopular, or even offensive. The importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox/unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them is what we celebrate. We also invite all of you to join us in the celebration.
Books have the ability to expand our minds and take us to different places; the beauty in this is the freedom. If we withdrew the books in our libraries that an individual could find offensive, our shelves would be empty. We can not stop ourselves from being offended or seeing ideas as unpopular; we can stop ourselves from denying others the freedom to read those ideas for themselves.
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982 it reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. Curious to see what treasures have made it on the list? Come down to the library and view a collection of great banned books!
