Banned Books in 2011

In April of 2012 the American Library Association released a list of the book most often challenged/banned in 2011.

1) ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

2) The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

3) The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence

4) My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

5) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

6) Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint

7) Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit

8) What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit

9) Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit

10) To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Offensive language; racism

To start with, nudity in a book with no pictures is just silly. Anyway, as you can see most of these books are generally read by grade school kids so we can guess the challenges came from parents. Parents don’t want our kids to grow up and that fact by itself explains pretty much all the reasons given for challenging a book. The one that upset me is To Kill a Mockingbird. I will let a disclaimer put in before all Looney Tunes DVD releases explain my opinion in that:

“The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in the U.S society. These depictions were wrong then and they are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros. view of today’s society, these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming that these prejudices never existed.”

~Aaron Greene~

How Will You Celebrate Banned Books Week? September 24 – October 1

Books have been banned for centuries by governments, churches, schools and communities for political, religious and moral reasons.  The Dictionary of Modern Serbo-Croatian Language was banned because “some definitions can cause disturbance among citizens”.  Other books have been banned because they feature anthropomorphic animals.  The last book banned in the United States was John Cleland’s 1749 novel, Fanny Hill (or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure).  This occurred in 1963.

However, plenty of books continue to be challenged by schools and organizations and removed from access by restricted groups of the public.  Check out the American Library Association’s top 100 list and the reasons these books were banned or challenged here.  Currently there are hundreds of challenges to books in schools and libraries every year.  This map shows documented cases of censorship from 2007 – 2011.

Celebrate your freedom to read by engaging in a banned book activity:

• Follow Banned Books Week on Facebook where you will find anecdotes and examples of challenges and censorship across the country.

• Participate in a Virtual Read-Out of a banned book and post your video to share with others around the world.

• Print out a list of the top 100 banned books and start reading, today!

• And check out our Banned Books display on the reference librarian hallway of the Library.  (Thank you to Matt Froelich for a great job!)

~ Julie Morris ~

Scholarship in the Summertime

It may be the lazy days of summertime but the faculty members of Charlotte Law are busy writing articles for law reviews and chapters for textbooks and practice guides for North Carolina law.  We even have a professional advice columnist who is published each month in AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) Spectrum.

New faculty publications appear regularly in the Faculty Publications Display on the third floor of the law school near the elevators.  Next time you step out on the third floor, be sure to take a look at the books and articles on display.

Curious about what your professor has published?  Here is a comprehensive list of publications by our faculty.

Any faculty out there looking for research help with your scholarly writing?  Check out the updated Faculty Liaison List and contact your Reference Librarian for assistance.  You can also check out our Research and Scholarship: A Faculty Guide LibGuide for assistance in choosing scholarship topics, tips on how to become involved in conferences and symposiums, how to submit your work for publication and how to protect and understand your rights as an author.  In addition, this guide is another place where you can find examples of your colleagues’ scholarship.  

Please contact us if you would like to add your publication to the display case or to the LibGuide.  We welcome your additions!

~Mary Susan Lucas~

From Law Office to Oval Office

Every four years, Americans go to the polls to elect the individual who will serve as our chief executive officer, commander in chief of the armed forces, head of state, and who, since the Truman administration, is known by the acronym, POTUS – President of the United States.  These individuals have brought numerous skills and diverse experiences to our highest office.  These experiences have included: architect, soldier, diplomat, Secretary of State, governor, postmaster, ordained Minister, school teacher, sheriff, journalist, U.S. Solicitor General, judge and vice president of the United States.

Significantly, of our 44 presidents (if one counts Grover Cleveland twice), there have been 25 individuals who were lawyers before becoming presidents, including William Howard Taft who became Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court after he served as President.  In addition to Taft, who argued before justices he had appointed, seven other lawyer-presidents have appeared before the United States Supreme Court.  The most recent lawyer-president to do so was Richard Nixon when he argued the case of Time v. Hill in 1966.

