before deciding to become a librarian (when i was following an english lit track), i was aware of just a few intellectual freedom issues, such as the patriot act’s impact on library records and privacy. i’m revealing my ignorance here, but after beginning the u.w. ischool program, i learned for the first time that you could actually view pornography in a library. i realized that i had never even considered the possibility before. probably most people’s ideas of what is acceptable behavior within libraries are shaped by their first experiences in primary school. you get so used to the faculty limiting almost all of your actions (keeping quiet, sitting still, handling books properly) that it is easy to form a conception of libraries as highly regulated. you simply assume that only “proper” behavior is allowed, with “proper” being limited to privately reading controversial material and not displaying it for others to see.
this naturally leads me to wonder how much of the public knows about all of their rights within libraries. when searching an online catalog, how many people bother to browse the policy section to learn whether it is possible to have filters removed? i have never paid enough attention to notice how many clearly display this information within their buildings, though i will now.
i’m also curious if patrons in tightly-knit communities face more societal barriers to full usage of public resources, whether digital or in print. in my hometown, everyone who worked in the public and school libraries were either parents of friends or well-known to my family. the librarians mostly worked part-time, were only trained to perform general day-to-day functions, and several were notorious gossips. so even if i knew i had the right to view potential objectionable material, i wouldn’t. it would take less than half a day before my parents found out, based on past experience with books. if i were to go back as an adult, i still doubt i would do any research on feminism and sexual imagery with my old sunday school teacher behind the counter just a few feet away.
suing a library for distributing personal records without receiving a warrant may be seen as heroic. but alleging malpractice in an open court after a librarian told all of your friends about your past searches for s.t.d. information would certainly cause more embarrassment. a small library may be able to purchase privacy screens to bypass bad professional behavior, but it’s doubtful that it could afford automatic check-out stations to avoid the old-fashioned embarrassment of handing over a book with sex in the title. this raises the question of whether absolute privacy should be valued over personal service. proper training is clearly important in any library, but it is unfortunately much easier to imagine small libraries making a one-time payment towards technology than continual educational courses or professional-level salaries. of course i don’t mean to imply that the majority of librarians in small communities are not well-educated or act unethically, but i do think this issue deserves more attention. we are more likely to face either overt or subvert judgment - or the revealing of our reading habits in casual conversation - from a librarian than a subpoena for records from the federal government. and it is this “chilling effect” that almost everyone is aware of, yet seems to receive little attention in the literature.
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