Intellectual Freedom in Rural Libraries

update: links should work now
Jessamyn already wrote about the “Small But Powerful Guide to Winning Support for Your Rural Library” (available here as a PDF). You can now also access the Small is Powerful Online Toolkit for Winning Support for Your Rural Library online. I haven’t had a chance to study it in depth, but it’s certainly something I’ll be turning to for my small rural library.

Saturday, June 24 was a sort of unofficial Day of Rural, Native, and Tribal Libraries at ALA. I attended a variety of programs on rural, native, and tribal libraries, including the official unveiling of the Guide and Toolkit, a Town Hall Meeting on issues facing rural, native, and tribal libraries, and a program on Intellectual Freedom in Rural Libraries presented by John Ellison of the University of Buffalo.

While much of his program contained advice about handling challenges that would be applicable anywhere, some of the tips were particularly relevant to rural librarians, who are isolated from their urban colleagues and often from each other. (I am lucky in that regard–although Wyoming is the least populous state in the nation, its libraries have worked very hard at creating a community. We all share the same ILS, and we meet frequently, both in person and online.)

Ellison stressed that the most important thing you can do to protect intellectual freedom is to educate people about it. He suggested incorporating intellectual freedom messages in every medium you use to communicate with the public:

• Displays
• e-mail signatures (“A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to.” –Granville Hicks
• web page
• bookmarks, posters
• letterhead (“Unrestricted access to information since 1896″)
• bumper stickers (“I support the library and I vote”-make them available at the library for the community

He then presented a checklist of things to do in case of a challenge:

• Persons other than the librarian should be the voice defending the library
• Form an advisory community-library school friends, colleagues, attorneys, etc.-people who can provide support and tell you when you need to keep quiet
• Study the challengers-where do they come from? What are their beliefs?
• Determine the needs of the community (not just the users of the library) and meet those needs [something one hopes one is doing before the challenge]
• Inform the media if necessary (should not be first step)
• Defend the principles of intellectual freedom, not the item in question
• Use technology-connect with other libraries, different communities (Board, Friends, staff, etc.)
• Learn the hidden agenda of challengers (intelligent design, religious education, protect others from evil, right to life, whatever)
• Hold public forums if necessary
• Prepare for rhetoric battle (challengers will say items are destroying family values, motivating sexual violence, etc.)
• Expose all of challengers’ beliefs

If you’d like to hear the whole program, it will be presented by OPAL sometime later this summer.