Enriching the record

Journal of Academic Librarianship

Volumn 26, Issue 5, 2000, Pages 359-363

  Hitchcock, Leonard A ^a  

^a Idaho State U   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0348191017     PISSN: 00991333     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/s0099-1333(00)00142-7     Document Type: Article

References (14)

1. Steven Sowards, "Historical Fabrications in Library Collections," Collection Management 10 (3/4) (1988): 85.
2. American Library Association, Library Bill of Rights (available: http://www.ala.org/work/freedom/lbr.html).
3. American Library Association, Statement on Labeling: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (Available: http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/labeling.html).
4. Ibid.
5. Among those who have argued against the ALA's position on labeling in recent years are Mark Pendergrast, Adaire Klein, Henry Blanke, and Morton Weinfeld, Their works are cited below.
6. See, for example, Louise Robbins' account of the history of the ALA controversy over labeling in the early 1950s ("Segregating Propaganda in American Libraries: Ralph Ulveling Confronts the Intellectual Freedom Committee," Library Quarterly 63 (April, 1993): 143-65.
7. Morton Weinfeld, "Response to Richards' Article," Judaica Librarianship 3 (1-2), (1986-1987): 53-55. See also his earlier article in this exchange with Richards: "Response to Richards' Article," Judaica Librarianship 3 (1/2), (1986-1987): 53-55.
8. Morton Weinfeld, "Response to Richards' Article," Judaica Librarianship 3 (1-2), (1986-1987): 53-55. See also his earlier article in this exchange with Richards: "Response to Richards' Article," Judaica Librarianship 3 (1/2), (1986-1987): 53-55.
9. Adaire Klein, "The Handling of Holocaust Denial Literature in a Special Library," Judaica Librarianship 3 (1/2), 1986-1987): 55.
10. Such behavior also represents a failure to live up to the first, and perhaps the seventh, principles of the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association (Available: http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/ethics.html).
11. Mark Pendergrast, "In Praise of Labeling; or, When Shalt Thou Break Commandments?," Library Journal 113 (June 1, 1988): 84. This article, often cited in the literature, succinctly describes the dilemma faced by librarians with regard to the retention of materials that clearly have value, but are, at the same time, outdated, full of error or, in some other way, radically biased, and liable to be misconstrued, especially by inexperienced researchers. Pendergrast proposes labeling as the solution, and suggests a possible text for labels to be inserted in books that seem to call for them. Also noting the vulnerability of novice library users are Fred Nesta and Henry Blanke in their article, "Warning: Propaganda," Library Journal 116 (May 15, 1991): 41-3. Consisting of a series of memos purportedly exchanged between the authors, this article covers most of the standard arguments for and against labeling. Blanke takes the role of advocate for breaking the labeling commandment; Nesta defends it.
12. Mark Pendergrast, "In Praise of Labeling; or, When Shalt Thou Break Commandments?," Library Journal 113 (June 1, 1988): 84. This article, often cited in the literature, succinctly describes the dilemma faced by librarians with regard to the retention of materials that clearly have value, but are, at the same time, outdated, full of error or, in some other way, radically biased, and liable to be misconstrued, especially by inexperienced researchers. Pendergrast proposes labeling as the solution, and suggests a possible text for labels to be inserted in books that seem to call for them. Also noting the vulnerability of novice library users are Fred Nesta and Henry Blanke in their article, "Warning: Propaganda," Library Journal 116 (May 15, 1991): 41-3. Consisting of a series of memos purportedly exchanged between the authors, this article covers most of the standard arguments for and against labeling. Blanke takes the role of advocate for breaking the labeling commandment; Nesta defends it.
13. Sowards, "Historical Fabrications," p. 86.
14. This assertion will be challenged by all those who argue that any public comment on library materials by librarians is perniciously prejudicial and constitutes an outrageous claim to know the truth of things, Typical is the case made by Kathleen Nietzke Wolkoff, in "The Problem of Holocaust Denial Literature in Libraries," Library Trends 45 (Summer, 1996): 87-96, wherein she seeks to refute the two major "censoring" positions, one arguing for exclusion of materials from collections, the other, (specifically, Pendergrast's version of it), arguing for labeling them. She insists that librarians who take either course are assuming the role of "Judges of Truth," which is not only "a very risky proposition indeed," but once they do so "there is absolutely no philosophical barrier to them passing judgment on the truthfulness of all ideas" (p. 94). I regard this position as, on the one hand, simplistic and alarmist in its apparent anticipation that librarians will run amuck if the prohibitions of the LBR are relaxed, and, on the other, oddly arrogant in its concomitant assumption that patrons will be powerless to resist a librarian's judgement. Pendergrast (" In Praise of Labeling," p. 85) is surely being more realistic on this matter when, in defense of his proposed warning label in books, he says, "... at worst, even if the label is inappropriate, the patron could make up his or her own mind anyway."