Silent Censorship Growing Problem Nationally : Libraries: The most incidents were in the Midwest, with 119 attempts to ban books in a year’s time. California is among five busiest states.

Librarians and educators, fearing that they will lose their jobs, too often are avoiding controversial books in a silent form of censorship, a national library official said.

Some librarians and teachers simply will not buy a book or will quietly remove it when it is attacked, said Anne Penway, assistant director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Assn..

“When the pressure is built to the point where people are feeling so chilled in the exercise of those rights, we’ve got a real problem,” Penway said. “We are concerned that there could be a number of incidents that are occurring without really ever coming to light.”

A spokesman for a family issues organization defended parents’ rights to influence a library’s selections. He said pornographic books are one type that are appropriate to ban from school libraries.

“Parents ought to have a voice about what’s appropriate and what’s inappropriate,” said Tom Minnery, vice president of Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Penway said the American Library Assn. received more than 500 reports of attempted censorship between March, 1991, and March, 1992. That represents only about 20% of all censorship attempts, she said.

Challenged books included Joan Blank’s “Laugh Lines,” for what critics viewed as its demeaning manner toward people who read the riddles and cannot figure out the answers; Marlene Fanta Shyder’s “Welcome Home, Jellybean,” because two school board members considered it depressing; and Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” because of racial language.

The library association does not keep detailed statistics. But People for the American Way, a Washington-based constitutional liberties group, said it counted 376 censorship attempts during the 1991-92 school term, a 50% increase from the previous year. Forty-one percent of the attempts succeeded.

People for the American Way said the most incidents were reported in the Midwest, with 119 censorship attempts. The five busiest states were Florida, Texas, California, Oregon and Minnesota.

The group said John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” was the most often challenged book.

Penway said censorship attempts most often are sparked by offensive language; subjects such as sex, health and AIDS, and fears that a work depicts or endorses witchcraft, satanism or the occult. She said the last area has burgeoned, with even “The Wizard of Oz” under attack.

School libraries remain the main battleground, the library association said.