Intellectual Freedom Statement

By: Joseph Johnson

Intellectual freedom in the 21st century is the ability to study, learn, and build
upon any information or subject matter a person desires. This ability is achieved through
the use of various resources including both print and digital sources. My definition is
very much in line with the definition that is accepted by the American Library
Association, which states, Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both
seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for
free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question cause
or movement may be explored. (ALA, 2010).
We live in a world today where information is all around us, and most
everyone has an opinion about it one way or another. As the school library and media
specialist, it is important to foster, promote, and protect intellectual freedom while being
able to pick resources that foster diversity and truly help in exploration of subjects from
every angle. However, what one may find benign, another in the community may not.
This can lead to messy controversies between the school library media specialist and
various community groups or parents trying to censor or ban the offending items.
In the article Dirty Little Secret, the author and a first amendment advocate
provides some useful advice. Make sure your school has a written selection policy and
reconsideration policy that addresses written challenges to books. If you don't, you're
totally vulnerable. says Scales. (Whelan, 2009). Luckily, guidelines have already been
created and set down by the State and Federal Government that must be followed by the
school and library media specialist when it comes to intellectual freedom. These
guidelines help protect younger children from subject matter and language that is not age

appropriate, but does not hamper their access to information. As educators and librarians,
we all want to be sure that our students are protected, but at the same time have
unfettered access. However, even with these guidelines, schools and school librarians
have found themselves in the middle of a public firestorm, with the school library media
specialist scrambling to justify the book and its place in the curriculum. These attacks as
a whole have led to many schools and libraries to sometimes self-censor or become too
restrictive with items such as filters. As stated in Issues and Trends in Intellectual
Freedom for Teacher Librarians, Perceived risks have driven many school districts to
limit access for both students and teachers through aggressive Internet filtering. ALA
opposes the use of filters for a variety of reasons, beginning with the basic violation
of intellectual freedom that comes with a product that is designed to deny access to
information. (Maycock, 2011). These perceived risks have caused many districts, to
move to the excessive use of these filters that have blocked many internet sites, access to
Web 2.0 tools, and other areas that are beneficial in the education and intellectual
freedom of our students and teachers. Filters make mistakes. They block
constitutionally-protected speech, while still allowing objectionable material to be
viewed. This makes filters impractical for libraries and offers a false sense of security to
librarians, administrators, parents, and students alike. (Maycock, 2011).
However, there are further, less extreme steps that should be implemented in the
library to further protect intellectual freedom and choice. For example, as a future
teacher librarian, I would form a media task force committee that would be made of
stakeholders, teachers, and administration to collaborate and review any possible
resources as well as convene over resources that may be seen as controversial. By having

a committee such as this, full ownership is not only on the school librarian and media
specialist, but is spread over the district and community. Through collaboration with this
committee, the risk of self-censorship is also mitigated, and the proper selection of items
to celebrate different viewpoints can be increased. This allows our students to research,
build upon, and synthesize information in a way that is not restrictive or stifles their
ability to reach the information that they need.

Citations
ALA (2010). What is Intellectual Freedom? Brochure. Retrieved February 3, 2015, from
http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslissues/intellectual_freedom_bro
chure1210.pdf
Lamb, A. (2007). Intellectual freedom for youth social technology and social networks.
Knowledge Quest, 36(2), 38-45.
Maycock, A. (2011). Issues and trends in intellectual freedom for teacher
librarians. Teacher Librarian, 39(1), 8-12.
Whelan, D. L. (2009). A dirty little secret: Self-censorship is rampant and lethal. School
Library Journal, February, 26-30.