Censorship Type: conformity

I thought the issue of presenting same sex couples as sexually explicit interesting. Censorship has historically been a way for people to conform to one viewpoint. Where have we fallen into the belief system of female being servile, passive, submissive before? Studying ways in which societies have suppressed individual expression in identifiable groups goes a long way to our understanding of what people face in other cultures. If I say my son cannot be gay, because it is against god's laws (which I would not do) but it would remind me of a time when races were taught inside fundamentalist institutions as mandated by God to be separate. Similarly to how race was viewed as inferior by those who chose to believe it. Almost everything can take on sinister qualities if minds are allowed to work overtime without being checked or educated.

By controlling comic books, France sought to control

the development of the character of its young and, by extension,

culturally reassert a specifically French national identity emphasizing

community, social and civic responsibility, rational progress, morality,

and integrity (Jobs, 2003).

 

The point could be made also of the lack of balancing materials or filtering , which is another type of control. Richard I. Jobs, scholar, continues in his Journal Article Tarzan Under Attack:

Either a woman was depicted as a point of struggle between

men or as ''a superwoman who fights against men, with cruelty and an

absence of feminine sensibility.'' Moreover, ''mothers and wives do not

really exist'' in the comic book universe, a deficiency that ''is particularly

grave'' for girls…commission conceived its duty to be that of maintaining and normalizing

the social order for young people. (Jobs, 2003)

 

 

Bibliography:

 

Barack, L. (2006). AL Lawmaker to Ban Pro-Gay Books School Library Journal 51 no1 24 Ja 2005. Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from Wilson Web : http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/hww/results/results_fulltext_maincontentframe.jhtml;hwwilsonid=KNFQHJ2BMX5UXQA3DILSFGOADUNGKIV0

Edwards, L. (2000, Apr). JSTOR Modern China, Vol. 26, No. 2. (Apr., 2000), pp. 115-147. Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from Policing the Modern Woman in Republican China: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-7004%28200004%2926%3A2%3C115%3APTMWIR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F

Jobs, R. I. (2003). Tarzan under Attack: Youth, Comics, and Cultural Reconstruction in Postwar France . Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from French Historical Studies 26.4 (2003) 687-725 : http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/journals/french_historical_studies/v026/26.4jobs.html

 

 

 

Censorship Type: Fear

One of the most interesting things that I found in studying banned books in the 80s was the Holt Basic Reading Series by Holt, Rineholt, and Winston. It is explained in detail on pages 141-147 of Margaret Bald's Revised Banned Book: Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds Revised Version. It was not mentioned in her first Book of the same title. It is notable because it proved the strength of religious groups banning together(the case lasted 4 years), that keeping a company in litigation is all that is necessary for victory(the company finally had to sell, and the new company cancelled the series with no reprints), and how far will Americans go to ameliorate religious beliefs? [the case started with Vicki Frost, a mother of four who believed that the Antichrist would be telepathic(Bald, pg 146)]. Imagination was also attacked, Jack London's "To Build a Fire," in the eighth grade reader, the protagonists use of imagination to solve a problem "contradicted the groups belief that absolute reliance on God is necessary for salvation(Bald, pg. 146.)

This report issued in the 80s perhaps sums it up:

 

The report, titled ''Liberty Denied: The Current Rise of Censorship,'' is written by Donna A. Demac, a lawyer and professor of communications at New York University.

Among the lawyers whose writings are used as evidence in the report are Martin Garbus, author of ''Traitors and Heroes,'' and Floyd Abrams. Mr. Abrams is quoted as saying that the Reagan Administration has ''trumped'' the First Amendment, explaining that ''whatever it chose to do on the pretext of national security took precedence over competing constitutional considerations.''

After declaring that censorship has increased during the Reagan Administration, the report concludes:

''Today the United States faces the significant challenge of restoring the traditions of free speech and diversity of information that have been eroded in the 1980's. It would be a tragic mistake to think that censorship in the country will automatically fade away with the next Presidential election.'' (MITGANG, June 5, 1988, Sunday, Late City Final Edition)

 

Bibliography

Bald, M. (1998). Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds. New York: Facts on File, Inc.

Bald, M. (2006). Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc.

