THE LIBRARIAN’S ROLE IN INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM

The Library Bill of Rights provides that it is the responsibility of libraries and librarians to provide unbiased and uncensored information that encompasses all points of view. Because of this responsibility, it is essential that libraries and librarians do not try and push their views on their patrons and they must make choices on what items to purchase based on need and interest of the community rather than on feelings about whether or not a book is “bad” or should be censored. Libraries are a “neutral provider of information from all points of view.” (Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q & A). This is the standard for every library and this is what we in the profession need to strive for.

One of our greatest and often tested Intellectual Freedoms is the freedom to read. In fact, it is so important that the ALA issued “The Freedom to Read Statement.” It is the librarian’s responsibility to protect this freedom. Libraries are pivotal to the idea of Intellectual Freedom as the place to obtain unbiased and uncensored information that includes all points of view. Furthermore, the job of a librarian is to make information available to everyone. There have been some libraries that have demonstrated what might be considered censuring behaviors to members of lower social classes. As libraries have opened their door to the public, this permits people of all socio-economic backgrounds to have access to its materials. However, signs have been observed in some public libraries that provide that no public bathing is allowed. Although access to the materials is not necessarily denied, is this ban on public bathing a passive-aggressive attempt at limiting one’s access to materials? How do you react to a person who does not have a permanent address but would like to check out materials?

As stated in The Freedom to Read Statement, “Books are the major channel by which the intellectual inheritance is handed down, and the principal means of its testing and growth. The defense of the freedom to read requires of all publishers and libraries the utmost of their faculties, and deserves of all Americans the fullest of their support (ALA, 2004).” The ALA proclaims that the freedom to read is important to our fundamental beliefs. “The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack. Private groups and public authorities in various parts of the country are working to remove or limit access to reading materials, to censor content in schools to label ‘controversial’ views, to distribute lists of ‘objectionable’ books and authors, and to purge libraries. We, as individuals devoted to reading and as librarians and publishers responsible for disseminating ideas, wish to assert the public interest in the preservation of the freedom to read.” As librarians we must be impartial and be careful not to censor new or controversial ideas, or even condone them. The responsibility of the library is to provide a diverse array of information and materials, so that individuals can learn without feeling they will have repercussions or lack of privacy.
The Freedom to Read Statement, part 6 provides:
It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians, as guardians of the people's freedom to read, to contest encroachments upon that freedom by individuals or groups seeking to impose their own standards or tastes upon the community at large; and by the government whenever it seeks to reduce or deny public access to public information. It is inevitable in the give and take of the democratic process that the political, the moral, or the aesthetic concepts of an individual or group will occasionally collide with those of another individual or group. In a free society individuals are free to determine for themselves what they wish to read, and each group is free to determine what it will recommend to its freely associated members. But no group has the right to take the law into its own hands, and to impose its own concept of politics or morality upon other members of a democratic society. Freedom is no freedom if it is accorded only to the accepted and the inoffensive. Further, democratic societies are more safe, free, and creative when the free flow of public information is not restricted by governmental prerogative or self-censorship.

Challenges are not just presented by government officials. As LaRue states, there has been an influx of patron-initiated challenges to materials and services found in our public libraries in our generation (LaRue, 2007). He describes these challenges as having two distinct causes. The first, LaRue states, is a generational dynamic, manifesting itself in one of these three means: (a) a liberal or “politically correct” movement; (b) a conservative or “family-friendly” movement; or (c) a “parental profile among the nation’s largest demographic of protectiveness, or even over-protectiveness.” (LaRue, 2007.) The second is the birth of the World Wide Web, which has greatly expanded access to human experience (LaRue, 2007).
Liberal groups have been documented as attempting to ban materials deemed racist or patronizing toward minorities and women’s group since the 1960’s. ("City Mayors Education,") These so-called “Left-Censors” have criticized the use of racist and sexist language, and work to books containing said language to be removed from school textbooks and libraries (Pincus, 1983). This presents a special problem, whereas it would seem to advance the curricula if such materials were removed for presenting racist or sexist views, yet this is still considered censorship. Pincus suggests that there is almost an ironic nature to these liberals as they oppose censorship, but also oppose the use of materials deemed racist, sexist, etc. Conservative groups, on the other hand, have been proponents of censorship of materials they view as portraying immoral, anti-Christian, and anti-American (Pincus, 1983). How would you react if faced with a challenge from a particular group? What if your opinion coincides with that of the group?