The Library as a Marketplace of Ideas Ronald J. Heckart

Since the late 1930s, intellectual freedom has been a central theme in the professional ethics of . From it has come powerful and inspiring rhetoric, but also confusion and controversy. This paper traces librarianship's notions of intellectual freedom to a widely analyzed concept in law and political science known as the marketplace of ideas, and finds that taking this broad theoretical view of intellectual freedom offers some useful insights into its strengths and weaknesses as an ethical cornerstone of the profession.

ntellectual freedom is a com­ So ingrained and self-evident is this pelling theme in the profes­ theme that relatively few librarians have sional ethics of librarians. It is felt the need to explore its philosophical expressed in fervent support origins or to examine rigorously the con­ for the free trade in ideas and in vigorous siderable literature that legal scholars opposition to . The Library Bill and political theorists have developed of Rights and the Freedom to Read state­ on the topic. The professional literature ments are embodiments of this theme. on this subject is rather sparse. This arti­ The former states that "all libraries are cle attempts to remedy this situation by forums for information and ideas" and examining the profession's stance on "should provide materials and infor­ censorship and the free flow of informa­ mation presenting all points of view on tion in a broad context of political and current and historical issues."1 The lat­ legal theory. Specifically, the aim will be ter, a spirited and eloquent defense of to make the philosophical links between freedom of expression, proclaims that "it this stance and a concept in constitu­ is in the public interest for publishers tional law known as the marketplace of and librarians to make available the ideas. Librarians, it will be argued, have widest diversity of views and expres­ embraced the essential content of this sions, including those which are unor­ concept, if not the term as such, but have thodox or unpopular with the majority."2 not fully comprehended its strengths The preamble to ALA's Code of Ethics, and weaknesses as a foundation for a adopted in 1981, states that "librarians stance on intellectual freedom. are members of a profession explicitly committed to intellectual freedom and THE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS the freedom of access to information" What is the marketplace of ideas con­ and "have a special obligation to ensure cept? It borrows directly from classical the free flow of information and ideas to laissez faire economics. In the market­ present and future generations." The sec­ place, where labor and goods are bought ond point of the six-point Code of Ethics is and sold, all individuals are in one way a direct call to "resist all efforts by or another players attempting to maxi­ groups or individuals to censor library mize their personal gain. Value of labor rna terials. " 3 and goods is determined by market

Ronald J. Heckart is a at the Institute of Governmental Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley., California 94720.

491 492 College & Research-Libraries November1991

forces-Adam Smith's invisible hand­ Persecution for the expression of and competition weeds out labor and opinions seems to me perfectly logical. goods that are outmoded, inefficient, or If you have not doubt of your premises of poor quality. This is process theory in or your power and want a certain re­ its purest form. The process itself-indi­ sult with all your heart you naturally viduals pursuing their rational self-inter­ express your wishes in law and sweep est in an unfettered market-promotes, in away all opposition. To allow opposi­ the long run, the most satisfactory and tion by speech seems to indicate that desirable products and the most produc­ you think the speech impotent, as tive use of labor and resources. when a man says that he has squared The concept's parallels to the argu­ the circle, or that you do not care ments that librarians and civil libertarians whole-heartedly for the result, or that use in support of the First Amendment you doubt either your power or your and are obvious. As premises. But when men have realized Mark Mid bon has observed: that time has upset many fighting It does not take great imagination to faiths, they may come to believe even see the American interpretation of lib­ more than they believe the very foun­ erty as an extension of capitalism from dations of their own conduct that the the economic realm to the intellectual ultimate good desired is better realm. Ideas and information compete reached by a free trade in ideas-that in the intellectual marketplace, just as the best test of truth is the power of the goods and services compete in the eco­ thought to get itself accepted in the nomic marketplace. All individuals competition of the market; and that are free to marshal their resources and truth is the only ground upon which place their intellectual products on the their wishes safely can be carried out. market.4 That at any rate is the theory of our No thinker has drawn the parallels Constitution. It is an experiment, as all between what Midbon calls economic cap­ life is an experiment. Every year, if not italism and intellectual capitalism more every day, we have to wager our sal­ strikingly than did Justice Oliver Wendall vation upon some prophecy based Holmes in his famous dissent in Abrams upon imperfect knowledge. While v. United States. In this case, the United that experiment is part of our system I States Supreme Court upheld the convic­ think that we should be eternally vig­ tions of five Russian emigrants under the ilant against attempts to check the ex­ 1917 Espionage Act for publishing two pression of opinions that we loathe leaflets castigating the United States gov­ and believe to be fraught with death, ernment for participating in efforts to unless they so imminently threaten overturn the Russian revolution during immediate interference with the law­ the First World War. The pamphleteers ful and pressing purposes of the law were convicted for conspiring to incite that an immediate check is required to resistance to the war and curtailment of save the country.6 war production. Hardly a sophisticated It should be said that the philosophical ring of subversives, they conducted a underpinnings of Holmes's formulation homespun pamphleteering operation. hardly emerged full blown with him. One of their modes of distribution was to They lie within the classical liberal tradi­ throw the pamphlets "from a window tion of John Stuart Mill and can be traced where one of the defendants was em­ back to John Milton's Areopagitica, writ­ ployed."5 Justice Holmes's dissent has ten in 1644.7 At their core is a concept of been referred to in almost every significant the truth. For Holmes, an old man who treatise on the First Amendment and free­ had lived long enough to see "time ... dom of speech since the 1920s. In one oft­ upset many fighting faiths," there was quoted passage, he gave the marketplace no absolute truth and, therefore, the best of ideas concept its first ~nd probably its available test of the truth was "the power most eloquently written formulation: of the thought to get itself accepted in the Marketplace of Ideas 493 competition of the market." Another