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Intellectual Freedom

What is Intellectual Freedom?

This is term we hear often, but what does it mean? Intellectual freedom is the right to access and use information. This definition comes from Gardner Hanks who was the continuing education coordinator for the Idaho State Library. Libraries have appeared in the news recently, because of their fights for intellectual freedom. Many librarians consider this to be an important ethical consideration for the field. Intellectual freedom is closely related to collection development. There are three things you will need to consider: selection, challenges and the collection development policy.

Selection and Intellectual Freedom

So what do you need to think about when selecting materials for the library? One of the goals of a public library is to provide access to information. A library's collection should be balanced and strive to show multiple viewpoints. This means certain items in the library might be offensive to some of your customers. As a librarian responsible for selecting items, you need to recognize the many different people who use the public library. Each of these people has a right to access and use information that is of value to them. Some of this information may be offensive to you personally or others in your community. However your library, by supplying that item, may have helped someone with a difficult issue in their life.

Challenges

Occasionally a customer may feel so strongly about a library item that s/he will question you about its purchase. There are a few important things to realize in this case:

  • This person has a genuine concern and a right to be heard. Respecting people's differences and the customer's comments is important.
  • Have an action plan before you are challenged. When you are challenged, you may be so upset that you are unable to deal effectively with the problem. By having a plan beforehand, you can attempt to reasonably and effectively respond to challenges.
  • Actively listen to the customer. Sometimes that is all s/he needs. Listening makes you aware of the true concerns. You can then respond to those concerns not to the potentially defensive nature of the conversation or the customer.

Responding to Challenges

We talked early about developing a plan for challenges. You will need to decide what is right for your library, but hopefully answering these questions will help.

  • Who will be responsible for responding to challenges? It's best to have a library director or a higher level supervisor deal with these issues. Once you have decided who will respond to challenges, train any staff and volunteers to send a customer with a challenge to the correct person.
  • What is the process for a challenge? The first step is to respond to the complaint orally, but what if the customer is unsatisfied? What should s/he do next? Typically libraries ask a customer to fill out a form that asks for name, contact information, name of the material, and why the customer wants to have the item removed from the library. Some libraries also ask for titles that reflect the customer's viewpoint about the particular topic.
  • If you decide to have the customer fill out a form, who will review and make the initial decision? Will it be the director or the library board? This person will then be responsible for explaining in writing and probably via phone or face to face why the library decided to keep or discard the item.
  • What will you do if the customer is unsatisfied with the written complaint? Some libraries ask the customer to formally present their concerns to the library board. The library board then makes the final decision.

Typically libraries do not remove challenged materials unless it is shown to be inaccurate, out-of-date, or it doesn't fit the library's collection development policy. In addition to the above questions, be sure you are familiar with your process. You may want to ask a staff member, colleague, or board member to role play a challenge situation with you, so that you are able to respond courteously and professionally to a customer's concern.

Montana State Library and Challenges

If an item in your collection is challenge, you can receive moral support from the State Library. A challenge is a very stressful thing to go through and sometimes it can become ugly. Don't hesitate to contact the State Library for moral support and help. In addition, you can also post to wired-mt for support from librarians around the state.

The Montana State Library maintains a list of books challenged in Montana. This information is then shared with the American Library Association, as a way to keep track of how many challenges are issued over time. If you receive a challenge, please contact Sue Jackson at the State Library. Her number is 1-800-338-5087, or you can reach her at Sue Jackson

ALA Freedom to Read Statement and the Library Bill of Rights

The American Library Association External Link (ALA) has developed several documents about intellectual freedom. Two prominent ones are the "Freedom to Read Statement" and the "Library Bill of Rights." Each of these discusses an individual's right to read whatever they want, whenever they want, and without fear of persecution. I recommend you take a look at each of these.

Homework

Finally the last part of the class! If someone came up to you and asked you to remove Huck Finn, what would you do? What if someone asked you to remove a book you found personally offensive? Could you defend the right to have that item in your collection? Take a few moments to think about these questions. Then review your library's policy about dealing with challenges. Send Maggie Meredith a summary of what you would like to change in your library's policy and/or any training, etc. you think would be useful and why.

This concludes the collection development online class. Thanks for taking the time to go through this class. Once I have received your homework, you will receive 6 hours of continuing education credit in collection development and technical services. I will mail you the continuing education form.