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In discussions of censorship in my Foundations of
Librarianship class, our professor defined censorship,
as it relates to selection, as "to dismiss or reject a
book on the basis of category." In other words, to
make a  decision to not select because the book is too
expensive, or poorly written (according to reliable
reviews), or of interest to a limited portion of the
library's clientele, or, in the case of a school
library, because the book doesn't meet curricular
requirements, is not censorship.
To reject a book because, and only because, it can be
categorized as violent, politically inflammatory, not
in keeping with the beliefs of the librarian,or can be
categorized any other way, is censorship.
There is plenty of dovetailing here. Librarians make
selection decisions all the time based on selection
criteria that is not categorical, even if the books
not selected also happen to fall into a identifiably
inflammatory category. The example that the professor
gave, (and remember, this is his example, not
necessarily mine) is Madonna's book, "Sex."   Many
libraries did not select that book as part of their
collections and their justification for rejection was
that the book was poorly reviewed, poorly written, and
not worth the money (in truth, he used stronger
language, but you get the picture). The fact that one
might categorize the book as pornographic in addition
to the reasons mentioned above didn't even have to
enter the selection process. The professional opinion
of librarians, based on legitimate and official
criteria, was that the book was not worth placing in
their libraries.
 Other librarians indeed might have chosen to include
the book in their collections based on their own
professional criteria. Perhaps there was a particular
demand for that book by the patrons of those
libraries, or perhaps there was room in the budget for
that particular book. The point is, if a book is
selected or rejected based upon professional criteria
and selection policy of a library, not categorically,
censorship is not at play.
I realize that the example the professor used was
chosen within the context of selection for a public
library, but I think it is a valid example. The
selection criteria for school libraries should follow
similar guidelines, although the criteria would fit
the school library.
Jan Birney


=====
Jan Birney, Computer Specialist
Stratford Catholic Regional School System
Stratford, CT 06615
stmark6614@yahoo.com

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