Bernard J. Weiss, ed. (1973). Holt Basic Reading Series. United States: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

MITGANG, H. (June 5, 1988, Sunday, Late City Final Edition). PEN Issues Warning on Censorship. http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/us/lnacademic/auth/checkbrowser.do?ipcounter=1&cookieState=0&rand=0.6686893552717349&bhcp=1: The New York Times.

Satrapi, M. (2003). Persepolis: The Story of Childhood. New York City: Pantheon Books.

Sova, D. B. (1998). Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds. New York: Facts On File, Inc.

 

 

 

Censorship type: Suppression

Population increases, increase the amount of people who are able to organize, form coalitions, and strongly assert their opinion. If that opinion is at the expense of another person's freedom to express so be it. Children are at the crux of this issue, children who are to be molded in their parent's image. Perhaps the new focus is how much of an influence should a parent have on a young person's life. When does the young person have the right to be who they are?

Just because my parents are fundamentalists does not mean that I want to become a fundamentalist. Family pressures, pressures within the social group, and societal pressure to be a good child all contribute to the inability for a person to find the freedom of expression that can be uniquely theirs. This is why public education both in the libraries as well as in the school systems should present all points of view. It is not intended to kow-tow to a family's norm. The ability of a child to receive an education apart from their family unit is one reason why we are a democratic nation. We allow children a cultural and religious diversity, hopefully with multiple sides engaged so that the child America's child can grow up thinking.

In Bonnie Ericson's Journal article she gives an interesting perspective of an educator who saw the rise of censorship, her article deals with an educator's responsibility in the growing climate of censorship as well as underscores the importance of thinking:

Robert Cormier prods us to consider the price paid by students when books are challenged or teachers and publishers practice self-censorship. His response to censorship is a call to all authors to continue to write "honestly with all the craft that can be summoned...to illuminate as well as to entertain...

and

to challenge the intellect and engage the heart" (72) (Ericson, 1996)

Bibliography:

Ann K. Symons, A. P. (1998, Fall). PNLA Quarterly, Vol. 63 No.1Keynote: Read! Learn! Connect!--@ the Library. Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from Pacific Northwest Library Association: http://www.pnla.org/quart/f98/read.htm

Ericson, B. (1996). The censorship crisis. The English Journal(High school edition). Urbana: Jan. Vol. 85, Iss. 1; pg. 79 , http://proquest.umi.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/pqdlink?Ver=1&Exp=10-13-2012&FMT=7&DID=9204262&RQT=309.

Random House. (2007, Oct 15). CENSORSHIP: AN EDUCATOR'S GUIDE. Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from Random House: http://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/resources/guides3/censorship.html

 

Censorship type: Misunderstanding of terms

Animal Farm continued to be banned throughout the decades. According to the Encyclopedia of Censorship, Animal Farm is one of the "most often" censored books. The New York State English Council's Committee on Defenses Against Censorship found Animal Farm high on its list of "problem books" because "Orwell was a communist." (Nicholas J. Karolides, 1999)

George Orwell in the preface to the Signet Classics 29^th edition (August 6, 1954), wrote "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly against totalitarianism…Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness…,to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole." (Nicholas J. Karolides, 1999)

When people have lost meanings : the meaning of political systems, the meaning of history and why it is important, the meaning of racism and why it's history is important, the meaning of religious freedom and understanding it's history and why keeping state from religion is important , then we will continue to have banned books.

 

 

Nicholas J. Karolides, M. B. (1999). 100 Banned Books. New York: Checkmark Books.

Bibliography

Chinaski, B. (2007, Sept 18). Animal Farm. Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from Banned Books Library: http://bannedbookslibrary.blogspot.com/2007/09/animal-farm.html

Nicholas J. Karolides, M. B. (1999). 100 Banned Books. New York: Checkmark Books.

 

 

 

Censorship type: Filtering

The banning or filtering of Huckleberry Finn destroys the meaning behind the author's work and eliminates a historically accurate type. Let's say that we eliminate all history of evident racism in the histories of the U.S. except that this leader and that leader or that leader helped lead blacks to freedom. Filtered literature undermines the struggles people actually lived under that needed to be overcome.

Filtering happens constantly, American Indians history of enslavement, population purges, nomadic misrepresentation, and repression of economic success by destruction of any record that they lived or owned the property they lived on or did business from.

The important idea when presenting a work of literature that has stereotypes is in a societies ability to disseminate accurate information, that will allow a person to extrapolate meaning. The issue of censorship is not going to go away, but a deeper understanding of the literature that is under attack is the strength that censorship gives to the population.

