April/May 1997, pgs. 57-65

Education & Information

American Library Association Convention Highlights Internet Access, Censorship

The American Educational Trust, publisher of this magazine, was one of almost 800 exhibitors at the 1997 midwinter meeting of the American Library Association (ALA), held Feb. 16-18 in Washington, DC. The AET magazine and books display competed for the attention of 4,600 registered attendees in addition to more than 1,000 walk-in visitors. Every major publisher of books and periodicals had a booth, as did representatives from audiovisual firms, furniture suppliers, and computer equipment companies.

The AET display sought to link library packages of donated Middle East-related books with subscriptions to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in order to stretch the limited funds of the AET Library Endowment, which can barely scratch the surface of library book requests.

All libraries which submitted a $25 Washington Report subscription were offered the new special library package, which includes books with a list value of $150, including AET’s own newest book, Seeing the Light: Personal Encounters with the Middle East and Islam, which is to be released in April. Libraries that already subscribe can request the book package at no additional charge when they renew their subscription. If a library is receiving a $20 donated subscription, for an additional $25 it, too, can obtain the $150 book package. As in the past, librarians who want the magazine but cannot afford the $25 were invited to leave their names and AET will seek a donor. The same offer made at the ALA convention also has been mailed to a large list of libraries in the U.S. and Canada.

Many of the panel discussions at the ALA conference focused on censorship of books in schools and libraries. In 1996, the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) registered 664 challenges (complaints against books by authors ranging from Mark Twain, J.D. Salinger, and Judy Blume to R.L. Stine). For each challenge reported to OIF, there may be as many as four or five unreported complaints.

The majority of the challenges concerned books children chose to check out of their school libraries, not books in the mandatory school curriculum. The OIF educates librarians across the country on how to deal with censorship attempts in their communities (call [800] 545-2433 for more information).

The ALA is in the middle of another freedom of information fight. It is the lead plaintiff in litigation challenging a Nov. 1, 1996 New York statute that makes it a crime to disseminate materials that are “harmful to minors” through any computer communications network. Judith Krug, director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, said the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have joined the ALA suit because the law is an unconstitutional, content-based restriction on free speech. A similar case will be heard by the Supreme Court this spring.

The discussions made clear the American Library Association’s dedication to retaining the rights of all Americans to roam the Information Superhighway or read any books of their choice. At the same time, discussions raised the problems posed when someone chooses to put directions for building a pipe bomb on the Internet.

Compared to such conundrums, the problem posed by attempts at political censorship of the content of Middle East-related materials in American libraries seem simple to deal with. Nevertheless, it is ironic that in controversial Middle East matters some librarians are turning their backs on everything the ALA stands for. Either because of intimidation by some library patrons or in accordance with their own private agendas, some librarians are choosing what viewpoints to make available to their patrons, and what information to withhold concerning emotion-laden but also critically important Middle East matters.

Are there really librarians who regard themselves as self-appointed media censors and find pretexts to keep the Washington Report, or even-handed books about the Middle East, off the shelves of their libraries?

We have dedicated readers like Bill Canady, who keeps checking the shelves of the Gulf Shores, AL public library waiting for the subscription to the Washington Report and the copy of Assault on the Liberty he donated to appear, as they already have on the shelves of other libraries in the area to which he has donated them. There also is Robert Pisapia, of Westlake Village, CA, whose offer of a library subscription donation was “lost” for three months and is now “under evaluation.” Then there was the library that told another Washington Report reader that instead of donating a subscription it would prefer that he provide the cash and the library would “handle the paperwork” of subscribing. He did, but they still haven’t subscribed.

How does a library patron begin the process of donating a subscription or a book package to a local library and/or its branches, or interest the library in ordering its own subscription to take advantage of AET’s latest library book package offer?

If the library doesn’t subscribe to the Washington Report but carries one or more other journals presenting a strong pro-Israel point of view, a patron should have no trouble making the case that both points of view should be available to the library’s clientele. If Commentary (published by the American Jewish Committee), New Republic (a Likud-oriented weekly), or U.S.News and World Report (a very pro-Israel news weekly) are on the shelf, then in the interest of objectivity and fair play the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs should be there too. If a library says it hasn’t shelf room for any such “specialized” periodicals, one might point out the periodicals targeted to bicycle and quilting enthusiasts.

AET has received offers of assistance from local Islamic centers. If a public library declines to accept a donated subscription on the basis that most of its readers would not be interested, would-be donors can look to the local mosque to supply names of others in the area who are interested. A petition from a local Islamic center would certainly indicate that a large number of tax-paying local library patrons want a subscription to the Washington Report and books on the Middle East to be available to help students with reports or teachers organizing lectures.

It is ironic that there are bad apples even in an organization that prides itself on safeguarding freedom of information. At the ALA convention, AET staff members were harassed by an Israeli military officer who seemed to feel Americans had no right to hear differing views on his country’s disputes with its Arab neighbors, and by an American woman who represented herself as a librarian but said the books AET offers on the Middle East “sow dissension in the country.” It’s important that such people, who may be rude, insistent and threatening, do not succeed in intimidating librarians into denying the majority of library patrons their First Amendment rights to hear all sides of questions of great national importance.

If you want to help balance library shelves across the country, ask your local public, school or university library officials if they would like a magazine donation, and start the ball rolling. If your own library is one of the more than 4,000 libraries already receiving the magazine, please give instead to the tax-exempt AET Library Endowment to help fill what we hope will be a flood of requests from U.S. librarians for our new combined subscription and library book package.

—Delinda C. Hanley