During the month of September, OFPL recounts the events of September 11th, 2001, through an educational exhibit displaying personal stories of those who witnessed and survived the attacks.
Told across 14 posters, this exhibition includes archival photographs and images of artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s permanent collection. This 9/11 Memorial & Museum curated exhibition reflects the core pillars of commemoration, education, and inspiration as we prepare to observe the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy Demands Wisdom.
Supplemental video content will be played at the Main Library through the week leading up to September 11th.
Today’s libraries have programs and resources that go far beyond books. From virtual story times, family game nights, and art classes, to opportunities to borrow audiobooks and stream movies, there’s something for everyone at the library.
September is Library Card Sign-up Month, the perfect time to explore all that the library has to offer. Visit your library at ofpl.online to register for a free library card and be entered in a prize drawing.
American Library Association provided graphic. 2019.
Film and video productions can vividly depict the impact of censorship on individuals and society. A First Amendment film festival for Banned Books Week will be hosted in the Meeting Room of the Main Library.
Join us for film screenings based on book titles that have been censored.
Email bmartin@gallupnm.gov or call 505-863-1291 for more information.
Film Screenings:
Footloose (2011)
Monday, September 23rd at 5:30 p.m.
City teenager Ren MacCormack moves to a small town where rock music and dancing have been banned, and his rebellious spirit shakes up the populace.
A drama set in New Mexico during WWII centered on the relationship between a young man and an elderly medicine woman who helps him contend with the battle between good and evil that rages in his village.
In New York City’s Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.
Each year, the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) records hundreds of attempts by individuals and groups to have books removed from libraries shelves and from classrooms. The OIF tracked 347 challenges to library, school and university materials and services. Overall, 483 books were challenged or banned in 2018.
A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials.
Banned Books Week (September 22-28, 2019) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. It brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
Traditionally the ALA releases a Top Ten List within the State of America’s Libraries Report each April. This year 11 books were selected, since two titles were tied for the final position on the list, and both books were burned by a religious activist to protest a Pride event.
Email bmartin@gallupnm.gov or call 505-863-1291 for more information.