stances against censorship and for free­ stance for this relativist position is to dom of expression well before the ap­ allow that while there may be absolute pearance of the , 11 but truth, we, as imperfect beings with lim­ these views did not sweep through the ited vision, can never be sure that we profession as a whole until the late know it fully; that the best we can hope 1930s.U Why was this so, and what ori­ for is an ever closer approximation of the entation did it override? Delving into truth; and that the best way to achieve these questions thoroughly would re­ this ever closer approximation is a free quire a fulsome treatise on American li­ trade in ideas. Still another stance is to brary history. However, taking a brief assert with Karl R. Popper that while we historical turn to highlight some of the can never be sure that we know the truth, main points of the scholarly literature on we can root out falsity with certainty, these questions provides a context for and the best way to do this is a free trade the current marketplace of ideas ethos. in ideas.8 Irrespective of epistomological stance, THE STEWARDSHIP ORIENTATION the marketplace of ideas concept is an The professional orientation that held example of process theory. It is the pro­ sway into the 1930s has no standard cess itself that provides the measure of catchword to describe it, but it will be what the truth is, or advances us toward termed here a stewardship orientation. an ever closer approximation of the Libraries existed to conserve and to truth, or roots out falsity. Just as the most make available those works in literature, sa tis factory goods emerge through free the humanities, and the sciences that fell trade in the economic marketplace, so within general mainstream thinking as the most satisfactory version of the truth to what was valid, respectable, and use­ emerges through free trade in the mar­ ful. Librarians took it for granted that ketplace of ideas. Individuals act and their decisions about collections and ser­ make judgments in the marketplace, but vices were grounded in a broad-based market outcomes are the collective mea­ consensus shared by their clienteles, sure of truth at any given time. their governii)g bodies, and society at For Holmes, the marketplace of ideas large. Their thinking was centripetal in was a metaphysical construct. For librar­ its direction, tending toward the center, ians, it exists in fact. The library is a where the high tradition inliteratureand marketplace of ideas. The concept reso­ the approved works in the various fields nates in the key phrases quoted earlier of study comfortably resided. Their from the Library Bill of Rights and the thinking was not centrifugal, tending Freedom to Read statement. The former outward, where the unorthodox and the could not be clearer in its vision of the unpopular uneasily resided-and there library as a forum "for information and was no ethical imperative that it be so, at ideas," providing "materials and infor­ least not in the profession at large. There mation presenting all points of view on was no ethical imperative even to op­ current and historical issues."9 The latter pose censorship. The subject of censor­ echoes Holmes's views in asserting that ship hardly appears in the professional the public interest is served when pub­ literature before the 1930s. Sidney Ditz­ lishers and librarians "make available ion, writing of the last half of the nine­ the widest diversity of views and expres­ teenth century, postulates several factors sions, including those which are unortho­ that may account for the scant documen­ dox or unpopular with the majority."10 tary evidence on censorship: "There may Librarianship has not always had this not have been enough -censorship to ethical orientation. The Library Bill of mention; it may have been so powerful Rights, the American Library Association's as to demand complete acquiescence; or, (ALA's) first official pronouncement on more plausible than either of these, the the subject, did not appear until 1939. process of conformity on the part of li­ Individual librarians and libraries took brarians may have been so subtle, so 494 College & Research Libraries November 1991

natural, that it did not occur to anyone Harris, the aim of the library was to help to remark on the subject."13 In the first steer the ignorant masses, particularly three decades of the twentieth century, un-Americanized immigrant groups, censorship remained, with some excep­ away from bad books and bad habits and tions, a low-profile issue in the profes­ toward the ideas and ideals that would sion. make them good, compliant citizens and productive members of the work force. The scholar needs not make Harris's In the first three decades of the twen­ harsh, retrospective judgments to arrive tieth century censorship remained, at an essentially similar interpretation of with some exceptions, a low-profile the stewardship era. In a summary pro­ issue in the profession. file of ALA executive board members from 1876 to 1917, Wayne A. Wiegand says these leaders were Indeed, what we now would regard as a highly homogeneous group whose censorship had a positive value for li­ social rank reflected the "character" of brarians of the stewardship era. Their the dominant culture. As members of duty was to promote books that would the "cultivated" classes, these library morally and intellectually uplift readers leaders intuitively "knew" what the and to suppress books that would do ''best reading" was. They regarded it readers harm. , in his clas­ as their professional goal to collect this sic 1876 essay, made this literature and to make it available to a point well: public which they confidently be­ There are three stages in the prog­ lieved would eventually manifest the ress of a free public library. The first constructive social behavior, the zeal one is the gathering of the books.... for material progress and the elevated The second is in securing the read­ cultural understanding which "natu­ ing of the books, and this can be done rally" followed exposure to good by providing the books indue propor­ reading.17 tions that are wanted-the exclusion of vicious books being assured. WHY THE PROFESSION CHANGED The third follows in inducing an im­ What changed to make a centrifugal provement in the kind of reading; and direction-which not only opposed cen­ in these latter days this is a prime test sorship, but asserted an obligation to of the librarian's quality. It is not a present a diversity of views, even those crusade that he is to lead. People who that the majority might regard as harm­ read for recreation are not to be borne ful or dangerous-an ethical imperative apart from it; but they can be induced in the profession? There are no quick to pass from weak to strong even in answers to this question, as Evelyn this department.14 Geller ably demonstrated in a 1974 Li­ Winsor's approach sounds paternalis­ brary Journal article.18 The likeliest an­ tic to the contemporary ear, but it is not swer is probably that a multiplicity of heavy-handed. He counsels patience factors coalesced in the late 1930s to pro­ with and understanding of the reading pel the centrifugal orientation to ortho­ public. Have available the material that doxy. users want, he advises, but also have Cultural change in the 1920s and eco­ available high and serious