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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1134227" data-attributes="member: 3146">It seems to me that one issue hasn't been addressed: the issue of public accountability for public institutions. There is no question of keeping information free for those who desire it--it's a matter of what information is available to those who desire it. Space and funds are limited and libraries make choices about what magazines to subscribe to, what books to put on the circulation shelves, and which ones not to purchase or to sell. If I go down to the public library in my city, odds are good that I won't be able to find a copy of vol III of Jaroslav Pelikan's history of Christian Doctrine. It's almost certain that I won't find an unedited edition of John Howie's _Scots Worthies_ (several later editions were heavily edited so as to remove material that didn't coincide with the editors' theologies). That information is probably not free for those who desire it. However, those who desire to read Howard Stern's book find that that information is free for those who desire it. And maybe there's a good reason that the library has chosen to make the particular information that it has chosen available and not others. I can think of several possible reasons. However, as a public library, those reasons should be open to public scrutiny, debate, and modification.It seems strange and hypocritical (not to mention arrogant) to say that municipalities, etc. ought not to have any say in what they pay to purchase and house on their library shelves. (Why do we fund libraries at all if it's not becaues we judge that they generally provide a desirable service to the community? And that ought to make continued funding contingent upon actually providing the community with the desired service). It may or may not be a good thing for someone to buy and read Howard Stern's _Private Parts_ with their own money and on their own time. However, it doesn't seem obvious to me that it's a good use of public funds to purchase dozens of copies of _Private Parts_ so that people have it available to them in a public library. It's certainly not obvious that doing so is in the public's interest. Nor does it seem obvious that to ask whether the money might have been better spent on new dictionaries, online academic article databases, or a subscription to an academic journal makes one into a book burning Nazi troglodyte.And even if the library is not publicly funded but is an endowed library, it still seems that the question of "why do you subscribe to Hustler but not The Weekly Standard" is a legitimate one. And "Because we're smarter and wiser than you and we decided to buy these books" doesn't seem like a very good answer.Free speech is one thing. The purchase of books for public reading is another. It does not infringe upon the free speech of the Illinois Nazi party if a library declines to carry their journal. It doesn't infringe upon the free speech of Howard Stern if libraries decide that stocking his book won't help them best fulfill their mission (whatever that may be) or serve the public. And it doesn't infringe upon either of their free speech rights if concerned citizens disagree with the idea that stocking Stern's book or the party's pamphlets in their library is a bad idea and use whatever legal/administrative/elective oversight is available to them to ensure that better (in their opinion) judgement is used in the future.</blockquote>

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