Library Censorship

[tritiumnitrate]

Given that libraries are often the main source of information and knowledge available to the public (not including newspapers, television and internet which people must buy), should a library have the right to ban certain books. Most people would agree that Mein Kampf constitutes some form of hate speech. If a library were to ban that book on the grounds of dangerous ideas there wouldn't be much concern but, if by the same reasoning, a library banned the Communist Manifesto would it be as justified. The main question is, who in the public can decide what is decent? Should it be left up to the reader to decide what ideas are malicious or must a higher authority intervene?

This applies to internet filtering as well.

[freddorfman]

theve banned the book of my people thats basicly the bible GRAWWER ZABIT FASITY

time for the revolucion

oh and a side note fuck censorship

[tritiumnitrate]

I believe Marx was German.

[Ravariel]

Since libraries are essentially public institutions, no they should not be able to ban any book that is legal in the US. Pornography is strictly limited, so that's fine... as are works intended only to instigate violence. Mein Kampf actually has historical and (arguably) artistic worth, thus should not be regulated. That said: noone can FORCE a library to have a certain book, so that falls in the muddy gray area of what constitutes a "ban" and what constitutes a simple "we don't have that book".

[TonyTostieno]

At 8/17/08 01:42 AM, Ravariel wrote: Since libraries are essentially public institutions, no they should not be able to ban any book that is legal in the US. Pornography is strictly limited, so that's fine... as are works intended only to instigate violence. Mein Kampf actually has historical and (arguably) artistic worth, thus should not be regulated. That said: noone can FORCE a library to have a certain book, so that falls in the muddy gray area of what constitutes a "ban" and what constitutes a simple "we don't have that book".

Agreed.
A ban would be, "We are NOT going to carry that book."
A library not having the book would be, "We don't have the book."

Usually you can tell by someone's tone when they say the second whether they would get the book or not...

[Cuppa-LettuceNog]

It depends if they are private or public.

[SadisticMonkey]

At 8/17/08 03:14 AM, TonyTostieno wrote:

Agreed.
A ban would be, "We are NOT going to carry that book."
A library not having the book would be, "We don't have the book."

samefag

[D2Kvirus]

My local library banned NG, so...blame Tricky the Clown.

[bobomajo]

Fuck no as soon as you do that shit, its just a few more steps to fascism if that is the desired direction. Censorship isn't viable in this age anyway, information and misinformation is too available. If a certain piece of art (books, media, visual art etc) should be illegal, and is deemed so by society then its ok. But if it doesn't meet the criteria as being illegal you have no right to censor, just because of your subjective opinion. Only idiots take hate speech seriously anyway.

[bobomajo]

At 8/17/08 10:18 AM, D2Kvirus wrote: My local library banned NG, so...blame Tricky the Clown.

Its hypocritical of me, but I can see some justification as to why they would. Since everyone can use it, they would not want people wasting their time on public recourses when someone else could be using the computer more productively. Also its a public place so any kid could see what your accessing, so its reasonable to block out some things. If its a public place where your not discriminating any age group then you need to try keep things "family friendly" so to speak.

What about adult books? Well yeah nothings stopping some kid reading them, but they will probably get told off if caught reading them by someone, and almost certainly would not be able to borrow them, like pornos in news agents.

[Saruman200]

I'm against any type of censorship law, but if a library chooses to ban a certain book, they should be aloud too. Not that I agree with it. If you ban Mein Kampf or the Communist Manifesto than doesn't that mean you have to ban any type of opinion book or editorial?

[FatherTime89]

It's a grey area.
Libraries have a limited budget so sometimes it's not possible to have a copy of every book their patrons might want.
Libraries are public so I don't think they should be allowed to censor though.

[Tome89]

We had Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto in our higher-grades elementary school library. Along with Lolita. I didn't know what it was about at the time.

Also, let's just say every library should have a few copies of 1984...

