Educating Librarians in Intellectual Freedom

IT IS TRUE, of course, that most early American librarians-believers in the logic of the Enlightenment-personally abhorred book censorship, and that some supported this conviction with appropriate words and deeds, But the profession’s putatively strong commitment to the right to read and to the wider concept of intellectual freedom is nevertheless largely a twentieth century development, beginning in earnest in the late twenties as a belated response to the excesses of the vice societies and, specifically, the notorious “Clean Books” crusade of 1923-25. Revulsion against the Nazi book burnings in May, 1933, and the more heinous barbarisms of the forties strengthened the library community’s dedication to the intellectual freedom idea, as the Library Bill of Rights, a codification of principles issued during that period, attests. The repressive spirit of McCarthyism in the fifties likewise evoked a reaffirmation of the commitment (for example, endorsement of the eloquent Freedom to Read statement in 1953), although the Fiske report,l a sociologist’s study of book selection habits of California public and school librarians published in 1959, raised some disquieting questions about adherence to that commitment in actual practice. Finally, the sixties-years of political protest and social disorder-further sensitized and broadened the profession’s concern for intellectual freedom and civil liberties, the decade ending with vociferous demands by many librarians and ad hoc groups that the American Library Association develop an effective legal support fund and other concrete instruments for promoting and protecting the practice of intellectual freedom among librarians. Historically, library school curricula mirror the profession’s evolving concern with intellectual freedom principles and censorship problems. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that available historical