Friday from the Archives: “Banned Anything Good Lately?” by Gene D. Lanier from NCLR 1 (1992)
Gene Lanier, a professor of Library and Information Science at ECU, wrote three “Freedom of Speech” columns for three early issues of NCLR: “Banned Anything Good Lately?” in 1992, “Who Knows What You’ve Been Reading?” in 1993, and “Is Hate a Family Value?” in 1995.
“Our generation has been offered the dreadful burden of choice. In the marketplace of ideas, we stand both united and divided. Caste and class, pride and prejudice, intolerance and bigotry–these are our bonds and chains. What is free choice to one is oppression to another. Our knowledge separates us as well as unites us. Our arts, our literature, our music bring us together and set us apart.” Lanier details in all three essays the rising amount of requests to libraries (both public and academic) to remove books from shelves and catalogs and also the rising number of law enforcement requests for library records, not through official warrants but just “casual” asks.
“Whatever the euphemism used to initiate censorship, the effect is the same,” Lanier states in his 1995 piece. “Any abridgement of our basic freedom to read–whatever its label–limits the diversity of ideas, opinions, and points of view to which our citizens should be exposed-and to which librarians and educators in a free society have an obligation not only to provide, but to encourage. The fight to maintain our freedom to read and our access to information must be continued….”
This “war on words” has only increased over the past thirty years. In 2000, 378 unique titles were requested to be removed, according to the American Library Association. In 2023, that number catapulted to 4240.
“Although diametrically opposed, both sides in this war over words see their young as the victims. Lanier and his cohorts champion the right of youth to think for themselves; the fundamentalists champion the right of parents to instill their values unimpeded in their offspring. Can either camp be criticized for such noble intentions?” writer Elizabeth McDavid (Jones) wrote in a response to Lanier in 1995. “Yet both continue as adversaries, slugging it out like a couple of armies. What a sad and bitter irony it would be if, in the end, after casualties are counted, both sides discovered their battle cries had been the same.”
We read literature to learn, to empathize, to understand, and to grow together as humans. Let us continue to support our stalwart librarians (and bookstore owners) in their labor to serve all the readers in their communities.
Read the entire essay on GaleCengage or purchase a copy of the 1992 (and 93 and 95) issue.
