What it means to be Intellectually Free...

The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peacefully to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” In their own Bill of Rights, the American Library Association states that, “libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.”

But what does this all mean? More specifically, what does this mean for libraries? The people and librarians of West Bend, Wisconsin are getting a crash course (literally) in First Amendment rights and intellectual freedom. In recent months this community, just north of Milwaukee has exploded in a battle over what is appropriate material for public libraries. The issue started when Jim and Ginny Maziarka complained about several materials in the young adult section of the library that pertained to homosexuality, bisexual and transgender issues. It has since snowballed into a much larger scope and has resulted in four library board members not having their positions renewed and even a lawsuit from the Christian Civil Liberties Union.

The key problems with the Maziarka’s complaints are that they violate every aspect of the First Amendment and the fundamentals of intellectual freedom. Our country was based upon the democratic freedoms of expression, speech, and religion. Public libraries in our most fundamental sense, find ourselves responsible for the protection of these freedoms. We understand and appreciate the differing views in our society and do our best offer them to our respective communities. We also understand that everyone in our communities does not share the same moral beliefs and values, and for this reason we seek to protect both sides of every picture. We as public libraries walk a fine line with intellectual freedom. There are many reasons to say, “yes, that book is inappropriate for whatever reason…” but, in doing so are we undermining the literary, artistic, and social value of it? This is the question that public librarians all over the country ask themselves every day. It is a tough decision to make, but in the end we find ourselves erring on the side of intellectual freedom.

Personally, I find it to be one of the most important issues in libraries today. Are there things that I find offensive in our own library here in Hiawatha? Absolutely! But would I ever suggest or even demand that we get rid of any of those items? Never! Regardless of how I feel, it is more important to me that there is access to these items for those who want them.

It will be interesting to see how this situation in West Bend pans out. It is my sincerest hope that the Maziarka’s do not win with their cause, because the results could be devastating or even worse, the fictional world of Fahrenheit 451 could become real. And that is something that no citizen of a democratic country should support.

It does not take a village...

...to raise a child...it takes damn good parents. I am not a parent. Enough said.

Numbers

Here are some numbers to take in:

Last month our circulation at the Hiawatha Public Library was 30,000 items. Last year during the same time period (even with the flood shutting us down for almost a week) our circulation was 22,000 items.

We have 10 people on staff here at the library. Last summer we generally had at least 2 if not 3 extra staff from Cedar Rapids working with us.

We had 11,918 people through our doors in the month of June. That's an average of almost 400 people per day!

So what exactly do these numbers all equate to???

Some very worn out staff!!

Heck yeah!

We are officially half way through summer reading program here at Hiawatha!

Get your read on kids, time is running out!