Gregory, L. (1998, Jan 13). Finding Jim Behind the Mask:The Revelation of African American Humanity in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from Ampersand: http://itech.fgcu.edu/&/issues/vol1/issue1/huckfinn.htm

Loen, J. W. (1996). Lies my Teacher told Me: Everything Your History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Touchstone.

Random House. (2007, Oct 15). CENSORSHIP: AN EDUCATOR'S GUIDE. Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from Random House: http://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/resources/guides3/censorship.html

 

Google Project Questions

I agree that Librarians 'hold rights for people'. Librarians are trained to understand the privacy issues of the client. What happens to a patron's privacy when someone untrained in librarianship is checking out their books? Along this issue is the abdication by libraries of how information is "copied" and tagged for later retrieval. The Google project, which seems so wondrous, is actually much more complex. Siva Vaidhyanathan has been debating the issue in his blogs. Who controls the Access points of information as well as what parts of the information is copied controls the meaning of the materials. Libraries should step up to the plate and begin speaking out, after all Access points, freedom of speech, understanding how filtering is the same as censorship are really the Librarian's prevue.

 

Bibliography:

Brito, J. (2005, Nov 28). Vaidhyanathan on Google Print. Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from The Technological Liberation Front : http://www.techliberation.com/archives/027245.php

Fister, B. (2005, Nov 29). Siva Vaidhyanathan on Outsourcing Risk. Retrieved Oct 14, 2007, from ACRLog: http://acrlblog.org/2005/11/29/siva-vaidhyanathan-on-outsourcing-risk/

Vaidhyanathan, S. (2006, Feb 7). Madison and Vaidhyanathan on the U Mich President's Google Speech. Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from Sivacracy.net: http://www.sivacracy.net/2006/02/madison_and_vaidhyanathan_on_t.html

 

Corporate Library

The ability to understand Access Points and increasing awareness in cataloging information within a specific corporate environment is a skill that could increase marketability of a corporate Librarian. Marketing is essential to a corporate Librarian, the need to prove the monetary value of your job position as well as increasing the skill of disseminating information, including contact information, competitor information, and understanding of infrastructure and developing survival skills in a world where monetary value must be proved, in order to stay inside the budget. Corporate Librarianship involves a wide range of talents and can come with extreme rewards as well as challenging workloads.

Bibliography:

Donald, R. (2006). Marketing: A Challenge for Corporate Librarians. Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from Dialog, a Thomson business: http://www.insitepro.com/donald3.htm

Suzanne C. Pilsk, M. (2002, April 4). Organizing Corporate Knowledge:Information Outlook, Vol. 6. Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from SLA: http://www.sla.org/content/Shop/Information/infoonline/2002/apr02/pilsk.cfm

 

Geekipedia

Here is a geeky fun website. You can add to it if you know of other geeky stuff they missed. I have the magazine to match (Geekipedia).

Any youth Librarian might want to check this out to see if there is a Social Networking tool that could mesh with what their Library was doing. Page 48 of the magazine defines Social Networking.

http://www.wired.com/culture/geekipedia/magazine/geekipedia/abrams

Bibliography:

Bob Cohn, ed. (2007). Wired Magazine: Geekipedia. Retrieved Oct 15, 2007, from Wired: http://www.wired.com/culture/geekipedia/magazine/geekipedia/abrams

Outsourcing response to a class blog www.mika6010.blogspot.com

Outsourcing is another issue facing Librarians. Outsourcing is defined by the ALA in this document: http://www.ala.org/ala/pla/plaorg/reportstopla/outsourc.pdf . Sometimes outsourcing is logical, such as in digital services that are open 24 hours a day, however when the entire running of a library is outsourced to a corporation, it does not make a lot of sense. Privacy concerns of citizens, unbiased dissemination of information, varied scope of materials that goes beyond popularity. It’s time for Librarians to begin demanding a stricter definition of “titles”. Librarians graduating now from the Universities, are the ‘next generation of Librarian’, it’s our responsibility to push for professional requirements in the government sector, a strict adherence to title gained via scholarship or accreditation. Write-in campaigns, establishment of Political Action Committees (PACs), official rings or pins that designate accredited degree rank, and promoting the designation will do a lot to uplift the image of Librarian which when outsourcing occurs, will not put us out on the side of the road.
Fister, B. (2005, Nov 29). Siva Vaidhyanathan on Outsourcing Risk. Retrieved Oct 14, 2007, from ACRLog: http://acrlblog.org/2005/11/29/siva-vaidhyanathan-on-outsourcing-risk/
Hill, J. B.-H. (2007). Outsourcing Digital Reference: The User Perspective. Retrieved Oct 14, 2007, from The Haworth Press, Inc: http://www.haworthpress.com/store/ArticleAbstract.asp?ID=101853
Silverman, J. (2007, Oct 4). Librarians under new management . Retrieved Oct 14, 2004, from insideBayarea.com: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OUTSOURCING_LIBRARIES?SITE=CAOAK&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Vaidhyanathan, Siva. The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash between Freedom and Control Is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System. New York: Basic Books, 2004. 253p. $26 (ISBN 0465089844). LC 2003-26089.

