I select but he censors: musings on selection
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/NotCensorshipButSelection
Lester Asheim raises some important considerations when selecting titles for one's collection. Published in 1953, the questions he raises are timely in light of the current "book banning" zeitgeist.
Form the article:
"Selection, then, begins with a presumption in favor of liberty of thought; censorship, with a presumption in favor of thought control. Selection's approach to the book is positive, seeking its values in the book as a book, and in the book as a whole. Censorship's approach is negative, seeking for vulnerable characteristics wherever they can be found – anywhere within the book, or even outside it. Selection seeks to protect the right of the reader to read; censorship seeks to protect – not the right – but the reader himself from the fancied effects of his reading. The selector has faith in the intelligence of the reader; the censor has faith only in his own."
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