Intellectual Freedom Considerations for Selection
Given the possibilities of censorship by the government, the community, and the librarian, it is critical to establish guidelines for protecting intellectual freedom (such as the Library Bill of Rights) and to consider potentially controversial collection development issues. Any and all of these issues affect small local libraries as often, if not more often, than they affect big urban libraries and school districts. Here are some issues to consider:
Racism
This is another complicated debate, since people may have different definitions of what is racist. Should blatantly racist materials be considered for selection? Some racist materials have great historical value for research. Changes in societal values can affect the perceived value of materials that were written in different times. As an example, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain has recently been labeled racist by some people who feel that it negatively portrays African Americans; when it was originally published, however, it was considered controversial because a Black slave was the book’s hero. Other racist materials, such as the recent book The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herstein and Charles A. Murray, propose “scientific” theories to explain race relations.
Source: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records
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