Coastal Carolina University will observe Banned Book Week, Sunday, Sept. 22 through Saturday, Sept. 28. The national event honors the freedom to read and draws attention to the problems of censorship. Kimbel Library and Bryan Information Commons will host events all week paying tribute to books that were either banned or challenged over the years. These events are open to the public.

* On Monday, Sept. 23, from 4 to 8 p.m., free Banned Books Week bookmarks will be given to anyone who gets their picture taken with a banned book. The event will be held in the Bryan Information Commons lobby, where a selection of famous books that were once banned will be on display.

* On Wednesday, Sept. 25, from 1 to 3 p.m., Kimbel Library and Sigma Tau Delta present a Banned Books Readout. CCU faculty, staff and students are encouraged to bring their favorite banned book and read a passage from it. This event will be held in Bryan Information Commons second floor atrium.

* All week there will be chances to win a Banned Books tote bag full of banned and challenged books.

Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to some books in schools, bookstores and libraries. A challenged book is an attempt to remove it from a library, based on the objections of a person or group. A banned book is actually removed from the library. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982. According to the American Library Association (ALA), there were 464 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2012.

For more information, contact Cara Gibbs at 843-349-2400 or cgibbs@coastal.edu, or Allison Hosier at 843-349-4001 or ahosier@coastal.edu.