Freedom to Read Week guards against censorship
February 26, 2008 - Edmonton - Oliver Twist, The Golden Compass and Rolling Stone magazine were among the library materials challenged by Canadian library users in 2007, according to a new survey released in advance of Freedom to Read Week - February 24 to March 1.
The Canadian Library Association's second annual Survey of Challenged Materials in Canadian Libraries identified 42 items challenged by patrons. Children's books, mainstream films, graphic novels and popular magazines were all challenged, and a policy on Internet access was also disputed.
"The Internet challenge came from a library in London, Ontario, that wanted to install adult-content screens in their Web browsers," said Toni Samek, a professor in the University of Alberta's School of Library and Information Studies, who spoke against the proposal. "There are people who rely on public libraries for their access to the Internet. To screen that access limits their ability to be an informed citizen. And these screens come with operational biases - 60 per cent of gay health sites are blocked, for example."
Library and Information Studies, as well as the student group Future Librarians for Intellectual Freedom, will be marking the week with displays and an information booth in HUB mall, as well as participating in Edmonton Public Libraries' Banned Books Café Feb. 28.
Many of the books and DVDs were challenged by parents and grandparents who found materials to be age-inappropriate, sexually explicit, violent, racist or questioned family values. Included in the 2007 challenges were Masterpiece Theatre's DVD of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, citing a "childbirth depiction," and The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman for religious viewpoints.
"The reasons given for challenges this past year strongly echo those documented in the mid-1980s," said U of A professor and Canadian Library Association President Alvin Schrader. "Librarians and public library trustees need to continue to be knowledgeable and articulate about potentially controversial topics and about our core values - freedom of expression and the freedom to receive information. If libraries don't create a safe space in Canadian society for as many voices as possible, nobody else will. This will always be an important policy goal for libraries in Canada."
Schrader has also published Fear of Words: Censorship and the Public Libraries of Canada, based on a survey of censorship pressures on Canadian public libraries. Despite the challenges, the status of most of the materials identified in the survey was not changed within the library's collection.
Samek, chair of the association's advisory committee on intellectual freedom, says most challenges go unreported. "So, we're really just skimming the surface of what's happening in our own country," she said.
"We always need to be mindful that intellectual freedom in Canada is guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but that's no guarantee for the future. Laws can always change," she said. "It's important to know what our Canadian rights are and know that we want them to endure, not erode."
And just because Canadians enjoy a relatively positive atmosphere of intellectual freedom, that doesn't mean we can relax, said Samek.
"Any citizens in the world who have the freedoms we do have the responsibility to look out for those people who don't," she said, adding that this is doubly important in a post-secondary environment. "Freedom to Read Week is a reminder to all of us, that we do have a campus that supports academic freedom. Student can speak out and faculty can speak out and we have to be mindful to take advantage of that."
"Education isn't supposed to be safe. We study scary things. We study war, terrorism and racism, but we study them in a safe environment."
After completing her second semester, U of A School of Library Studies student Tanya Driechel decided she wanted to experience firsthand the issues of literacy and information access to marginalized populations, particularly in developing countries.
The short documentary video, below. was created by Tanya and documents the two summer months she spent volunteering in North East Ghana in 2007.
The video was first shown at the SLIS Professional Development Day Conference on February 8, 2008. It is the final result of a Directed Study (LIS 599) under the direction of Dr. Toni Samek, in which Tanya bridged the rhetoric of international librarianship, community development, and literacy with the realities of community life at the Sumbrungu Community Library. Today, Tanya continues to send donations to the community, while Toni is providing special funds for the shipping of these much-needed supplies.
Related Internal Links
Related External Links