literature so nomic depression in the 1930s upset the that at opportune moments users can be centrist thinking of librarians and many induced "into the higher planes."15 others in society. The social and economic Library historian Michael Harris has upheaval of the day put unconventional called the libraries of the stewardship ideas and solutions to problems in a new era "cold, rigidly inflexible, and elitist light . The rise of radical political move­ institutions" with a primary mission of ments in the 1930s fueled this mental promoting social control.16 According to unsettling. The situation was no longer Marketplace of Ideas 495 one of a comfortable center with unim­ "had been in library work for twenty­ portant and ineffectual fringe elements, three years when he delivered this disil­ but of a center challenged by all sorts of lusioned and tired advice to librarians: new, sometimes threatening, ideas and 'Look at your position as a high-grade movements. The catalyst that may have business one, look after the working de­ brought all this to a head for the profession tails, have things go smoothly, know the was the effort to suppress John whereabouts and classification of books, Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath in the late and let people get their own meat and 1930s.19 The book was removed from a poison."'22 But a focus on the working number of libraries, ostensibly on moral details was not sufficient to sweep away grounds, but primarily because of objec­ the stewardship orientation. As Patrick tions to its political content. Outrage at Williams has documented, vestiges of this treatment of a book with obvious 1that orientation continued to appear and literary merit prompted the 1939 ALAna­ disappear in successive waves of opti­ tional convention to adopt ALA's first mism and disillusionment. 23 Library Bill of Rights statement. Rather One continuing stronghold of the than shut out seemingly dangerous stewardship orientation was children's ideas and unorthodox thinking that librarianship. If intractable habits made might lead to new solutions to social adults more or less a lost cause, there problems, the profession would endorse was still hope for children. Children's a free trade in ideas and trust that indi­ minds were still pliable enough to take viduals, with the contending points of moral direction, "and in the children's view before them, would make good de­ room there was little protest from the cisions. small clients over library censorship of reading."24 But even here, the new ethic of intellectual freedom eventually tri­ The special value of the new ethic umphed. In Free Access to Libraries for of intellectual freedom was that it Minors, one of the interpretations of the afforded the profession a new base Library Bill of Rights, ALA "opposes li­ for its ethical strivings. braries restricting access to library mate­ rials and services for minors and holds that it is the parents-and only the par­ The new attitude helped librarians re­ ents-who may restrict their children­ solve a problem that had been vexing and only their children-from access to them for years. Despite the rhetoric ex­ library materials and services."25 But this tolling the stewardship role, it was evi­ interpretation was not adopted until dent that librarians were not performing 1972-an indication of the lingering the role very well. "By the turn of the strength of the stewardship orientation. century," writes Dee Garrison, "many However, a retreat into technical com­ public librarians had tired of their highly petence, even allowing for a prescriptive unsuccessful attempt to direct the read­ attitude toward children, was a wan sub­ ing habits of their adult patrons. Adults, stitute for the ethical power and motiva­ it was generally agreed, were impossibly tional force of the old stewardship set in their reading tastes, and were be­ orientation. The special value of the new sides notoriously intolerant of any well­ ethic of intellectual freedom was that it meant efforts to raise their literary afforded the profession a new base for its standards."20 One response to this cogni­ ethical strivings, eclipsing the cognitive tive dissonance in the profession be­ dissonance between theory and practice tween theory and practice was that that plagued the stewardship orienta­ "librarians shifted their energy from tion. ALA's various pronouncements on miracle working into a quest for techni­ intellectual freedom ring with ethical cal competence."21 Garrison quotes a fervor as ardent as any from nineteenth­ passage by that epito­ century library leaders. The new ethic so mizes this shift. Dewey, says Garrison, compellingly met the need for a new 496 College & Research Libraries November 1991

moral grounding of the profession that what mix of factors brought it about may even a limited stewardship role focused never be precisely known. What is cer­ narrowly on children fell under its force. tain is that librarians on the whole failed Geller finds in Marjorie Fiske's classic to perform the stewardship role well, censorship study a parallel argument for and that failure put the profession in a explaining the eclipse of the stewardship quandary. Librarians could heave a col­ orientation. According to Fiske, librari­ lective sigh of relief at replacing the ans relaxed their prescriptive grip in rec­ stewardship orientation with a new doc­ ognition of the rising level of education trine that gave them an ethical mission and intellectual sophistication of the that was equally compelling. populace after World War I. Another fac­ tor, especially compelling in the 1930s, was the social service concept of librari­ Librarianship can be viewed as hav­ anship, in which the library was seen as ing reached, in the 1930s, a stage in its a place where the poor could find respite maturation as a profession in which from the harsh realities of life. The li­ formal goal setting and policy formu­ brary could not be such a place unless it lation were in order. broadened its appeal and included pop­ ular reading rna terial. Balancing their professed concern with the "higher In this professional reorientation, aca­ plane" against other needs, librarians demic and research librarians as well as became increasingly tolerant as a way of public librarians could take comfort. The coping with diversity and change.26 old emphasis on the high tradition in Geller notes another factor discussed literature and on works deemed best or by Fiske that may have contributed to correct by mainstream scholarly opinion the remarkable reorientation of the pro­ in the various disciplines was limiting fession in the 1930s. From a sociological and inflexible. Centripetal thinking gave perspective, the professions, including way to centrifugal thinking, making librarianship, can be viewed as passing room for the avant-garde and the contro­ through developmental stages that versial-indeed, creating an ethical im­ begin with concerns over self-identity, perative to look beyond the mainstream. public recognition, and organizational Moreover, the old orientation carried consolidation and that mature into sub­ with it an obligation to have some exper­ stantive concerns over goals and stan­ tise regarding the high literary tradition dards. Librarianship can be viewed as and those best and correct works. Some having reached, in the 1930s, a stage in librarians, as Renaissance men and its maturation as a profession in which women of letters, could wax authorita­ formal goal setting and policy formula­ tively on the predominant thinking of tion were in order. 