Libraries remove books including David McKee’s Three Monsters and Fungus The Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs after a single complaint as experts warn of creeping censorship
- Have you seen a book that is banned in your library? Email katherine.lawton@mailonline.co.uk
Libraries have removed books including Fungus the Bogeyman and David McKee’s Three Monsters after a single complaint.
Experts have warned of creeping censorship after more than a dozen books were removed following complaints about their content or because libraries found them offensive.
Banned stories include Raymond Briggs’ picture book Fungus the Bogeyman, Jules Verne’s Five Weeks in a Balloon and Victor Appleton’s Tom Swift series.
Louise Cooke, emeritus professor of information and knowledge management at Loughborough University, said the increasing tendency to remove anything that might offend someone is “hugely” dangerous.
At least 16 books removed from shelves in 11 municipalities after one customer objection, analysis of freedom of information requests sent by The times showed.
Have you seen a book that is banned in your library? Email katherine.lawton@mailonline.co.uk
The banned stories include the picture book Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs
A public library in Essex removed McKee’s Three Monsters after a patron complained it contained ‘divisive language’
One parent complained to Hertfordshire County Council about the word ‘golliwog’ in Fungus the Bogeyman.
An internal email said: ‘I must admit I was quite shocked that the word was still printed in a 2012 edition of the book – as many of those ‘classic’ books from the 1970s had such offensive words in them later editions have been deleted. , now that we know better.’
Meanwhile, Five Weeks in a Balloon was removed by Coventry Library Services after a customer complained about the ‘inappropriate and racist’ language.
An internal email read: ‘[The customer] says it refers to “beastly n*****s and other similar terms.”
A public library in Essex removed McKee’s Three Monsters after a patron complained it contained ‘divisive language’.
The specific part was: ”Clean up,” the second monster shouted. “We don’t want funny foreigners here.”
Five Weeks in a Balloon was removed by Coventry Library Services after a customer complained about the ‘inappropriate and racist’ language
Louise Cooke, emeritus professor of information and knowledge management at Loughborough University (pictured), said the growing tendency to remove anything that might offend someone is “hugely” dangerous.
Author McKee was known for writing about serious issues and the moral of his famous Elmer books was to embrace “being different.”
The majority of libraries follow the national guidelines of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (Cilip), which states that books should not be censored unless the content is found to be unlawful.
Jo Cornish, interim chief executive of Cilip, said: ‘Our general view as a profession is that it is better for the reader to have access to material that is not prohibited by law, rather than for it to be prohibited.
‘As we make clear in our guidelines, we are committed to opposing censorship unless there is a specific risk that allowing access to a particular book would break the law or incite hatred or violence.’
Of the 16 books banned from public libraries, eight of the removals were due to complaints about “divisive” or “racist” language.
A spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: ‘Freedom of expression is one of the core values that define our society and we expect library collections to represent a diversity of perspectives and subjects.’