Some individuals actively practiced law.  John Adams combined a lengthy career as an attorney with major contributions to the founding of a new nation.  His son, John Quincy Adams, successfully argued that the kidnapped and sold-as-slaves Africans should be treated as free men and released in Amistad [Part of our audio/visual collection available on display].   Rutherford Hayes and Benjamin Harrison handled several high profile cases, including sensational murder trials.   Abraham Lincoln was involved in more than 5000 cases, spanning his 25 year career.   He was also a postmaster and a captain in the Black Hawk war.  Lincoln was a skilled draftsman.  He utilized this skill in crafting a legally binding executive order, the Emancipation Proclamation.

Some presidents studied the law to further political aspirations.  Some, such as Lincoln and James Garfield, set their own course of study and read the law before being admitted to the bar.  Garfield is better known as a teacher, college professor and president, soldier, congressman and a Minister of the Disciples of Christ.  Others took the more traditional approach and attended law schools.  President Gerald Ford, in fact, attended three including a summer spent at the University of North Carolina School of Law.  Norman Gross has profiled the men who were both lawyers and president of the United States in his treatise,  America’s Lawyer-Presidents: From Law Office to Oval Office [Available at on display - Call No. KF353 .A46 2004 ]. 

Test your knowledge of America’s Lawyer-Presidents by taking the quiz sponsored by the American Bar Association.

 - Susan Catterall -

Happy Banned Books Week!

In 1982, the American Library Association (ALA) created Banned Books Week in response to a rise in challenges to books in libraries, schools and bookstores.  Banned Books Week is sponsored by the ALA, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and the National Association of College Stores, and is endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.  Held annually during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the harms of censorship while “celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.” ALA Banned Books Week Site

In celebration of this year’s Banned Books Week, the CSL library is spotlighting historically banned or challenged books in a display case in the library.  The display includes Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird, Nabokov’s Lolita, Walker’s The Color Purple, Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, and many more.  For more information on the reasons behind the banning of certain titles, see the Banned or Challenged Classics page, here. We encourage students to drop by the display case during a study break or between classes.

According to the American Library Association, the 10 most challenged books of 2009 were:

1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle

2. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson

3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

5. Twilight (series), by Stephanie Meyer

6. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

7. My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult

8. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler

9. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

10. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier

The American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) is featuring a series of blog posts on the creative ways libraries are celebrating Banned Books Week.  Readers and librarians are also celebrating Banned Books Week on ALA island in Second Life, and on Twitter with the hashtag #BannedBooksWeek. The OIF has also created a YouTube video to depict the top 10 most frequently banned or challenged books in 2009.

Thank you for celebrating Banned Books Week!  Read something you love!

- Lyn Batty -

From the Law Office to the Oval Office

Can you name all 44 U.S. Presidents?

How about naming all the Presidents  who were lawyers?

For the month of November, the library is featuring selected Presidents who were lawyers before or after serving as our nation’s President. Come check out our library display to see if your favorite President made the list.

Suggested Summer Reading: The Incoming Student

Before all the hustle and bustle starts this August, you might want to catch up on some reading.  Each of these books outline different strategies and techniques that the CSL Library thinks would be beneficial to the new law student preparing for the professional law school environment this fall.

#1 Law School without Fear: Strategies for Success by Helene Shapo and Marshall Shapo, Foundation Press; 2nd edition (2002).

As an excerpt from the back cover states, “this is an indispensable book for law students because two law professors wrote it for a particular law student: their son.”  Helene Shapo and Marshall Shapo, professors at Northwestern University, wrote this book to attempt to “explain in simple terms the most basic things that a law student really needs to know about law school.”

#2 Succeeding in Law School by Herbert N. Ramy, Carolina Academic Press (2006).

Herbert N. Ramy, Professor of Academic Support at Suffolk University Law School, elaborates on the upcoming “rigorous learning environment” that students will face during their first semester in law school.  The book combines hypothetical situations, case law, examples of legal concepts and practical exercises where students can measure their progress.

