Intellectual Freedom Essay -- Essays Papers

Intellectual granting immunityThe History of Intellectual Freedom and CensorshipThreats to intellectual freedom have existed since the printed word. History has seen bitter censoring battles over what should and should not be published, sold, and read. The fight for intellectual freedom has been extensive 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 piece of the censor and had labeled real papers unmailable and refused to deliver them (Newsletter, January, 1954, 7). The Civil Rights sequence 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 succeeding(a) day in Albany, Georgia, several Negro youths went into the public library, and the bui lding was at a time closed indefinitely in the interest of public safety (Newsletter, October, 1962, 1). Even as modern as 1962, intellectual freedom was still a dream. There was not equal entrance fee to information. The reaction of this library actually impeded the opening to all users in an attempt to discriminate against the few.We believe sooner that what bulk read is deeply important - that ideas can be dodgy - scarce that the suppression of ideas is fatal to a democratic society. Today the ALA takes the stand of anti-censorship, merely 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 line and is very complex. It includes all forms of information, access to all users, and censorship. Librarians face many pressures when dealings 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 bow 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.