What do the Harry Potter books, “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “And Tango Makes Three” have in common? At some point, each one has been challenged or banned in libraries or schools. Banned Books Week, an annual celebration sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA), helps raise awareness of efforts to ban books and highlights our freedom to read. This year’s theme is “Censorship is a dead end. Find your freedom to READ.”
The SFSC Library on the Highlands Campus hosts a weeklong celebration of Banned Books Week, from Monday, Sept. 28 through Friday, Oct. 2, featuring displays, activities, and banned books for checkout. Check out the Library’s Facebook page for daily postings.
Since its inception in 1982, Banned Books Week reminds us that while not every book is intended for every reader, each of us has the right to decide for ourselves what to read, listen to, or view. South Florida State College Library and thousands of colleges, schools, libraries, and bookstores across the country will celebrate the freedom to read by participating in special events and exhibits that showcase books that have been banned, threatened, or burned.
Since 1990, the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has recorded more than 10,000 book challenges, including 377 in 2019. This year’s 10 most challenged books include titles challenged for LGBTQIA+ themes, profanity, mentions of sexual activities and conflicting religious viewpoints. The most challenged or restricted reading materials have been books for children. Even if the motivation to ban or challenge a book is well intentioned, censorship denies the freedom to individuals to choose and think for themselves.
The list also notes that several of the titles were burned in an effort to stifle the American public’s right to read freely. Thanks to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, and students, most challenges are unsuccessful, and reading materials like “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “Slaughterhouse Five,” the Harry Potter series, and the Hunger Games series remain available.
Library hours are Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about SFSC Library’s celebration, contact Lena Phelps, SFSC chair of library services, at PhelpsL@southflorida.edu or ext. 7303.
AVON PARK, Fla. – Sept. 18, 2020 – South Florida State College’s (SFSC) Dental Education program will hold oral cancer screenings on Thursday, Oct. 15, 3:30 – 6 p.m., in the Dental Clinic, Building T-1, SFSC Highlands Campus, Avon Park. The screening is by appointment only, open to the public, and free.
The screening is a simple process that only takes about 15 minutes. After a brief medical history, patients will undergo a head and neck evaluation. When needed, the visual exam is followed by an examination in which a florescent light is shown into the mouth and helps to detect abnormal cells that are not visible to the naked eye.
“Even people who wear dentures should have an oral cancer screening every year,” said Dr. Deborah Milliken, department chair of Dental Education at SFSC. “Dental hygienists and dental assistants tend to be community-minded individuals, and oral cancer screening is only one of the many ways they serve in their communities.”
According to the Oral Cancer Foundation and Oral Cancer Consortium, oral cancer is more deadly than Hodgkin’s lymphoma, cervical, thyroid, and skin cancers, and kills one person every hour of the day. But when found early, oral cancer patients have a 90% survival rate.
Oral cancer risk factors include alcohol and tobacco use, advancing age, sun exposure, a diet low in fruits and vegetables, and the human papilloma virus (HPV), which presents a five-times increase in occurrence in people under the age of 40.
To make an appointment, call SFSC Dental Education at 863-784-7020. Patients are asked to adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) safety guidelines and wear a face mask and maintain social distancing when visiting the Dental Education Clinic. Upon arrival, patients will have their temperatures taken and will be asked to complete a questionnaire to screen for COVID-19 symptoms and exposure.
SFSC’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Department invites you to participate in Constitution Week, Sept. 14-18. Constitution Week commemorates Sept. 17, 1787, the day the U.S. Constitution was signed. Learn more about Constitution Day and the significance of the U.S. Constitution at the websites Constitution Day, the National Constitution Center, and the National Archives.
SFSC promotes civic literacy through Constitution Week activities and civic literacy-infused courses. A Florida statute that went into effect on Aug. 17, 2018 requires students seeking an Associate in Arts degree to demonstrate competency in civic literacy. To meet this requirement, students may take either POS 1041 American Government or AMH 1020 Introductory Survey of American History since 1877.
AVON PARK, Fla. – Sept. 4, 2020 – A pandemic won’t keep the South Florida State College (SFSC) Library from celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day 2020. Although officially set for Saturday, Sept. 19, the Library will offer booty for ye brave enough to compose a pirate tale, test yer smarts with pirate trivia, and tell ye yer pirate name on Friday, Sept. 18, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
International Talk Like a Pirate Day was started on a whim by John Baur and Mark Summers. The two men discovered that talking like stereotypical pirates during a poorly played game of racquetball made everything more fun. They decided to celebrate the holiday annually on Sept. 19. The holiday gained wider recognition when the Miami Herald’s Dave Barry wrote about it in his column. Baur and Summers had emailed Barry and encouraged him to highlight the holiday that they had created. The column was published in 2002, and Talk Like a Pirate Day has been celebrated internationally ever since. For more about this fun celebration, go to http://talklikeapirate.com/wordpress/
SFSC Library’s celebration will be held in the Learning Resources Center (Building Y), on the SFSC Highlands Campus in Avon Park. Costumes are welcome. However, please adhere to safety guidelines and wear a face mask and maintain social distancing when visiting.
For more information about SFSC Library’s celebration, contact Lena Phelps, SFSC chair of library services, at PhelpsL@southflorida.edu or 863-784-7303.
