Censorship and Free Press

It's funny how almost all of our discussions in my Intro to Library Science class end up about censorship and the ethical responsibility that librarians have toward free access to information (in the American Library Association's Code of Ethics). It was brought to my attention again when I read about the muckraking website, WikiLeaks where people can post documents that reveal government / institutional corruption. Muckraking is certainly not a new vocation, in fact, muckraker were primarily the ones to get out the word about the deplorable conditions of slums, meatpacking plants, and factories in the early 1900s (i.e. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle). Anyway, a Bank in the Caymans sued the website, the domain was frozen, a horrible backlash occurred, and just this week, the bank withdrew their lawsuit. Score one for the Bill of Rights. However, censorship is still a hot button issue. Books are constantly being challenged and banned every year. The Illinois Library Association publishes a list of Banned Books, 2006-2007. They have lists for each year. Honestly, some of the challenges surprised me, and some I expected. For instance, the Harry Potter bannings didn't surprise me. The challenge to the new translation fo the Epic of Gilgamesh did, however. One of the oldest stories known (rivalling the Bible) was challenged for "sexual situation". Huh, go figure. To me, it shows that every book has something that is offensive to someone, and it makes it difficult for librarians, whose main goal is to provide free information. There is one distinction, though. I need to separate the Public Library and the School Library. The School Library is supposed to act in loco parentis (in place of the parents), so they do have a very real obligation to at least listen to the parents' objections to certain books. Public Librarians, however, are not acting in loco parentis, and therefore have less of an obligation to pander to any special interest groups, but owe their allegiance to globalization and the entire community in general. It is a difficult balancing act. So how does a Librarian balance this, with the censoring demands of a multi-cultural public on the one hand, and our obligation to provide free access to information? The situation becomes especially difficult when these censhorship attempts are entangled with the libary's funding. How much is information worth? It is certianly food for thought, and a heavy one at that. =>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=>=> And now for something completely different: Here is a clip of Judah laughing hilariously when Brandin was spinning a ball on the ground. It's the simple things in life. It was certainly a nice break when I was debating the merits (or de-merits) of censorship online with my class. If only we continued to laugh like this as adults, the world might be a very different place.