Banned Books Trading Cards at Chapel Hill Public Library

It’s Banned Books Week, in case you hadn’t noticed, and so that means it’s time to talk to Chapel Hill Public Library about their Banned Books Trading Cards project! This article comes to us from Susan Maguire, Reader Services Coordinator for CHPL. Thanks to Daniel Siler and Susan Brown of CHPL for their help in getting this together, too! ~Laura

by Susan Maguire

Librarians know that the only thing cooler than books are BANNED books.  When the media picks up a story about a book being too sexy/violent/disrespectful of authority, we put on our Warrior Helmets and Fight for Intellectual Freedom.

Also, we celebrate.

Here in Chapel Hill, we celebrate by engaging our fabulous community of artists in creating Banned Books Week Trading Cards.  The brainchild of our director, Susan Brown, this is the third – and biggest – year for the project. She originally conceived of and coordinated the project at the Lawrence Public Library in Lawrence, KS, where it was awarded a John Cotton Dana Award by the ALA.  LPL continues to create cards each year, and she brought the project along with her to CHPL.

WHAT GOES ON…

Throw a stone in Chapel Hill and you’ll hit an artist.  The Trading Card Projects engages that local arts community for a trading card-specific goal – to look cool and to use that coolness to draw attention to the dangers of censorship.  To get the cards ready for BBW, we send out a call to artists in the beginning of the summer, giving folks about two months to create something great and in some way inspired by a book that has been banned or challenged.  We partner with the Chapel Hill Public and Cultural Arts Office to spread the word, and all submissions are collected at the library.  This year we included an artist information form (really short – just asking for contact info and a 50-word artist statement), which made tracking down the winners a whole lot easier.

The next step involves our friends over at the Arts Office facilitating the judging process.  A jury of five is gathered, consisting of the Library Director, the Mayor, a member of the Public Arts Commission, and one or two more artsy and/or literary folks (this year that meant someone from the Ackland Art Museum and the owner of our local indy bookstore, Fly Leaf Books.  The jury works to cull the entries down to seven winners that will be turned into the trading cards.  This year, that process was harder than ever, as we had a record-breaking 101 entries. We also pick an under-18 youth winner, who gets a handful of cards and bragging rights.  All of the winners, including the young’un, get a $100 prize as well.

SERIOUS ISSUES.  FUN TIMES. PLUS CUPCAKES.

The real fun comes during Banned Books Week, when the cards are distributed.  The Friday before, we hold an after hours Sneak Peek Party and Artists’ Reception at the library.  All of the entries are hung in the lobby, and the eight winners (seven cards plus the youth winner) are silent-auctioned off to benefit the Friends of the Library. (It’s always fun to see Susan Brown get into a bidding war for her favorite…)  Plus wine and cupcakes.  Then, when the party is over, the big lobby display stays up, but the images of the seven winners are covered up.

Sunday’s card, “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison. Art by Libby Fosso.

Monday’s card, “Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck. Art by Colleen Barclay.

Maybe by now you have done the math – seven cards, seven days in Banned Books Week.  Beginning on Sunday, one new card is revealed each day and given out at the library.  This year, we are partnering with the UNC Libraries and Flyleaf Books as additional distribution points.  So patrons can stop off at any of those locations to get the day’s card, and by the end of the week – voila! – they have a complete set.  And they were forced to come to a library or independent bookstore, to boot. Bwa ha ha!

Tuesday’s card, “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov. Art by Kristin Pearson.

Wednesday’s book, “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. Art by Robert R. Votta.

BUT WAIT!  THERE’S MORE!

We’ve done this for two years now, and have just about gotten it down to a science.  But we also get bored easily here at CHPL.  So this year, we decided to add on to the project.  Thanks to the fine folks over at the Freedom to Read Foundation, we were awarded a Judith F. Krug Memorial Grant, which allowed us to do three extra things this year:

• Partner with our good friends over on UNC Campus, the North Carolina Civic Education Consortium, to create a “Banned Books in the Classroom” curriculum for middle and high school educators to use
• Host a Teacher’s Institute to launch the curriculum and engage teachers on this important issue.  42 teachers and librarians from all around the state gave up one of their Saturdays to come to CHPL and enlist in the Army of Intellectual Freedom Fighters
• Print an additional 5,000 sets of cards and make classroom sets freely available to any teacher in the state who would like a set.  This was in response to numerous teachers contacting us in the past and wanting to order cards to use in their banned books units.

This grant made this year’s project even more special and the statewide response from teachers has been very positive.  Thanks again, FTRF!

YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING…

I’m not lucky enough to live in Chapel Hill, how can I get a set of these rad cards?!

We don’t let it end once Banned Books Week is over – no!  The Battle for Intellectual Freedom rages on!  Also, the cards are really cool and we don’t want to hide that cool light under a bushel.  To that end, we make the cards available online through our Friends group and in person in our Friends Book Store in the library.

If you are ready to be dazzled, you can check out all of this year’s entries, here.  If you want a set of your very own, including last year’s set, you can purchase them here.  They make great bookish stocking stuffers, BTW.

And if you are interested in doing this project at your library, please feel free to get in touch, we’d be happy to drop the knowledge we’ve gained.

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