By Summer Taylor
Staff Writer

Clackamas Community College isn’t just known for its extensive variety of student academics. It also represents something that many public schools and colleges don’t have: access to banned books.

The banned book week poster. Photos by Tomas Alonso

The college recently hosted ‘Banned Books Week’, which lasted from Oct. 5 through the 11. The CCC library had a display to honor recently challenged books from around the United States.

For decades, books such as “A Court of Thorns and Roses” and “Kite Runner” have been challenged by parents or community members who disagree with certain content, words or ideas. The American Library Association 2024 report highlights the top 10 most frequently banned books in the United States, showcasing how widespread these disputes are.

However, banning a book isn’t as simple as removing it from a shelf. A “challenge” must be filed, explaining why a book should be removed. This is the process that leads many books to being taken out of library systems around the country.

According to Natalie Fox, 36, who works at the campus’s Dye Learning Center as a reference and instruction librarian, there is a distinction between a book being challenged, and a book being banned.

Natalie Fox in the CCC library.

“If they want the book to be banned, first, they need to submit the paperwork which varies depending on the library,” Fox explained in the interview. “And that’s really just what banning means in this context. It is just not available at that particular library.”

When asked why CCC participates in Banned Books Week, answers remained consistent. “It’s really important to CCC library and the librarians who work here to provide access to that information,” Fox said, “And we believe that it is up to each individual to decide what’s right for them to read. And it’s not up to the library or government to block access to that information.”

At the college library, no books have been challenged or banned in recent years. Instead, the campus uses Banned Books Week to highlight the importance of intellectual freedom, using resources provided by the American Library Association every year around the beginning of October.

A student at CCC, Jordan Peters, 19, believes that literary information should be accessible to everyone.

“I think students should be able to explore their own ideas with different opinions,” Peters said. “Students can voice opinions on real events with access to more information and topics.”

Beth Caldwell, another instruction librarian at the college, expanded on the necessity of accessible literary works.

“It is usually fiction versus nonfiction that is banned, and a lot of the books that are banned have LGBTQ content or other, like non dominant voices that various organizations want to silence or censor,” Caldwell said.

The banned book rack in the CCC Library.

When asked what goes unnoticed without access to certain books, Caldwell said, “I think that students are missing out on seeing representation they might not see normally, or seeing themselves represented in literature. And you know, just not getting the full spectrum of information available to them.”

While book bans continue to make their way around the country, the library at CCC continues to stand as a reminder to students that everyone should have the freedom to choose what they read.

“I think what we want to accomplish at the library is just to raise awareness about issues of censorship.” Fox said. So, as every new year approaches, the librarians in the Dye Learning Center make it their mission to keep information easily accessible to everyone on campus, starting with Banned Books Week.