
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 31, 1995                   TAG: 9508310081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

FOR BOOK BANNERS, '94 BANNER YEAR

More books were banned from public school libraries and classrooms last year than the year before, a liberal advocacy group said Wednesday, although the number of attempts to remove controversial material actually fell.

``The attacks are bolder, broader and more organized than ever before,'' said People for the American Way legal director Elliot Mincberg.

The group said it documented 338 attempts to remove or restrict access to a book, and said 50 percent, or 169, were successful. The year before, 375 attempts were documented and 42 percent, or 157, were successful.

But Gary L. Bauer, of the conservative Family Research Council in Washington, responded that ``when a government restricts what its citizens can read, that's censorship. ... But when parents have input on what local officials do in the schools, that's democracy.''

- Associated Press

by CNB