27 The issue of intellec­ the day, but most librarians must have tual freedom could be addressed in this found this a very weighty responsibility. period because the profession was ready The new orientation made no demands for it. There is an inkling of this readiness on librarians to be authorities on the in the first sentence of the introduction leading scholarly opinion regarding lit­ totheALACodeofEthics: "Since 1939, the erature or on the best or correct works in American Library Association has recog­ any field. Librarians could become, in a nized the importance of codifying and sense, neutral facilitators in the market­ making known to the public and the pro­ place of ideas. With academic publishing fession principles which guide librarians undergoing rapid expansion, with vari­ in action."28 ous disciplines rife with theoretical and What weight to give any of these argu­ methodological disputes, and with new ments is open to question. The causes of fields in science and technology emerg­ the reorientation to intellectual freedom ing, the notion of being more a neutral need not be pursued further here. The facilitator than a prescriptive authority reorientation happened, and exactly must have been appealing. Marketplace of Ideas 497

ASSESSING THE ers, or librarians. There is no reason why POST-1939 ORIENTATION a person of modest power or wealth Thus, as a marketplace of ideas rather might not have good ideas, or why he or than a repository of works intended to she should be hindered in advancing reflect the prevailing intellectual consen­ those ideas in the market solely because sus, the library could operate in a freer, of a lack of power or wealth. Thus, par­ more open-ended way. Relieved of the adoxically, a free trade in ideas can be prescriptive obligation to steer clients to expected to advance the truth, but a to­ the ideas and works of that centripetally tally unfettered market is likely to pro­ directed consensus, librarians could duce distortion and outright falsehood. wholeheartedly embrace the doctrine of . The interventionist role also is con­ intellectual freedom. But accompanying cerned about fairness and democratic this reorientation of the profession, values. Intervention with the aim of re­ which now seems so right and matter-of­ ducing the disparities in access to the course, were some new problems and marketplace seems fair and equitable, confusions. especially when those disparities result from differences in power and wealth. Neutral Facilitator And unless the electorate has access to a versus Interventionist broad spectrum of ideas and opinion, not just what the powerful and well-to­ The post-1939 orientation seems to do want the electorate to hear, democ­ mandate two conflicting roles for librar­ racy is undermined. These concerns ians in the marketplace of ideas: they are have led to various types of governmen­ to be both neutral facilitators eschewing tal intervention in the marketplace of bias and favoritism and interventionists ideas. The institution of the free public when market forces would otherwise ex­ library itself and depository library sys­ clude new, unorthodox, and controver­ tems are two obvious and highly pertinent sial ideas. The former role descends types of governmental intervention. Other directly from classical economic theory, examples in society at large are the fairness which demands that government take a doctrine in broadcasting, laws to prevent completely neutral stance in the market­ overconcentration of ownership of com­ place and which puts its faith in market munications media in particular localities, forces as the best regulator of the econ­ and campaign finance laws intended to omy. This was certainly what Holmes limit the influence of powerful special in­ had in mind with his marketplace of terests in the political process.29 The gov­ ideas. The government was neither to ernment, then, does not settle for passive favor nor to repress particular ideas, but neutrality in the marketplace of ideas, was to stand aside and let their worth be but it can go only so far before running tested in the competition of the market. afoul of constitutional prohibitions and The interventionist role is grounded in arousing fears that the consequences of a critical assessment about the way the intervention may be worse than the evils marketplace of ideas operates in the real it was intended to prevent. world. That assessment leads to the con­ Intervention is almost always fraught clusion that a truly unfettered market with difficult and controversial policy would be dominated by the powerful choices. Librarians have not found inter­ and well-to-do and, therefore, would be vention any easier than lawmakers have. skewed and distorted in their favor. A Librarianship is not short on rhetoric as strident believer in the analogy to classi­ to the need for intervention. The original cal economics might argue that the pow­ 1939 Library Bill of Rights urged that "as erful and well-to-do are who they are far as available material permits, all because they have the best ideas and that sides of questions on which differences their domination of the market is a pos­ of opinion exist should be represented itive good. But this line of argument has fairly and adequately in the books and not found favor with voters, policymak- other reading matter purchased for pub- 498 College & Research Libraries November1991 lie use."30 A more succinct and perhaps brary users. But librarians have had dif­ slightly toned-down version of this sen­ ficulty deciding how interventionist to tence appears in the current Library Bill be. There is great uncertainty regarding of Rights: "Libraries should provide ma­ specific interventionist measures and terials and information presenting all the appropriate situations in which to points of view on current and historical take them. The relationship between the issues.''31 The Diversity in Collection De­ roles of neutral facilitator and interven­ velopment statement, an official interpre­ tionist is not clear. tation of the Library Bill of Rights adopted One view of that relationship is to see in 1982, attempts to provide more guid­ it primarily as a technical services/pub­ ance by listing examples of censoring lic services dichotomy. Technical ser­ activities librarians are to avoid: "remov­ vices staff-selectors, acquisitions staff, ing or not selecting materials because catalogers, and indexers-work in the they are considered by some as racist or background, striking out to rectify imbal­ sexist; not purchasing conservative reli­ ance and underrepresentation in society's gious materials; not selecting materials marketplace of ideas, while public services about or by minorities because it is thought staff, operating in the "more perfect'' mar­ these groups or interests are not repre­ ketplace thus created, act as neutral facil­ sented in the community; or not providing itators with library users. This may be a information on or materials from non­ deep, unstated assumption of some pro­ mainstream political entities."32 It states fessional literature on this topic, perhaps further that "librarians have an obliga­ rooted in the