Censorship VS Selection

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Censorship VS Selection Young Adults

• Dr. Betty Marcoux
• LIS 566
• Winter Quarter 2007

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Lecture outline

• Beginning
• Censorship
• Middle
• Selection
• Differences/influences on collection
• End
• Concerning issues
• International/national
• State
• Conclusion
• Readings
• Announcements

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Definition of Censorship

• A change in the access status of material, based
  on the content of the work and made by a
  governing authority or its representatives,
  including exclusion, restriction, removal,
  age/grade level changes. (ALA 1996)

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Censorship information

• Recent Newbery conflict
• http//www.ala.org/Template.cfm?SectionbasicsTem
  plate/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfmConten
  tID109668
• School libraries have the most challenges of all
  types of libraries
• Any time a minor is involved the parent or
  guardian makes the decision for that minor.

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Censorship commentary http//www.ala.org/ala/oif/i
fgroups/ifan/intellectual.htm

• Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q A
•  http//www.judyblume.com/censors.html
• Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas," The
  One Un-American Act," Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no.
  1 (Jan. 1953) p. 20.

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The approach to censorship

• Active listening
• Supportive documents and parent organizations
• Timeliness
• Not personal

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Three kinds of censors

• ALL wish to protect others from something
• Conservatives or of the right
• Liberals or of the left
• Those that should not be involved with censorship
  but are
• Educators
• Publishers
• Editors
• Distributors

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Censor motivations

• Deem something offensive because of sex
• See as an attack on the American dream/country
  (USA Patriot Act)
• Wish to remain as peaceniks or pacifistic
• Deem something against religion
• Work to promote harmony and strive for civil
  rights
• Language is seen as offensive
• Deem certain information as harmful
• See behaviors presented as ones that shouldnt be
  emulated or shared

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Types of Complaints leading to censorship

• Expression of concern an inquiry that has
  judgmental overtones
• Oral complaints oral challenge to the presence
  and/or appropriateness of specific materials
• Written complaints formal, written that is
  filed with the appropriate institution and
  challenges the presence and/or appropriateness of
  specific material
• Public attacks a publicly disseminated
  statement challenging the value of the materials
  presented to the media and/or others outside of
  the institution in order to gain public support
  for further action

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Familiar topics open to censorship

• Sexuality
• Profanity
• Obscenity
• Immorality
• Witchcraft
• Nudity

• Occultism
• Violence
• Incest
• Mental illness
• Slavery
• Values

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Issues most commonly in dispute

• Politics
• Dirty words
• Profanity and policy (merit/suitability)
• Sexuality
• Gay and lesbian literature
• Sex education

• Violence
• Secular humanism and New Age
• Witchcraft Occult
• Horror
• Creationism
• Racism sexism

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Censorship characteristics

• Can recognize evil
• Desire to protect people from it power of few
  over many
• All other stereotypes of censors not valid
• Right to protest a protected right
• Not everyone who protests a book is a censor
• Tend to issue complaints at schools first and
  mostly

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Recent challenges

• Most challenged books in 21st century
• Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
• 2. "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
• 3. Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• 4. "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck
• 5. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya
  Angelou
• 6. "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
• 7. "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris
• 8. Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz
• 9. Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey
• 10. "Forever" by Judy Blume

• Top 10 challenged books 1990-1999
• Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
• Daddys Roommate by Michael Willhoite
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• Forever by Judy Blume
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

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Strategies for working with censorship

• Know your parent agency and its rules.
• Know your rights.
• Know your readers rights.
• Know the law of the parent organization.
• Have a challenge policy/procedure in place and
  know how to use it.
• Dont worry it will happen!
• Dont be defensive listen above all.

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Censorship Questions to ask of yourself

• Who is doing the questioning?
• Which materials are being questioned and what is
  being questioned about them?
• How are the questions handled?

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Definition of Selection

• The (identification) of potential acquisition of
  resources that meet established criteria for that
  particular library and its community.

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Selection issues

• Public
• Tax base is public
• Under Constitutional law
• Set of guidelines should be constitutional
• Procedures can be in place that reflect national
  position

• Private
• Not public tax based
• Not under Constitutional law necessarily
• Set of guidelines usually that of parent
  organization
• Procedures defined by parent organization alone

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YA issues and selection

• Defining what is or isnt YA materials
• Defining what can or cannot be used by YA patrons
• Domination of parent/guardian decision
• Community values/needs (diversity primary
  characteristic to consider here)
• Physical access to materials

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Difference

• Selection is democratic while censorship is
  authoritarian.
• (see text Pg. 393 for further Asheim definition)
• Not Censorship But Selection," by Lester Asheim,
  Wilson Library Bulletin, 28 (September 1953),
  63-67.

