When Is It Censorship?

I commented a few weeks ago on the Sarah Palin flap as the left attempted to paint her as a literary Carrie Nation roaring into the Wasilla Public Library with an axe to trample on public access to information. There is no doubt in my library-experienced mind that she was exercising due diligence with regard to the policies of an agency under her executive management.

Now we’ve got this in-depth piece over at American Thinker:

Considerations of Censorship

There are some excellent observations there, but some fundamental misconceptions as well. The most important observation is that libraries inevitably have limitations in the size and scope of their collections. There are physical limits to facilities and there are financial limits to their acquisitions. Collections must be flexible and reflect new materials and they must also be purged periodically of out-dated, unused, or deteriorated items. Choices, as the passive voice might say, must be made. Librarians make them.

But, AT is wrong with his assumption that librarians, as a profession, or the American Library Association, as a policy voice for libraries, are some sort of left-leaning, ideology driving censorship body. They might be, but in large measure they aren’t. The important distinction here is that public libraries are institutions of local government. As such they are under local political control. The citizens of the community drive the collection criteria rather than the cabal of librarians.

Libraries can be organized as independent districts, such as the one I served as Trustee for, or they can be branches of local municipal, county or regional government. Either way, it isn’t the librarian that sets policy but the elected or appointed citizens who represent the community.

Let there be no doubt that in an ultra-conservative community, the collection will seldom include avant garde liberal alternative life-style materials. And similarly, you can be quite certain that in an extremely liberal community there will be a shortage of evangelical religious tomes on the shelves. It is a reflection of the community preference, not a lock-step ALA ideology.

Most libraries are responsive to patron requests for unavailable materials either through inter-library loans or outright purchase in response to requests. In Colorado Springs we budgeted more than $120K per year for request fulfillment. There also will be a clear and detailed policy and procedure to deal with challenges to collection materials. If someone thinks a book should be removed there will be a detailed, usually multi-tiered process to provide satisfaction to the requestor. You usually won’t get the material removed, but you will know the rationale for retention.

The bottom line is that dating back to Franklin and Jefferson the availability of information, even controversial works, in public libraries has been a bed-rock of our democracy. Some items in the library you will like and some you will disagree with, but that is the key to freedom.