The NIU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center will host an LGBT-themed book drawing to increase awareness of Banned Books Week, which runs today through Friday.

The drawing takes place in the LGBT Resource Center, located on the seventh floor of the Holmes Student Center, between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. every day this week.

The American Library Association reported a 20-percent increase in book banning from 2003 to 2004, said Margie Cook, director of the LGBT Resource Center.

Of these books, three of the most heavily criticized were books with gay themes, including Maya Angelou’s autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and Linda de Haan’s children’s book “King and King”, with a romance between two male cartoon characters.

“Book banning is censorship,” Cook said. “It’s part of a misunderstanding that you can protect people from certain subjects and themes by not allowing them access to them.”

Banned Books Week is a national program sponsored by the American Library Association that draws attention to book banning and censorship.

Common instances of book banning include a school banning a book from its curriculum, which is what happened in 1976 at the high school Grant Olson, coordinator of information technologies for the NIU Foreign Language department, used to work at.

“I was crushed,” Olson said. “The book was [Ken Kesey’s] ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and parents had it banned from being used in my English class because of its language.”

Andrea Drott, LGBT Resource Center graduate assistant, said she does not agree with book banning.

“Censoring any form of writing simply does not make sense,” Drott said. “It takes away the educational purpose of books.”

Physics graduate student James Younkin said he believes the only time writing should be banned is if it provides instructions on how to build a nuclear bomb or kill people.

“Book banning? It’s just wrong,” Younkin said.

More than 6,000 attempts at book banning were made at schools and libraries between 1990 and 2000, according to the American Library Association. Of these 6,000 books, 500 contained gay themes and were criticized for “promoting homosexuality.”

Of the 10 books in the LGBT Resource Center banned-books drawing, eight were donated by the store manager of the Borders in DeKalb. They include a gay trivia book, an LGBT history book, a mystery novel and a book about coming out of the closet, Cook said.

This is the second time the LGBT Resource Center is hosting a book drawing to celebrate Banned Books Week. Last year, the center raffled off 15 books, Cook said.

Anyone can enter the drawing. Two books will be drawn out each day and repeat submissions between drawings are allowed, Cook said.