Librarians have a certain stereotype here in the U.S.: mild-mannered, reserved women who value order and quiet. There may be some truth in the stereotype but there’s also another side to librarians that we can relate to here at CIPE: they are hard core advocates of intellectual freedom and democracy who are unafraid to defend against any attempt to limit access to any reading material. They take this very seriously and are prepared to take criticism for it. Consider this statement from the American Library Association:
We here stake out a lofty claim for the value of the written word. We do so because we believe that it is possessed of enormous variety and usefulness, worthy of cherishing and keeping free. We realize that the application of these propositions may mean the dissemination of ideas and manners of expression that are repugnant to many persons. We do not state these propositions in the comfortable belief that what people read is unimportant. We believe rather that what people read is deeply important; that ideas can be dangerous; but that the suppression of ideas is fatal to a democratic society. Freedom itself is a dangerous way of life, but it is ours.
To paraphrase J.S. Mill, to squelch a minority opinion is to deprive the majority of the opportunity to exchange error for truth if the minority is in fact correct; even if the minority is in error, the majority derives increased clarity and deeper understanding through the process of comparison and debate.
Even here in the U.S., this right is not completely unassailed. Librarians call special attention to this important right this week: it’s banned books week! Books that have been labeled objectionable by various parties over time remain in public circulation thanks to librarians, and we are a richly diverse society for it. Celebrate and exercise your own ability to challenge beliefs freely and achieve greater understanding: read something unorthodox or even objectionable.
To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad
government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals.
– Mark Twain, third most banned/challenged author in the U.S.,
from his Autobiography
Published Date: September 26, 2008