Censorship by Queensland Public Librarians: Philosophy and Practice

Abstract

Public librarians have long held to the social justice philosophy of free access to information for all people. The issue of censorship relates to the professional principles of the Australian Library and Information Association and to the role public librarians play in nurturing social capital in communities. This paper considers the philosophy of free access to information in the context of contemporary item selection and classification processes within public libraries. A survey of Queensland public librarians identified attitudes towards the public right to information, and determined the degree to which censorship is practised or prevented in public libraries. The findings support those of international research that anti-censorship attitudes are not always indicative of censorship behaviours, and that some librarians employ self censorship of materials to avoid censorship challenges. Edited version of a paper presented at the 2004 Alia biennial conference Gold Coast Queensland under the title 'Zero censorship! Who are we kidding? An exploratory analysis of the opinions and experiences of Queensland based public librarians with regard to the censorship of materials in public library collections'.

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