Head Tale

From my time on the Calgary Freedom to Read Week committee and having planned a student reading at FIMS, I’ve heard quite a few misconceptions about what “Freedom To Read” is about: 

Here’s what Freedom to Read is not:
1. Freedom to Read is not limited to reading.  Freedom to Read means you have the right to read or view any books, web sites, art, music or anything else that you choose to (or that your parents allow you to read/view if you are still not legally considered an adult.) 

2. Freedom to Read Week is not a way to get around the law.  Nobody who is in favour of Freedom to Read is going to promote your right to read things like child pornography, hate literature or other materials that have been declared illegal by the law.  (Okay, there are probably a few libertarian-types out there who think that you should have the right to be exposed to *any* material of your choosing.  I’m not going to split hairs on this.  The majority of people who believe in Freedom to Read draw a line at illegal materials.)

3. Freedom to Read Week is not a way to force someone else to be exposed to something they don’t want to be.  To put it another way, just because you can expose someone to challenged/challenging materials, doesn’t mean that you should.  The Dutch Muslim cartoons last year are a perfect example – just because you have the right to put them on a poster and march in front of your local mosque to express your “freedom”, if you do that, you’re probably just being an asshole.

4. Sort of similar to the last point, Freedom to Read Week is not an excuse to force anyone (or their children) to read something they don’t want to.  You can definitely suggest that somebody read something but if they don’t like it because of its sex/violence/language (those are the biggies that bring on the challenges) [edit: as well as “big picture” reasons like political, ideological or religious content], the choice of what to view (or not view) remains with each individual.

5. Freedom to Read Week is not an endorsement of materials.  A library may carry Madonna’s “Sex” book (the most stolen book in public library history) and other challenged or controversial materials in the interest of providing the widest diversity of opinions.  But it doesn’t naturally follow that all staff member have to believe in or agree with the viewpoints or attitudes presented in those materials (although they obviously should be supportive of the idea of Freedom to Read, being a core principle of librarianship.)

[2007-03-02 – discussion during an appearance on the Book Chick‘s radio show this week inspired me to expand my list by a couple points:

6.  Freedom to Read is not a “left” or a “right” issue (I think people often believe that only people holding the opposite opinion of their own want to ban books.)  Challenges come from both ends of the political spectrum and are just as likely to come on grounds of political correctness from someone on the left as on they are on morality grounds from someone on the right.

7. Whether you agree or not, freedom of expression doesn’t apply in certain situations such as regulated TV and radio broadcasts, regulated motion pictures, and also in private businesses.  For example, Heather Reisman, the Chairperson of Chapters books here in Canada, came under fire a few years ago for her decision not to stock “Mein Kampf” in her stores even though she was completely within her rights as a private business person to do so, just as an organic grocery store is within their rights to not stock GM food or something.  Although, just for the record, I didn’t agree with her decision either – I think bookstores fill a certain niche, different than a grocery or hardware store, and should be held to higher standards.  Still, the book is available from numerous other sources, including your local independent bookstore and your local public library most likely, so it’s not as big of a deal to my mind as some people made it out to be.]

Bonus: Freedom to
Read Week is not something that only has meaning for one week of the
year.  Challenges happen all year round and this is an issue that
shouldn’t be forgotten the other 51-weeks of the year.