Censorship Libraries Essay

We believe they still favor free enterprise in ideas and expression.These efforts at suppression are related to a larger pattern of pressures being brought against education, the press, art and images, films, broadcast media, and the Internet. The shadow of fear cast by these pressures leads, we suspect, to an even larger voluntary curtailment of expression by those who seek to avoid controversy or unwelcome scrutiny by government officials.We realize that the application of these propositions may mean the dissemination of ideas and manners of expression that are repugnant to many persons.

We believe they still favor free enterprise in ideas and expression.These efforts at suppression are related to a larger pattern of pressures being brought against education, the press, art and images, films, broadcast media, and the Internet. The shadow of fear cast by these pressures leads, we suspect, to an even larger voluntary curtailment of expression by those who seek to avoid controversy or unwelcome scrutiny by government officials.We realize that the application of these propositions may mean the dissemination of ideas and manners of expression that are repugnant to many persons.

The origins of intellectual freedom can be traced back to Socrates, who believed in the value and benefits of free discussion.

The American Library Association (ALA) has been interested in intellectual freedom for a long time, with the first Library Bill of Rights written in 1939.

We, as individuals devoted to reading and as librarians and publishers responsible for disseminating ideas, wish to assert the public interest in the preservation of the freedom to read.

Most attempts at suppression rest on a denial of the fundamental premise of democracy: that the ordinary individual, by exercising critical judgment, will select the good and reject the bad.

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.

The freedom to read and write is almost the only means for making generally available ideas or manners of expression that can initially command only a small audience.

The written word is the natural medium for the new idea and the untried voice from which come the original contributions to social growth.

We believe that these pressures toward conformity present the danger of limiting the range and variety of inquiry and expression on which our democracy and our culture depend.

We believe that every American community must jealously guard the freedom to publish and to circulate, in order to preserve its own freedom to read.