Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503060069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LEESBURG LENGTH: Medium
Saying it does not want to promote the purchase of materials offensive to the community, the board voted 4-3 last week to delete three provisions condemning library censorship. The provisions included a statement that ``materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.''
The Library Bill of Rights was drafted by the American Library Association in 1948 and has been adopted by most library systems in the country. An association official said Friday that she could not recall another case of a local library board amending or deleting portions of the document.
``It's not the bill of rights anymore,'' since it has been amended, said Judith Krug, director of the association's office for intellectual freedom. ``You can't provide a spectrum of information and ideas if you're not going to fight censorship.''
The Loudoun board also deleted these statements: ``Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment,'' and ``Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgement of free expression and free access to ideas.''
A majority of the board argued that such policy statements could force the panel to oppose any restrictions on the library system's purchase of controversial materials - or on children's access to them.
``The major objection I have with it is that it is written by the ALA,'' said board member Adaline Glazer, who supported the changes. ``The ALA has a political agenda. The libraries shouldn't have one.''
``It's a manifesto of a group's opinions,'' agreed board member John Nicholas, referring to the ALA. ``These policies have nothing to do with Loudoun.''
Nicholas and Glazer said the Loudoun board has no plans to remove anything from library shelves or change its book-buying policies. They said they revised the bill of rights at Monday's meeting simply to reflect more accurately the board's philosophy.
Dissenting board members, however, said they feared the vote signaled an effort by the panel's new conservative majority to exert more control over what is offered at libraries and who is allowed to see it.
``They want to control materials,'' said Linda Conti-White. ``I'm disappointed they are not concerned about keeping the collections free'' of restrictions.
Conservatives gained a majority of the board with the turnover of four seats last year. In September, the panel approved measures allowing parents to see their children's borrowing records and barring minors from borrowing R-rated movies.
The board also voted 5-2 to drop most of the language in another of its ALA-written policies called the ``Freedom to Read.''
The four-page statement includes such principles as: ``It is in the public interest ... to make available the widest diversity of views and expressions, including those that are unorthodox or unpopular with the majority.''
by CNB