I found this article from a Montana news station. The article describes a library that has been faced with a book challenge. The book, “The Joy of Sex” was recommended for removal due to the “The Joy of Gay Sex” chapter. The challenge was handled by the board and they actually addressed the public to explain intellectual freedom and both party’s opinion. The library, “Lewis and Clark Library” in Montana was granted an award for their excellent solution to the challenge. They were awarded the “Montana Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award”. The article link is: http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=10383612&nav=menu227_5
I thought this was a great report. My last blog was a negative report about the government and I wanted to do something different thing time. This article is a good representation of how the system can work. I am sure the anti-gay book challenger was disappointed, but it is good for anyone to be reminded that everyone has intellectual freedom rights.
I strongly support his library and will I thought the board’s decision to address the public was a good one. I think it take a little reminder to tell everyone, “Hey, we’re a public library and we serve the public, not just the heterosexual public”. Some people forget what a library is all about and they also forget that they take part in the public library that respects intellectual freedom.
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I think there are pros and cons with addressing it in such a public way. Sometimes lack of publicity protects a book. I'm thinking of how long The Golden Compass was on library shelves with little to no complaints. Once the movie was released the challengers were everywhere. That said, I agree that at times it is good to make a public statement as to the value of intellectual freedom. Also, we should not shy away from public dialog. This is one of the reasons I value this class so much. The more articulate I become the better equiped I am at defending intellectual freedom.
ReplyDeleteI tried this earlier and my comment vanished, so if I am repeating myself I apologize. I have conflicting views about issues raised by the two articles I read on this, though I admit it was hard to get a feeling for the circumstances surrounding the book challenge from those articles. First I believe the Librry acted appropriately, but how is their public forum that different from board hearing about a challenged book at a board meeting--unless it was the fact that they heavily publicized
ReplyDeletethe forum. But does their solution to the challenge merit Montana's Intellectual
Freedom Award? It makes me wonder about the state of intellectual freedom in this country when simply doing the right thing earns you such an award, but I have never been involved in a book challenge so perhaps I just cannot fathom just how much courage their response to the situation took (?).
I think they earned the reward for the extra steps to hold a public forum. It could have been a closed case but they involved the public, it seems, took an opportunity to educate the public on intellectual freedom rights. They killed two birds with one stone, innovative would be the word to use in this case.
ReplyDeleteI like this article and agree that it is good to have something positive to talk about in regards to Intellectual Freedom. I also agree with the range of comments here. It is very risky to take defense of a book before the public, especially not knowing how vulnerable that makes us in terms of general public support. Risky, yes, but necessary too.
ReplyDeleteI am worried about the potential of public library budgets to be politicized for just these kinds of things. We stock our shelves for the margins, for everybody, but I wonder if the general public would be willing to stick the necks out (or voting fingers) for the margins or disenfranchised people. I hope so, and I hope we as librarians continue to lay the ground work in informing our public about IF rights and responsibilities by starting conversations before we have to defend ourselves and our policies.
I can see the both the pros and cons of the way the library handled the situation. I personally think that educating the public is important and that in this instance that is what was done. I also think that it wasn't so much the handling of the situation itself that won them the award but seizing the opportunity to educate a large number of people about intellectual freedom.
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