Banned Books Week

This week, the ALA and libraries in many places are celebrating Banned Books Week. It's a wonderful idea, and something I am proud of my profession for - the active advocacy on behalf of our right to free speech here in the United States.



I recently re-read this article that has been sitting in my Evernote blog file for a while, and I am glad I waited - as it's perfect for this week:

How Libraries Ensure Ongoing Freedom in America, by Martha Randolph Carr

Rather than me blather on about the article aimlessly, let me start with a quote:

If there is one moment at the start of our country that probably ensured our ongoing freedom more than any other it was when Ben Franklin talked everyone else into building and opening libraries to the masses. Books were too expensive for most people in those days and therefore a lot of information was being held by a small number of people.

However, Franklin knew that discussion, debate and even heated arguments based on as much information and facts as possible were the best prevention of anarchy and the best step toward invention and creation of new ideas. If voting rights were going to be opened wide beyond landowners, and therefore beyond book buyers, then the flow of information needed to somehow get to more people too.
A system of libraries across the newly found America was his solution to making sure the ideal of democracy was kept alive for generations to come. He set the tone by not requiring that libraries leave out other ideas, and in particular political views, therefore making it possible for people to form their own opinions. That’s what countries like Iran fear most.

Libraries made it possible for those who couldn’t afford an expensive education to still be able to gain access to a rich wealth of information. There have even been studies in recent years that show a correlation between an active and healthy library and a lower crime rate in a neighborhood.

I don't know if I would link Ben Franklin to the concept of libraries as protector of diverse viewpoints, but the sentiment is valid - libraries have long been (in general) non-discriminitory collectors of information resources - even from the scriptoria in monasteries of the middle ages. Indeed, even before that time libraries were collectors (and guardians) of information of all types - stretching back to the great and ancient library at Alexandria. Let's examine this quote about the library from Wikipedia (the source of all human knowledge):

The library itself is known to have had an acquisitions department (possibly built near the stacks, or for utility closer to the harbour), and a cataloguing department. The hall contained shelves for the collections of scrolls (as the books were at this time on papyrus scrolls), known as bibliothekai (βιβλιοθῆκαι). It was rumored that carved into the wall above the shelves, a famous inscription read: The place of the cure of the soul.

The first known library of its kind to gather a serious collection of books from beyond its country's borders, the Library at Alexandria was charged with collecting all the world's knowledge. It did so through an aggressive and well-funded royal mandate involving trips to the book fairs of Rhodes and Athens and a (potentially apocryphal or exaggerated) policy of pulling the books off every ship that came into port. They kept the original texts and made copies to send back to their owners. This detail is informed by the fact that Alexandria, because of its man-made bidirectional port between the mainland and the Pharos island, welcomed trade from the East and West, and soon found itself the international hub for trade, as well as the leading producer of papyrus and, soon enough, books.

I think we can say that libraries had active roles in the collection, preservation, and sharing of all types of knowledge long before Benjamin Franklin. At the end of the article, Ms. Carr has this illuminating quote:

It may seem in the age of the internet and hand-held reading devices that both books and libraries are becoming quaint and a thing of the past. However, libraries still hold two very important things that neither Google nor a Kindle will ever be able to offer us.

The first is that libraries give everyone regardless of income the chance to participate and learn to their heart’s content. No computer or internet service required. The second is they provide the anonymity to do it. Just after 9/11 when the Federal Government demanded libraries turn over lists of what patrons were reading in order to better fix, manage and control the rest of us, librarians stood firm and said no.

They understood that coming to a place of fairness and balance requires actually learning about opposing viewpoints without the threat of interrogation or arrest. They chose to protect the flow of information for all of us rather than limit a basic freedom based on a fear of a few of us. They upheld the ideal first created by Franklin and in some small way defeated the aim of terrorists.

You know what? We're happy to do it. So thank us by going to your local library and checking out some banned books, and celebrating your rights!