Intellectual Freedom And Censorship In The Library Analysis

The American Library Association has always opposed censorship in libraries, and actively protests the banning of books (“ALA”). The ALA sponsor “Banned Books Week” every year, in an attempt to bring attention to the censorship of books across the United States. The ALA is firmly against the practice of banning, as Barbara Jones, the director of ALA’s office for Intellectual Freedom, said in this statement ‘Using threats to books to wage war on ideas that some may disagree with is offensive to the ALA, which embraces the diversity of our nation as one of our greatest strengths.”

Judy Blume once said, “Something will be offensive to someone in every book, so you’ve just got to fight it.” Over the past twenty years, public libraries have started to ban certain books due to certain themes that have been seen as “unfit” by the county board. But personally, i wonder who is really at liberty to say what is fit in our society. In a country where it is our very right to freedom of speech, banning books does not only go against it, but it’s almost an insult. The public library should not have any banned books because it promotes censorship, it is futile, and the books we read are some of our greatest teachers.

On the other hand, some people argue that book censorship is a violation of their constitutional right to freedom of speech, and the right to self expression. One article puts its effects this way, “Permitting restraints on literature sets the stage for attacks on all expression that is artistically or politically controversial or that portray unpleasant realities of life.” This,

For example, some people can find certain works offensive, usually due to reasons such as language, violence, sexual content, or the lifestyles portrayed in the pages. However, I would like to point out that if someone does not agree with something, or if they find it offensive, they can exercise their freedom of choice and choose not to read the book. It should not be up to a portion of the public to decide what is acceptable for others. If we start denying this freedom of choice as it related to books that are available in our libraries, what will the next step in denying our freedom of choice? If one stops to think of why we love to live in the United States, freedom has to be at the top of this

Censorship is a concept with several different meanings. To each individual censorship has its own meaning. Is it a violation of our rights or is it a protection for our well being? Censorship in the generic sense refers to the suppression of information, ideas, or opinions. It occurs in all forms of communication from technological media to print media. Each society, culture, or individual's belief is violated by the codes of censorship that our society instills.

Even though our world is getting more and more connected, censorship still remains one of the top issues that separate people from reading books. Books are the spreader of both bad and good knowledge and I believe that we should no longer contain or ban books just because they are offensive to certain groups in America. The debate on challenged books is a hot topic in America because the country is founded on a basis of freedom of speech.

The history of the world has undoubtedly been dominated by an endless struggle for power. However, after a brief glimpse into the pages of history it should not take long to realize that the trick to maintaining power lies in the control of information. Even the most fearsome military generals of the past acknowledge the power of the mind and ideas over lethal force. Former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin once said “… [Ideas] are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, then why should we let them have ideas.” Stalin’s quote personifies the main concept of this literature review which will be discussing the history of government censorship and its effects that are

How can one person's decision impact others? Every time i'm reading a book i have my own opinion of what i just read not everyone has the same opinion of it. I could read a book that contains drug dealers and love like the book Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles and think that it was a great book but another person can think that it is to inappropriate. If that person decided that the book should not be in their school library a decides to challenge and it gets banned other people that might have wanted to read it can no longer do that because of that ONE person. It takes only one person to change or bring something to the attention of others. What if someone banned the book you have wanted to read for so long? You would probably not like it, so why do it to others? If you didn't like the book then don't read it, that simple, don't ruin it for everyone else.

In the 19th article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the United Nations says that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (United Nations/Universal Declaration of Human Rights/ Dec 10th, 1948). This means that all people should be able to read information and generate their own opinions on it. Those who attempt censorship are “concerned,” and believe “that censorship can improve society, protect children, and restore what the censor sees as lost moral values” (American Library Association/ Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q & A/ August 31, 2015). However, the United Nations supports the right of all individuals to make their own judgements about the morality or merit of books, rather than allowing censors to make these distinctions for

The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas,” (Griswold). Human instinct is to disagree, when disagreement occurs the opposing party is convinced that they are correct and want all resistance eliminated. In history whenever one disagrees they go head to head in a challenge to discover which argument is accurate, but in the end who is to decipher what ideas are wrong? Ideas should not be stifled because of disagreement; each idea has a place in society. In the course of history has the banning of books had more losses than success? What codified censorship was the 1873 Comstock Act, which called for the banning literature deemed sexually arousing, even indirectly. The Comstock Act banned transportation of any printed material including private letters that contained lecherous or lascivious material. Beginning in the 1950s, a series of U.S. Supreme Court cases helped change the scope of censorship laws in the United States (“Books Censorship”). Books have been banned from the beginning, before and after basic rights were established. The act of banning a book is extremely biased in the case of something offending one person might not offend another. “The invention of the printing press in Europe in the mid-15th century only increased the

Censorship violates the First Amendment. In the article entitled “ Censorship in the Schools “, the author states, “ we believe the library media center is protected from censorship by the bill of rights specifically, by the First Amendment, which guards freedom of expression “. This takes away people’s freedom because with having censorship people can only do what certain people allow. The author of the article goes on to say the American Library Association tries to get people to be along with censorship. We all should have the right to do whatever we want as citizens. It is not right for people to try to ban what we see or do.

Kolderup, G. (2013). The First Amendment and internet filtering in public libraries. Indiana Libraries, 32(1), 26-29.

What would you do if you went to your child's school and saw that they were looking at inappropriate material on the internet? Would you react the same way if they were in a public library? Who decides what is okay for your children to view? Who decides where they can view it? What can you do about them being able to view these things? Are there any laws that can prevent this from happening? What are some schools and libraries doing to help prevent children form looking at such material? These are all issues that will be discussed in the next few paragraphs, along with my opinions on the matter.

Censorship may be protection from inappropriate materials, but it also limits free speech. For the limitation of free speech, it is reasonable why people are emphatically against censorship. It is understood that there is a need to filter some of the materials released in today’s society, but too much is being done by people who have no right meddling with everyone’s rights. Civilization has always been plagued by a never ending battle being fought over what is deemed right and wrong. In today’s culture, censorship oppresses everything in the media. From movies and music to television and even news stories, most of the content viewed today has been filtered one way or another. Restrictions have been in place since early societies have been

Censorship is a dirty word to information professionals. Attempts by individuals or groups to restrict the public from reading, hearing or viewing certain materials due to their content, is enough to send librarian's and organizations such as the American Library Association, to the proverbial battle field. However, information professionals from all fields have to make choices about what to include and what not to include in their particular library's collection. How are these selections made? What causes one item to be selected instead of another? The distinction between censorship and selection is infinitesimal, dependent mainly upon the role of the individuals involved. As an information professional, who inherently is