Siva Vaidhyanathan is a media studies scholar and cultural historian with a PhD in American studies; he is also a modern champion of copyright reform. Originally he intended The Anarchist in the Library to continue where his previous book Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity ended, but somewhere in the middle of the book his focus shifted; he faltered. What was originally peer to peer (P2P) musical downloading and copyright issues became terrorist cells and moveable hut stratagem of third world pirates. He begins to correlate physical copyright infringement with electronic. He likens Al Qaeda and Zapatistas terrorist strategies to the way digital P2P operates. P2P now takes on a sinister tone as the flipside of the free flow of information is realized.

P2P copyright issues are still a political hotbed, the recent 220K (9700 per song), Oct 4^th 2007, jury decision against Jammie Thomas for sharing her music online is a feast of debate on blogs and in the media. Brian Toder, Thomas' lawyer states in an Oct 8^th CNN interview:"the harvesting of his client opens her case to appeal". Libraries as potential hubs of free flowing information could be impacted by the new copyright territories. In the last part of the book Librarians are labeled heroes and the perfect Library is described. Instead of using the perfect Library as a push for copyright reform Vaidhyanthan reins it in without making a clear statement.

Some of the books imagery is graphic novel fodder one example is 'locust man'. In 1989 Liu Biaqiang tied notes ie: "Freedom" onto the legs of locusts and let them go. Because of these messages locust man was sentenced to eight years in prison for "counterrevolutionary incitement" by the Supreme People's Court in China.

The Anarchist in the Library is a jerky read
and Vaidhyanathan's didactic writing style can require a 20 page at a time reading rest, but as an authoritative piece on P2P, I think The Anarchist in the Library is worthwhile exploring. The writing does flow despite the preachy tone of the book and with about 50 pages of notes, references and index, any librarian interested in the current copyright issues is sure to get some great source materials to read. I give it a call number and think it is worth inclusion on the Librarian's reading list. ----Leah Chamblee-- www.goalmlis.blogspot.com

Other books similar to the title:

The Empire of Mind: Digital Piracy And The Anti-capitalist Movement by Michael Strangelove , 2005

Beyond the First Amendment: The Politics of Free Speech and Pluralism by Samuel Peter Nelson. Basic Books, New York, 2004.

Revolutionary Wealth by Alvin and Heidi Toffler. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2006

Bibliography:

Efroni, Z. (2007, Oct 8). Jury Selection No. 15. Retrieved Oct 8, 2007, from Stanford Law School: CIS The Center for Internet and Society: http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/node/5566

Rhonda Erskine. (2007, Oct 5). Jury Finds Minnesota Woman Violated Copyright Law In Music Download Trial. Retrieved Oct 8, 2007, from WCSH6 Portland : http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=71849

Timothy. (2004, July 22). News for nerds, stuff that matters. Retrieved Oct 7, 2007, from Slashdot: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/22/175237

(2006). The Untouchables, The Fetish of Touch, The Horse and the Song. In A. a. Toffler, Revolutionary Wealth (pp. 254-258). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Vaidhyanathan, S. (2003, Jan 17). After the Copyright smackdown: What next? Retrieved Oct 8, 2007, from Salon.com: http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2003/01/17/copyright/index.html

Vaidhyanathan, S. (2007, Oct 6). Case Will Challenge Parody Rights. Retrieved Oct 8, 2007, from Sivacracy: http://www.sivacracy.net/

Vaidhyanathan, S. (2004). The Anarchist in the Library. New York: Basic Books.