Intellectual Freedom Essay -- Essays Papers

Intellectual licenseThe History of Intellectual Freedom and CensorshipThreats to intellectual freedom have existed since the printed word. History has seen bitter security review battles over what should and should non be published, sold, and read. The fight for intellectual freedom has been grand and complex, and many agencies have been involved in the process. For example, in 1954, libraries had difficulty trade materials from behind the Iron Curtain. The post office had taken on the type of the censor and had labeled veritable papers unmailable and refused to deliver them (Newsletter, January, 1954, 7). The Civil Rights period was also a difficult time for our country, and libraries were not exempt from its pressures. On August 11, 1962, a federal court ordered the public depository library in Montgomery, Alabama to desegregate its reading and browsing areas. The very future(a) day in Albany, Georgia, several Negro youths went into the public library, and the building was promptly closed indefinitely in the interest of public safety (Newsletter, October, 1962, 1). Even as of late as 1962, intellectual freedom was still a dream. There was not equal glide slope to information. The reaction of this library actually impeded the get to to all users in an attempt to discriminate against the few.We believe or else that what mountain read is deeply important - that ideas can be insecure - hardly that the suppression of ideas is fatal to a democratic society. Today the ALA takes the stand of anti-censorship, hardly as illustrated, that was not always the case in the United States. In the 19th and much of the 20th centuries, librarians felt it their duty to restrict access to library materials to children and adults. Librarians were admonished to ob... ... to dominate to the library field. Intellectual freedom is a world-wide worry and is very complex. It includes all forms of information, access to all users, and censorship. Librarians face many pressures when transaction with users and providers of information. There is pressure from parents, religious groups, administrators, and government agencies to restrict access to certain materials. Sometimes they win and sometimes they lose, but librarians do not carry these propositions in the comfortable belief that what people read is unimportant. We believe rather that what people read is deeply important - that ideas can be dangerous - but that the suppression of ideas is fatal to a democratic society. Freedom itself is a dangerous way of life, but it is ours (From the Freedom to Read Statement as quoted in Rubin 161). Librarians continue to fight for that freedom today.