"The knock at the door. . . "

The ALA provides resources for librarians who are faced with challenges to the material in their collections. What would you do? Would you dial the 800 number after following their guidelines for speaking with those who object to materials included in the collection or would you remove items from the shelf? 

I didn't put his up as a survey because I think that most people would answer that, of course, they would never remove items from the shelf. But I can tell you from personal experience that different things go through your head when you are faced with either dealing with the consequences of standing up for intellectual freedom or folding to community pressure. When I was an undergraduate, I managed a comic book store near Cincinnati, OH. A local group, Citizens for Community Values, pressured the Fairfield Police Department to arrest me because they did not approve of some of the books in the store. An officer interrogated me and let me know that he would "have" to make an arrest if the group kept complaining. The city council toured the store and children were sent in as part of a "sting" operation. 

So, what would you do? 

I called the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. They put me in touch with fantastic First Amendment Lawyer who guided me through understanding what the local laws actually were and what the police could and could not do. In the end, the police declined to prosecute because the chances of a conviction were low and the costs of such a trial were high. 

Booksellers, like librarians, are expected to include support for intellectual freedom as part of their professional ethics. The real ethical test comes when the easy thing to do is remove an item from the shelf.  

American Library Association's Challenge Support. (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2008, from http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/challengesupport/challengesupport.cfm

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2008, from http://www.cbldf.org/