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Is it selection or censorship?

• Ulysses
• US customs office once refused it admission to
  the United States
• a librarian once decided not to buy it
• a local pressure group once forced its removal
  from library shelves
• In each case, the patron was deprived of access
  to a particular piece of communication through
  the action of someone else. So how do we
  distinguish between these three examples and the
  issues of censorship vs selection?

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How to tell the difference

• Selection
• Relates to professional values of selector
• Seeks to include materials
• Relates to selectors commitment to intellectual
  freedom
• Seeks to familiarize readers with breadth of
  images/information
• Each item given a fair evaluation/opportunity to
  select
• Carried out by trained professionals
• Usually guided selection through adherence to
  principles of parent organization
• Seeks to develop independent thought

• Censorship
• Judgment that of the individual
• Criteria usually personal and often intolerant of
  diverse point of view
• Seeks to exclude materials
• Responds to diversity with suppression
• Seeks to develop value conformity

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Article on differences

• Doyle, Tony Selection vs censorship in libraries
• Journal Title Collection Management Volume 27
  Issue 1 ISSN 0146-2679 Pub Date 5/12/2003
• Speaks about when it is appropriate to SELECT
  potentially dangerous materials for a library.
• Counters some of Lester Asheims comments (1983)
  (no library can acquire everything by
  suggesting that this can be the delineator for
  selecting it or not)

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Selecting censoring behaviors

• Selection
• Begins with a presumption in favor of liberty
• Criteria applied when comparing/choosing multiple
  items
• Materials examined to look for what is best in
  terms of meeting objectives
• Book judged as a whole
• Reviews used from professional sources
• Interest in finding information that represents
  opposing viewpoints
• Book judged on its own merit
• Selector has faith in the intelligence of the
  reader

• Censorship
• Looks for items to exclude
• Searches for what to discard more than include
• Book judged often on a few passages rather than
  as a whole
• Reviews of other censors take precedence over
  professional review sources
• Looking to create a collection that represents a
  certain point of view
• Outside reasons often used to reject book, ie
  authors religion/politics
• Censor has faith in himself first or only

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Personality Differences

• Selector
• Important to find reasons to KEEP the read which
  will overshadow the minor objections.
• Led by desire to seek out the potential
• Promote reading
• Multiply points of view

• Censor
• Important to find reasons to REJECT the read
• Led by desire to seek out the objectionable
• Inhibit reading
• Limit points of view

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Challenge statistics

• School libraries, followed by schools, then
  public libraries have had the most challenges in
  the 21st century. (http//www.ala.org/ala/oif/ban
  nedbooksweek/bbwlinks/challengesbyinstitutions2000
  2005.pdf)
• The top 5 issues challenged 2000-2005 are in this
  order
• Offensive language
• Sexual explicit information
• other
• Unsuited age group
• Violence

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Challenge concerns influencing collections

• Internet
• Patriot Act
• Filtering

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Washington disputes

• Impressions( elementary reading series)
• 1987 (with Oregon) Objections spread from
  California to East coast
• Objectors focused on overtones of witchcraft,
  mysticism, fantasy
• Objectors believed that this series had
  persistent themes of rebellion against parents
  and authority figures
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Challenged in Seattle area in 2002
• http//www.boondocksnet.com/twainwww/essays/civil_
  rights9809.html
• Geography Club, Tacoma
• (http//seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintSto
  ry.pl?document_id2002636479slugwebbookban20dat
  e20051120)
• Harry Potter
• Issues of fantasy, witchcraft, occult
• http//childrensbooks.about.com/cs/censorship/a/ba
  nharry.htm

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Remember
"Not every book is right for every person, but
providing a wide range of reading choices is
vital for learning, exploration and imagination.
The abilities to read, speak, think and express
ourselves freely are core American values." Carol
BreyCasiano, ALA President, 2005
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Readings

• Schwarz article (2000)
• Dating but comments still relevant
• Media literacy is even more an issue/prevalent
  now with YAs
• Role of literacy online critical today
• Chapter 12
• Talks about the censorial spirit of today and
  its historical roots
• Gives examples of censorship, censors and
  assumptions on censors
• Explains some case studies and legal outcomes to
  challenges
• Discusses reasons to focus attention on
  intellectual freedom selection and how to protect
  these interests. (new kind of censorship)
• Discusses procedures for dealing with censors
• Teens Technology Report (2005)
  http//www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/162/report_displa
  y.asp
• Potential here for libraries and their YA work
• Timing of tipping point (7th grade)
• Issue of electronic expectations greater

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Announcements

• Final round of book reviews/responses now
  underway
• Webquest evaluations
• Next weeks lecture - potpourri
• Final grades