American Library Association Proceedings 1971 Of The Midwinter Meeting Los Angeles January 18 22 1971 And The Annual Conference Dallas June 20 26 1971

Author : Toni Samek
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786450738
Total Pages : 199 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

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Download or read book Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility in American Librarianship, 1967-1974 written by Toni Samek and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-07-06 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1967 and 1974, a number of librarians came together to push for change in the American Library Association. They soon prompted a majority of the profession to examine their role in the dissemination and preservation of culture and to ask basic questions about the terrain that the profession defends. A particular concern was the limitations to intellectual freedom (if any) that might arise in the pursuit of other perhaps equally worthy goals. The questions raised by this advocacy group were based on a relatively new concept of librarianly social responsibility that was partly an outgrowth of the civil rights and antiwar agitation of the period and partly a continuation of the proud traditions of the alternative press movement in the United States. The resulting dissension and turmoil exposed an inherent discrepancy not only between the rhetoric of ideals within the profession and the reality of practice but between librarians as agents of change--librarians' having a social agenda--and professional "neutrality" or the provision of information for all sides without taking sides. These conflicts have never been resolved. The reader will find in this book a fully researched presentation of the years of ferment and political infighting that brought the issues into such sharp focus.