fact that we find it easier to tion . . . to select and support access to conceptualize interventionist efforts by materials on all subjects that meet, as selectors, catalogers, and indexers than closely as possible, the needs and interests by reference staff. The problem with this of all persons in the community which the view is that it could give short shrift to library serves. This includes materials interventionist efforts that may be that reflect political, economic, religious, needed in public services. Having the social, minority, and sexual issues.''33 materials and access tools in place does Thus a passive avoidance of bias and not mean that underrepresented and un­ favoritism in collection building and orthodox ideas are actually reaching public service is not enough. The librar­ those who might benefit from hearing ian is to take affirmative steps to ensure about them. Public service tends to be that unconventional and unpopular cast in a passive stance when direct ac­ ideas have representation. The funda­ tion may be needed-in the words of the mental goal is clear: the library is not Public Library Association's (PLA's) merely to reflect the marketplace of ideas mission statement, "to allow easy access of society at large; the library is to be a for people previously excluded by lack broader, fairer market. What is not clear of education, lack of language facility, is how this goal translates into action in ethnic or cultural backgrounds, age, the real world of the library~ physical or mental handicaps, and apa­ Types of interventionist actions are thy."34 easily identified. Examples are: acquir­ Another-and not incompatible-ori­ ing alternative press publications that entation that librarians may have toward might not be in book stores or receive the neutral facilitator and interventionist much sales promotion; promoting the roles is to see neutrality as the default accessibility of new and unconventional role and intervention as a contingent role ideas through indexing, enhanced cata­ to be invoked as circumstances (e.g., a loging, online searching, vertical files, censorship threat) warrant. But seeing and other means; meeting the needs of neutrality as the norm and intervention special clientele groups that lack mass as an exception to the norm fosters a market appeal; and devoting resources strong operational bias favoring neutral­ to programs and services that help dis­ ity. One way to counteract that bias advantaged persons become effective li- might be to think of the two roles as Marketplace of Ideas 499

being at opposite ends of a continuum, Attempts to provide a more down-to­ with passive neutrality at one pole and earth focus for the interventionist role zealous intervention at the other. This are not entirely lacking. Celeste West's places the two roles on a more equal 1983 Library Journal article, "The Secret operational footing, but offers no guid­ Garden of Censorship: Ourselves," is ance as to where the librarian should be certainly one such attempt. The article on the continuum. If the place to be is recasts the high rhetoric of the post-1939 somewhere near the middle, would this ethical orientation in blunt, intentionally mean acquiring Nazi and white suprem­ confrontational prose.36 While its shock acist publications? Tracking the latest treatment approach has the effect of bring­ writings of New Age gurus? Reaching ing the discussion out of the clouds, more out to homeless persons? than this is needed if the profession is Amidst all the inspiring words in sup­ going to find concepts and language to port of the interventionist role, there is talk about real world goals and action for little real guidance as to how librarians the interventionist role. Kenneth E. should act. Indeed, the profession seems Dowlin offers another approach, with to be in a kind of confused stalemate perhaps more potential for advancing regarding the interventionist implications the discussion. "Access to certain kinds of the post-1939 ethical orientation. Feel­ of information," he asserts, should ''be ing uneasy and uncertain about what to considered a basic human right in the do, many librarians choose to stay within information age." He categorizes such the comfortable confines of the neutral information this way: facilitator role in their daily work. They 1. Information relevant to issues to settle for avoidance of overt acts of cen­ be decided by voters. sorship, bias, and favoritism, resistance 2. Information pertaining to candi­ to calls for censorship from the outside, dates for public office. and perhaps an occasional affirmative 3. Information essential for the indi­ effort to ensure that some unorthodox vidual to cope with his or her en­ idea ·is represented in the collection. In vironment. short, they settle for a role similar to the 4. Information about governments passive neutrality envisioned by Holmes. (federal, state, or local). On the one hand, more should be expected 5. Information relevant to the con­ of followers of an ethical standard than sumption of basic necessities (i.e., they can deliver in real world situations; food, medicines, housing, trans­ the point of a standard is to set goals portation). toward which followers strive as best 6. Information to improve health. they can. On the other hand, librarians 7. Information to increase safety. face a gap between ethical calling and 8. Information to increase employment practice great enough to cause the same opportunity and enhance careers.37 kind of cognitive dissonance that trou­ There are surely many potentially bled the profession· when it embraced fruitful ways for librarians to discuss in­ the stewardship role. Oliver Garceau ob­ terventionist ideas and actions, and served in 1949 that "the idealism of library Dowlin's is noted here because it sets a literature and librarian oratory seems tone and uses language in a way that most unsatisfactory when an attempt is others in the profession might find help­ made to translate it directly into a pro­ ful. Indeed, one conclusion to be drawn gram for action," and the situation may from the profession's fumbling with the not have changed much in the interven­ interventionist role is that librarians need ing years. 35 The post-1939 ethical orien­ more practice using language and concep­ tation remains long on rhetoric and short tualizing standards in concrete ways. on action, and the profession would do well to examine more carefully how much The Emotional Factor affirmative effort it expects of librarians An entirely different problem with the and how librarians might achieve it. marketplace of ideas concept is that it 500 College & Research Libraries November 1991

