Intellectual Freedom and Twilight

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about intellectual freedom and the role that libraries play in providing that right. This week, September 25-October 2, is national Banned Books Week. The annual event was started in the US in 1982 in response to a number of challenges against books held in libraries, bookstores, and schools. While many books contain material that may appear violent, sexist, or racist to some, it is the obligation of libraries to include these books in their collections so as not to violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights. I’m specifically referring to the freedom of speech part of the First Amendment, or in this case, freedom of the written word. Applied on an international level, removing these books from libraries would violate Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) established by the United Nations in 1948. Article 19 states that:

 “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

As we’ve been discussing in my International Librarianship class, many countries that are active participants in the UN do not uphold the rights established in the UDHR for their citizens. China and Cuba would be a few examples of such countries. However, in the United States we do provide these human rights for everyone. Because every person in the US has the right “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media,” we will not remove To Kill a Mockingbird or Catcher in the Rye from our libraries. We will not even remove more recent items from the banned books list, such as And Tango Makes Three for its homosexual penguins (!?) or the Twilight series, despite the opinion of this blogger that Stephenie Meyer is a terrible writer and should consider a career change. You see, even though I greatly dislike the writing style of Stephenie Meyer, as a librarian I would still include her books in my collection and would not pass judgment on those who choose to read her. Who am I to tell you not to read Twilight? Be an independent thinker and make the choice for yourself. That’s what intellectual freedom is all about!

For more information on Banned Books Week and the list of banned books, click here or visit ALA’s page about the issue here. I retrieved the quote of Article 19 from Wikipedia.