DonateMary Jo Godwin, in her role as editor of the Wilson Library Bulletin, once wrote that “a really good library has something in it to offend everyone.”
At Robbins Library, we do not seek to offend anyone. Instead, our mission is to offer materials and programming for everyone.
In a community like Arlington, a community of people of all races, gender and sexual identities, religions, political beliefs, and backgrounds, offering something for everyone means that our library materials and programming include diverse viewpoints and perspectives. The joy of using the public library is that visitors are likely to come across books and ideas that speak to their own experiences and beliefs, as well as books and ideas that might open a reader’s eyes to new knowledge and encounters with our world.
In a free society, libraries encourage and offer opportunities for readers to make their own choices. We let readers follow their own convictions. To support this freedom, libraries inspire readers to make choices for themselves. At the library a reader might pick up a book and decide, “this book speaks to me perfectly.” Other times a reader might pick up a book and think, “this book is not for me.” Sometime, a reader might look at a book and say, “the ideas in this book make me uncomfortable.”
In our free society, the bargain that we make at the door of the public library is to accept that not all of the library’s books or programs are for us. Some of the books may speak to experiences and viewpoints that are alien, or even contrary, to our world view. The book that is objectionable to one Arlingtonian might be vital to another. Yet all of these books belong and are made available in our library.
Today, there are groups in the United States that seek to remove certain books from libraries because they object to the content. It is important to remember that such book challenges are nothing new in our history. In 1953, the year that Ray Bradbury published his classic novel Fahrenheit 451 about a book burning fireman and the year that the American Libraries Association (ALA) adopted the “Freedom to Read” Statement, the Indiana Textbook Commission called for the removal of references to the book Robin Hood from textbooks used by the state’s schools. The commission feared that the story of Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, had dangerous communist undertones.
To paraphrase the ALA’s Freedom to Read statement, “As Americans, we value free expression. Actions to limit access to books apparently rise from a view that our national tradition of free expression is no longer valid; that censorship and suppression are needed to protect readers from imagined harm.”
Today, we read together to show that free expression is still valid, that censorship and suppression are not needed to protect readers. It is not the role of the library to eliminate sources of complexity, contradiction and confusion, but to support free inquiry for our citizens. The right of the free reader is to select the books that interest them without censorship. The obligation of the free reader is to acknowledge that there will be books in the library that might be offensive to them, but to let those books stand on the shelves for others to read.
The staff and Board of Trustees at Robbins Library are proud to support the right of every community member to access the books of their choosing. We are proud to support the ALA’s “Freedom to Read” Statement. It is our honor to protect your right to read freely in our libraries.
–Robbins Library Board of Trustees
September 28, 2024