has a deep and pervasive bias toward gruence in what one regards as the truth rationality. It markedly underestimates and what market forces determine to be the role of emotional and idiosyncratic the truth-and, therefore, rest comfort­ factors in the way people peruse and ably with the concept. With less comfort, attach themselves to ideas. The rational perhaps, one might allow for an occa­ bias comes directly from classical eco­ sional faltering of the market, as a result nomics, which assumes that people act - of which an idea that one finds false or rationally in the marketplace in pursuit pernicious carries the day. But what of personal gain and that this, in the long about the false or pernicious idea that run, promotes an efficient use of eco­ one finds utterly abhorrent and totally nomic forces and meets people's needs. beyond the pale? The ultimate test of But as constitutional scholar Laurence L. one's commitment to a free trade in ideas Tribe has pointed out, Holmes and demo­ is the willingness to accept the possibil­ cratic theorist Alexander Meiklejohn ity that such an idea might win out in the (whose views are discussed below) were market-a possibility that must be con­ "far too focused on intellect and rationality sidered because it is most unlikely that to accommodate the emotive role of free affirmative intervention by lawmakers, expression-its place in the evolution, librarians, and others will ever entirely definition, and proclamation of individ­ eliminate distortion and bias that one ual group identity."38 Surely one reason finds in the marketplace. that many librarians find censorship bat­ tles so shattering is that they are primed to think that an important reason people Amidst all the inspiring words in sup­ come to the library is to peruse and eval­ port of the interventionist role, there uate ideas and that people have the good is little real guidance as to how librar­ sense to let others do as they do. In the ians should act. heat of a censorship battle, it is a shock to discover people acting from fear, emo­ tion, and deep-seated beliefs that do not Nazi-inspired anti-Semitism is one bear rational discussion. If librarians idea that many citizens find so false and kept in mind that actors in the market­ utterly repugnant that they would ban it place of ideas operate from emotion as from the marketplace. Many otherwise well as intellect, they might be better stalwart supporters of a free trade in prepared for the crises that flow from ideas changed their minds when, in censorship battles and other assaults on 1978, a neo-Nazi group planned a march freedom of expression in the library. through Skokie, , home to anum­ ber of Holocaust survivors.40 The The Pernicious Idea thought of a parade of Nazis, in full Still another problem with the market­ storm trooper regalia, traumatizing the place of ideas concept goes to its episte­ town was beyond the pale. With much mological heart. The logic of the concept soul searching, many concluded that this is that truth is what wins out i'n the com­ kind of expression was so inimical to petition of the market. The problem is in fundamental standards of decency and going as far as Holmes seemed willing to civilized living that suppression was a go in letting the competition of the mar­ proper course. The American Civil Lib­ ket determine what the truth is. Holmes, erties Union (ACLU), which came to the who had seen time upset so many fight­ defense of the neo-Nazis' right to con­ ing faiths, was willing to go far indeed; duct the parade, was left in the difficult he could accept the market as the final position of defending a process-the free arbiter. 39 If one is not willing to go as far trade in ideas-that seemed to have no as Holmes, one might still agree that ethical or moral content. Were there no competition in the marketplace of ideas bounds to what the ACLU would find has a strong tendency to advance the worthy to defend? Was the process an truth-that is, there will be a strong con- end in itself? Marketplace of Ideas 501

Librarians and professional library as­ ity that other competing values may out­ sociations have found themselves in the weigh the value of a free trade of ideas. ACLU's quandary. In 1977, ALA became The worst censorship battles for the embroiled in controversy over its film, individual librarian are surely those cen­ The Speaker. In the film a speaker-mod­ tered on false and pernicious ideas. To be eled on William Schockley, who advo­ in the position of defending an idea that cates the theory that blacks are one finds objectionable is a terrible genetically inferior to whites-is invited moral dilemma. Unless one adopts to speak at a high school. The film, how­ Pea ttie' s stance, he or she quickly may be ever, in attempting to illuminate the dif­ pushed to the ACLU's Skokie position of ficult issues that must be faced in defending a process with seemingly no upholding intellectual freedom, the film ethical or moral content. A process is became a test of the limits many librari­ difficult to defend against moral and eth­ ans would put on a free trade in ideas. ical claims. The objections to the film were many, but at their core was deep unease and dis­ DEMOCRATIC VALUES taste for the speaker's theory of racial But the process needs not be an end in inferiority.41 In 1984, the California Li­ itself. There are ends beyond a tendency brary Association became mired in an to advance the truth that the process can ethical quandary when it initially be said to promote. One such end is the granted and then revoked exhibit space advancement of democracy. It can bear­ to a publisher of revisionist works claim­ gued that a free trade in ideas is a neces­ ing that the Holocaust was a hoax.42 John sary precondition to democracy, that Swan and Noel Peattie debated this inci­ without a protected right to bring ideas dent at the 1988 ALA Annual Conference and issues into public debate, where vot­ in New Orleans and later reworked the ers and elected representatives can assess debate into a book that addresses the their worth, democracy cannot exist. Alex­ problem of the false and pernicious idea ander Meiklejohn has long been regarded in thoughtful, reasoned arguments for as the most eloquent spokesperson of this and against allowing the revisionist pub­ view. For Meiklejohn, democracy meant lisher to display his books. self-government-active, knowledge­ The arguments boil down to this: able citizens advancing their ideas in the Swan would allow the publisher to dis­ public arena in the hope of building ma­ play his books because, he says, "as a jority support for them and simulta­ civil libertarian I do have faith that truth neously respecting the rights of those will-given enough time-prevail in the with differing views to do the same.46 human imagination" and because he However, there is an immediate problem sees "no alternative to giving the indi­ with Meiklejohn's thesis because logi­ vidual mind the freedom to grow, and to cally it would afford protection only to grasp, as it will."43 Peattie would bar the political expression. What about artistic and publisher because "we need to have a literary expression? In time, Meiklejohn comprehensive view of intellectual free­ amended his thesis to encompass protec­ dom as bound up with other values. Oth­ tion for artistic and literary expression erwise, we are liable not only to charges on the ground that such expression often of racism and other forms of discrimina­ has a political element in some direct or tion, but our own professional rhetoric, indirect way, but this amended view left our own Library Bill of Rights can be many commentators dissatisfied and turned against us."44 Despite Swan's crit­ uneasy.47 icism of Holmes's marketplace of ideas,45 Interestingly, the most uncompromis­ Swan would ultimately stand with ing proponent of the thesis justifying free­ Holmes, while Peattie recognizes a cate­ dom of expression as instrumental to gory of false and pernicious ideas for democracy has been Robert Bork. In an which the marketplace cannot be the oft-cited 1971law review article, he argued final arbiter.Peattie accepts the possibil- that "constitutional protection should be 502 College & Research Libraries November1991 accorded only to speech that is explicitly viduals find themselves forced to think political." 