Public discussions over free speech and censorship abound this week as part of “Banned Book Week.” Much of that discussion will take place in Ames where Olivia Madison is the director of the Iowa State University Library.Madison says the event began in 1981, and remains important because of continued attempts to pull books from library shelves. Madison says in the past decade, there were 57-hundred attempts to have books banned. She says the attention of would-be censors on books had been shifting to the Internet, until the release of the mega-hit “Harry Potter” books.The Harry Potter books already rank 48th on the list of the 100 most challenged books of the past decade. Madison says libraries on college campuses don’t face as many challenges as public or high school libraries.Events in Ames include a roundtable discussion of the Harry Potter books at 7:30 tonight at the ISU Memorial Union.
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