[PieGraphGlock]

At 8/17/08 12:48 AM, freddorfman wrote: time for the revolucion

I'm cool with that. But you commies better not lead it. That's my biggest fear with a revolution in America. Things won't necessarily be better when the dust settles, just different. *shutter*

[D2Kvirus]

At 8/17/08 12:20 PM, bobomajo wrote:

At 8/17/08 10:18 AM, D2Kvirus wrote: My local library banned NG, so...blame Tricky the Clown.

Its hypocritical of me, but I can see some justification as to why they would. Since everyone can use it, they would not want people wasting their time on public recourses when someone else could be using the computer more productively. Also its a public place so any kid could see what your accessing, so its reasonable to block out some things. If its a public place where your not discriminating any age group then you need to try keep things "family friendly" so to speak.

The thing is, their censorship is so bizarre.

For example, for a long time Livejournal was blocked off, but Myspace and Facebook weren't. Dailymotion is blocked off, but Youtube isn't. Heck, a lot of adult dating sites aren't blocked off, and they're bordering on pornography. Other sites are randomly classified as pornography or betting sites when they aren't - albeit you can go on the Ladbrooks site and waste your money freely.

[Conspiracy3]

All ideas are decent. We should read books no matter now non politically correct or no matter what the connotation is. We should expose ourselves to all ideas, good or bad, so that we can actually make intelligent informed decisions about what needs to happen to ourselves, and to our societies. Ironically, if you don't allow books like the communist manifesto voters won't know enough to vote. And without a well informed citizenry democracy collapses.

[kraor024]

All Ideas should be shared freeley to block the flow of knowlege and opinion you slow/control social progress
Mein kampf may have been written by a radical and evil man but that does not mean you can not learn from it (it's called a bad example) I have never read it so for all I know Hitler might have actualy had one good point or idea even if he was a hatefilled bastard

[kraor024]

Remember when a buch of conservitive Christians tried to bann Hair Potter from schools
Because it violated disestablishment they all failed to realize that if they succeaded in banning books like those (I read the first one I saw no religious anything in it except Christmas) they would be protesting next year to keep the bible on the schools selves (I have yet to see a school library without at least 5 bibles that have never been checked out) If you start pulling access because ayou find the books offensive it won't be long before there are no books left on the selves

[ChickenReaper]

They shouldn't ban anything let people read whatever they want PUT PORN IN LIBRARIES

[Imperator]

as far as I know, I've never heard of a library actually doing so.....
Does anyone have an example where this has happened?

Otherwise the only time I've seen a library not carry a book is either due to theme or space restrictions (ie, you won't find a math book in the Classics library, and you won't find every Classics text in it either since it's only 1 room big).

[MultiCanimefan]

Banning a book isn't going to stop the idea from entering the minds of people. If they would rather choose to keep children from reading Mein Kampf or The Communist Manifesto out of a fear of "bad" influences, that's their prerogative, but they shouldn't ban it outright that prevents anyone from reading it. Mein Kampf, in my opinion, is only hate speech once it's contents have been put into practice. If someone catches you reading The Communist Manifesto and it isn't for research, more often than not you'll get looked at like they think you want to drape the Hammer and Sickle from the side of the library.

[RydiaLockheart]

It's wrong, but sometimes librarians practice self-censorship. I am also guilty of this. What I mean is that sometimes if we know a book will be stolen or cause some sort of problem, we will not buy it in order to avoid any trouble. More often, it's the "stolen" part we're worried about. Other times, we just can't get the book. Libraries can't just call up Barnes and Noble and buy books. We have vendors and an ordering process we go through. If that particular vendor doesn't carry that title, we're out of luck.

As for internet filtering, the process depends on the library. We have filtering levels on each card. Any patron can set if they want their access filtered or not. Parents can control what sites their children see this way. With unfiltered access, you can look at any site you want. Our system will block certain sites if we know they contain something that can harm our system. Just yesterday I had to explain to a woman a site she wanted to visit was blocked because of the downloads it drops on our computers.

While our computer system does allow access to porn, we will temporarily block your access if we catch you viewing it, since it's against our policy and makes a lot of patrons uncomfortable. The idea is that generally we trust you, but be mature. If you violate that trust, there are consequences. (Permanent blocking only comes from repeated incidents.)