ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News March 1998/169■ VALUES FOR THE ELECTRONIC INFORMATION AGE Defending the freedom to read A reflection of personal values and censorship by Frances J. Maloy V alues affect the behaviors, attitudes, and choices that we make. It is a good idea to get in touch with these values: identify them, evaluate them, and con­ sciously choose to recommit to them or adopt new values. W. Lee Hisle’s theme has prompted me to reexamine the per­ sonal values that led me to librarianship and have kept me in the field for 16 years. W hat fre e d o m m ean s A need to serve, a desire to be involved in higher education, and an interest in har­ nessing the power of information drew me to library school. While in library school, I discovered that working in libraries would meet another very important value of mine— freedom. I define freedom as the right to choose, to think, to research, and to make your own decisions. During a class discussion on censorship, book banning, and intellectual freedom, I learned of the important advocacy role that the ALA plays nationally. We also discussed that the freedom to read meant that you had to defend the right for all points of view to be presented, even when the point of view was very offensive to you. It was at this point that I felt committed to the profession of librarianship; other profes­ sions could have met my need to serve and be a part of the educational process, but none that I was considering served my value of freedom as directly. Once I was working in a library, it didn’t take long for me to realize that not all librarians shared the same view of free­ dom regarding librarianship as I did. I en­ countered subtle and not so subtle acts of censorship, most not intentional, in the be­ haviors and attitudes of librarians. Specific examples that I know about include: a re­ quest by a librarian to withdraw a title from the collection that she thought was racist; the absence of any general gay or lesbian periodicals in a research library collection; and a gift of sexually explicit material be­ ing put in a locked area rather than put­ ting it through the normal processing pro­ cedure. I made the decision to put Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses on reserve. My intent was to protect the book and make it available for all interested people to read. A student questioned this decision and as­ sumed I was censoring the book. I was surprised that he interpreted my actions as censorship, although I did wonder why no one checked the book out from reserve. In retrospect, I should have kept the book in the circulating collection and ordered several more copies. One justification that I hear for not buy­ ing something is that it will get stolen or destroyed. If this were really true no library would subscribe to Der Stern or Sports Il­ lustrated, and we would have very poor art and photography book collections. Another About the author Frances J. Maloy is head of Circulation and Access Services at Emory University Libraries; e-mail: libfm@emory.edu mailto:libfm@emory.edu 170 / C&RL News March 1998 ■ reason I hear is that the material doesn’t fit in the focus of the collection. This is a very legitimate reason for not purchasing mate­ rials, and there are excellent resources avail­ able to help guide librarians with these de­ cisions. The Internet and censorship To open access to the Internet raises the issue of censorship again and forces librar­ ians to address how their own values are affected. Some librarians argue that since we carefully select print materials for our collections, we should filter access to the Internet as well. I have difficulty accept­ ing this justification because I see a differ­ ence between spending money to pur­ chase, catalog, and house an item, and providing access to the material on the Internet. Academic librarians have always been concerned with creating selected bib­ liographies or recommended sources for our researchers, and academic librarians … th e free d o m to read m eant th a t you had to d efen d th e rig h t fo r all p o in ts o f v iew to be presented, even w hen the p o in t o f v ie w w as v e ry o ffe n siv e to you. have also been concerned with providing researchers the tools and skills to locate all possible sources on a topic. I see fil­ tering the Internet the same as providing reference assistance to a researcher and knowingly excluding relevant primary and secondary sources because I found the content offensive. R ecom m it to freedom I hope that through the dialogue Lee Hisle has begun, we librarians will recommit to our value of freedom— freedom of expres­ sion, freedom to think, and freedom to read. I hope that we will focus our efforts on opening access to all materials while teach­ ing researchers how to use reason and criti­ cal thinking to evaluate the quality of the sources they are using. ■ Sociology • Social Science • Linguistics 3 BIRDS IN THE HAND If one bird in the hand is worth two in the b u sh ... Our three sources are invaluable ... and right at your fingertips. For current thought and research in sociology, the social sciences and linguistics, consult sociological abstracts (sa) Social Planning/Policy & Development Abstracts (SOPODA) and Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) Abstracts of articles, books and conference papers from more than 2,500 journals published in 35 countries; citations of relevant dissertations and book and other media reviews. 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