#3 Bridging the Gap between College and Law School: Strategies for Success by Ruta K. Stropus and Charlotte D. Taylor, Carolina Academic Press (2001).

Making the transition from a college educational setting to a law school professional environment can be difficult for some students.  Stropus and Taylor eloquently explain the “why,” “how,” and “what” of the law.  The “why” of law exemplifies the practice-ready context necessary to understand why law school is taught the way that it is over the years.  The “how” of the law sets forth a step-by-step pragmatic approach that will help you to adapt to the law school community.  Finally, the “what” of law portion of the book provides you with practical problem-solving exercises in a variety of subjects.

“I’ve already read these books!?!” Don’t worry, Anthea des Etages, the Academic Success Counselor, maintains regular office hours, a liberal open-door policy and availability for evening appointments.  Her office is located in Room 355.  Contact her directly for additional summer reading suggestions!

-Liz McCurry-

Lights, Camera, Action!

From The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to My Cousin Vinny, the Charlotte School of Law Library has a selection of 74  law-related feature films ready and waiting to be checked out.

Did you know, we have different loan policies for different materials!

And guess what? 

You can check these movies out for FREE for 7 days!!

Not only does this display include DVDs, but it also displays a select few of the legal resources available for doing legal research in the entertainment industry or counseling clients regarding entertainment law.  Go to our catalog to see additional print and electronic resources available.  Make sure to come by the library to see our displays this month!

Don’t see your favorite movie in our collection?

Don’t fret, make a purchase suggestion or leave a comment!

World Trade Week (May 18-22)

“When the world’s consumers fly in a U.S.-manufactured airplane, eat a steak from America’s heartland, watch a Hollywood movie, or visit the Grand Canyon, they are helping to create and maintain good jobs for Americans.  World Trade Week is an opportunity to reaffirm the benefits of trade and to emphasize America’s commitment to a global marketplace that creates good jobs and lifts up American families. The United States and our trading partners stand to gain when trade is open, transparent, rules-based, and fair, showing respect for labor and environmental standards.” (Presidential Proclamation for World Trade Week 2009)

Every year, New York region’s trade and transportation community comes together to celebrate World Trade Week (May 18-22).  Today’s global economy poses new and unprecedented challenges to business growth and economic expansion, and so during World Trade Week, educational seminars and other informational resources are provided to industry leaders.

Check out CharlotteLaw’s collection on world trade including these titles:

Economic Development Through World Trade: A Developing World Perspective, Edited by Yong-Shik Lee.

The Evolving Global Trade Architecture [Electronic Resource] by Dilip K. Das.

The World Trade Organization: The Multilateral Trade Framework for the 21st Century and U.S. Implementing Legislation, Edited by Terence P. Stewart.

Celebrate Military Spouses Day with the CSL Library!

Today, the Friday before Mother’s Day, we would like to  honor our military spouses.  Not only does the CharlotteLaw community encompass military personnel but also many wives, husbands, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers and grandchildren.   We celebrate and honor the backbone of the army – their families! Happy Military Spouses Day from the CSL Library.  Thank you for all you do!

Did you know that Military Spouses Day was created by President Ronald Reagan in 1984?  Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger established the Friday before Mother’s Day as Military Spouses Day that same year.

Want some more information?  Well, here are some of the electronic legal resources offered through the CSL Library Catalog:

GAO – VA National Initiatives and Local Programs that Address Education and Support for Families of Returning Veterans Family members can play an important role in helping and supporting OEF/OIF veterans. For example, family members may notice symptoms the veteran has, such as anxiety or difficulty sleeping, and encourage the veteran to seek care. They may also help the veteran identify health care services and ensure that the veteran receives needed services. Family members may also provide emotional support—such as encouragement and reassurance—to the veteran).

Hearing before the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections Committee on Education and Labor – The Family and Medical Leave Act – Extending Coverage to Military Families Left at Home.

Hearing before the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee of Veterans’ Affairs -Mental Health Treatment for Families Supporting Those who Support our Veterans.

Also, you can follow the US Army on Twitter!