48 In testimony during his 1987 and to draw conclusions that deepen confirmation hearings for an appointment their understanding, broaden their per­ to the United States Supreme Court, he spectives, and increase their empathy for recanted somewhat, saying that he no longer others. And as constitutional theorist felt a ''bright line" could be drawn to sepa­ Martin H. Redish has stressed, it is not rate political and nonpolitical speech.49 His only a question of personal growth or confirmation went down to defeat, in part self-fulfillment, but of personal empow­ because many senators concluded that erment as well. Freedom of expression his views did not afford sufficient pro­ enhances one's ability to make life-af­ tection to freedom of expression.5° fecting decisions, to direct one's des­ Librarians have cause to share the tiny. 52 Other legal scholars similarly have senators' concern because the typical li­ grounded freedom of expression in con­ 3 brary contains numerous artistic and liter­ cepts of self-actualization. 5 ary works that would be afforded uncertain protection at best in censorship challenges. But before casting aside the thesis that If librarians kept in mind that actors freedom of expression is justified on the in the marketplace of ideas operate ground that it is a necessary precondi­ from emotion as well as intellect, they tion to democracy, it is worth remember­ might be better prepared for the cri­ ing all those works in history, politics, ses that flow from censorship battles. and public policy that the typical library also contains. For this body of material, the thesis is a strong statement for a free Appending such an exalted and enno­ trade of ideas in the library and for affir­ bling end to freedom of expression has mative steps to ensure that a wide spec­ practical meaning for the librarian trum of ideas is represented. The thesis is, caught in a censorship controversy or quite appropriately, an underlying theme perplexed about how affirmative to be in of the PLA' s statement of principles for the collection building or public service. It public library. The public library, it de­ gets one out of the dilemma of seeing the clares, is "a place where inquiring minds free trade in ideas as a process with no may encounter the rich diversity of con­ ethical or moral content, and one is not cepts so necessary for a democratic society reduced to defending a process for its whose daily survival depends on the free own sake or to groping for political and and competitive flow of ideas."51 public policy implications, but it is un­ likely to be an effective response to Self-Actualization someone making an emotional plea to There is another end that a free trade ban an objectionable book from a library. in ideas can be said to promote, an end Perhaps the best that can be said is that that provides a firmer and more expan­ the librarian may feel better about resist­ sive anchoring for freedom of expression ing such pleas and may be in less moral than the Holmes and Meiklejohn posi­ confusion in doing so, especially in cases tions. It is that a free trade in ideas is where the librarian has some qualms ultimately necessary to promote indi­ about the book at issue. The librarian's vidual human dignity and self-realiza­ ultimate defense of the book is not that tion. This is where the Meiklejohn thesis the marketplace of ideas must be relied leads when one asks the question "What on to decide its worth or that its direct or is democracy for?" Without the right to indirect political content protects it, but encounter and evaluate ideas on one's that having the book available may be a own, whether true or false, good or bad, factor in someone's potential for per­ one's personal dignity is diminished and sonal growth and empowerment. the opportunity to grow as a human being The ultimate end of self-actualization is hampered. In the sometimes bewilder­ strengthens the librarian's affirmative ing and unpleasant crossfire of ideas, indi- stance in collection building and public Marketplace of Ideas 503 service. The issue is not just fairness­ and minority communities. Any special taking actions that redress unfair compe­ claims a particular idea or group has to tition in the marketplace and creating moral rectitude or to the truth-and opportunities for the disadvantaged to whether one agrees with those claims­ become informed and be heard-but en­ are beside the point. From the stand­ suring that the widest spectrum of mate­ point of professional ethics as outlined rials is available so as to maximize here, one undertakes interventionist ac­ opportunities for personal growth and tions for reasons that transcend the par­ empowerment. Admittedly, this argu­ ticular idea or group. Whatever one's ment does not offer practical guidance in personal commitments regarding social deciding how affirmative the stance responsibility, these transcendent rea­ should be, but it does give the stance sons become the basis for debate and additional ethical force. action in the professional realm. This ap­ proach has the advantage of recasting the social responsibility issue in a specif­ To be a citizen in society's market­ ically professional context. It puts a dif­ place of ideas is responsibility ferent slant on conventional notions of enough, but to be a librarian in the social activism, which many librarians find library's marketplace of ideas is a so incompatible with professionalism. great responsibility indeed. CONCLUSION When ALA officially adopted the Li­ If the library's marketplace of ideas is brary Bill of Rights in 1939, it embraced a to be fairer and broader than society's powerful and inspiring philosophy, but marketplace of ideas, and if the ultimate also a complex and, in some respects, end of intellectual freedom is self-actual­ problematic philosophy. To be a citizen ization, the debate over social activism in society's marketplace of ideas is re­ in the profession can be reassessed. The sponsibility enough, but to be a librarian issue is not, as David Berninghausen put in the library's marketplace of ideas is a it in the title of his 1972 article, "Social great responsibility indeed. If librarians Responsibility vs. the Library Bill of are to meet this responsibility in new and Rights," but rather how much fairer and meaningful ways, truly making the li­ broader the library's marketplace of brary a more perfect market, they must ideas is to be and what sorts of interven­ explore much more fully and critically tionist actions are appropriate to under­ the philosophy they have so wholeheart­ take. 54 Intervention does not oppose edly embraced. Not the least of the ben­ intellectual freedom, but supports it. Unfair­ efits that may accrue is a better working ness, underrepresentation, political and vocabulary within the profession for dis­ public policy content, and, ultimately, cussing the philosophy and its many self-actualization are reasons to make ac­ ramifications. One long-term benefit cessible controversial and unorthodox may be a much greater congruence of works and to reach out to dissident groups rhetoric and action.

