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Banned and Challenged Books

A guide to select resources at the Jim Dan Hill Library relating to book bans and challenges

Search Tips to get you started

  • Book Bans and Challenges are not new. And, books are not the only form of communication or expression that has been challenged or banned.
  • When conducting searches in the library catalog, regardless of topic, sometimes, two completely unrelated items may share the same or similar title! 
  • All of this can mean that search yields may be quite large, or may not quite align with what you are hoping to find.

Here are a few tips for conducting searches: 

  1. If you are looking for a specific item, pay attention to the author, title, and type of media (book, article, video, etc.) 

  2. If you want to look for items that relate to an item you already have by topic or subject-- look at that record in the library catalog and see what "subject" terms are listed. Those terms may be ones you want to search for.

  3. Broad terms to search for include but are not limited to: 

  • Intellectual freedom

  • Prohibited books

  • Censorship

  • Combinations of individual search terms with the phrase AND may help narrow your findings—e.g.: Censorship AND Libraries, or "Prohibited Books" AND History

Search the Catalog for a Specific Title

Maybe you see a title in the Curated Collections list but you want to try to access another version (ebook, audiobook, etc); or maybe you see a book elsewhere (such as on a "top 10 list") that you want to look up - you can search the catalog by author or by title. Logging in is recommended!

 

You can search for "everything" that the catalog can find (across the Universities of Wisconsin)

Search the catalog for a specific title, but beware other items may have similar names

 

Or you can limit, such as by searching specifically books and media held by UW-Superior

Limit your searching to books and media materials at UWSuperior

Search the Catalog by Topic or Subject

Within the catalog, as part of a search for subject terms, you can also further narrow your search results by using the items on the left-hand side of the screen.

For instance, if a search for "Prohibited books -- United States" yields 43 records. . . 

And if you are really looking for governmental records, you might look under "Genre" for "Legislative Hearings", and select that

 

 

With that filter in place, you will then see two results

 

When working with articles, you may also see "related reading" on the side [and it may or may not be of help to your search]
 

What if your search yields an item that is not at the Jim Dan Hill Library?

If you are searching through the catalog for "Everything," it will seek all resources it can find throughout the Libraries of Wisconsin. If you locate an item not currently available at UW-Superior -- perhaps it is already checked out, or perhaps it is not part of our collection -- you can still request the item. 

 

Select "Request this item"Request this item

If it is held by the Universities of Wisconsin you can then select "UW Request" Under "Get It," and follow the prompts in the middle of the window"Get it" - UW Request

If you wish to request a title from outside of the Universities of Wisconsin (perhaps you want a format other than what is held; perhaps all titles are checked out; or perhaps you find a resource from another location. Then, you can submit an "Interlibrary Loan" request. For help, see the InterLibrary Loan Help Guide