REFERENCES AND NOTES 1. American Library Association, Office for Intellectual Freedom, Intellectual Freedom Manual, 3d ed. (: American Library Assn., 1989), p.14. 2. Ibid., p.93. 3. American Library Association, ALA Handbook of Organization, 1989/1990 (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1989), p.248. 4. Mark Midbon, "Capitalism, Liberty, and the Development of the Library," Journal of Library History 15:188 (Spring 1980). 5. Abrams v. Umted States, 250 U.S. 618 (1919). 6. Ibid., p.630. 504 College & Research Libraries November 1991

7. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (New York: Norton, 1975); originally published in 1859, is the classic work. 8. Karl R. Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (New York: Basic Books, 1959). See also his The Open Society and Its Enemies, 5th ed., rev. (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Pr., 1966), especially the 1961 addendum in vol. 2, p.369-96. 9. ALA, Intellectual Freedom Manual, p.14. 10. Ibid., p.93. 11. Frederick J. Stielow makes this point in his "Censorship in the Early Professionalization of , 1876 to 1929," Journal of Library History 18:42-44 (Winter 1983). 12. Judith F. Krug and James A. Harvey, "ALA and Intellectual Freedom: A Historical Overview," in ALA's, Intellectual Freedom Manual, p.xiv-xvi. 13. Sidney Ditzion, Arsenals of a Democratic Culture (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1947), p.186. 14. Justin Winsor, "Free Libraries and Readers," American Library Journal1:66 (Nov. 30, 1876). Reprinted in an "LJ Classics" supplement to the June 15, 1989, Library Journal, p.21. 15. Ibid. 16. Michael Harris, "The Purpose of the American Public Library: A Revisionist Interpre­ tation of History," Library Journal 98:2509 (Sept. 15, 1973). 17. Wayne A. Wiegand, The Politics of an Emerging Profession: The American LibranJ Associa­ tion, 1876-1917 (New York: Greenwood, 1976), f.ix. 18. Evelyn Geller, "Intellectual Freedom: Eterna Principle or Unanticipated Conse­ quence?" Library Journal99:1364-67 (May 15, 1974). 19. Judith Krug and James Harvey make this point in their historical overview in ALA's Intellectual Freedom Manual, p.xvi. 20. Dee Garrison, Apostles of Culture: The Public Librarian and American Society, 1876-1920 (New York: Free Pr., 1979), p.214. 21. Dee Garrison, "Rejoinder [to a review article by Elaine Fain]," Journal of Library History 10:114 (Apr. 1975). 22. Ibid., quoting Melvil Dewey, "Advice to a Librarian," Public Libraries 2:267 (1897). 23. Patrick Williams, The American Public Library and the Problem of Purpose (New York: Greenwood, 1988). 24. Garrison, Apostles of Culture, p.214. 25. ALA, Intellectual Freedom Manual, p.23. The quoted passage from "Free Access to Libraries for Minors" is a 1981 revision that removed sex-linked language. 26. Marjorie Fiske, Book Selection and Censorship: A Study of School and Public Libraries in California (Berkeley: Univ. of California Pr., 1959), p.B-9, quoted in Geller, "Intellectual Freedom," p.1366. 27. Fiske, Book Selection and Censorship, p.102-3, discussed in Geller, "Intellectual Free­ dom," p.1366. 28. ALA, ALA Handbook of Organization, 1989/1990, p.248. 29. See, for example, Hugh Carter Donahue, The Battle to Control Broadcast News: Who Owns the First Amendment? (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr., 1989); U.S. Congress, House Com­ mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Subcommittee on Communications, Media Ownership: Diversity and Concentration: Hearings, 101st Cong., 1st sess., 1989; and Robert E. Mutch, Campaigns, Congress, and Courts: The Making of Federal Campaign Finance Law (New York: Praeger, 1988). 30. ALA, Intellectual Freedom Manual, p.4. 31. Ibid., p.14. 32. Ibid., p.42. 33. Ibid., p.43. 34. Public Library Association, Goals, Guidelines, and Standards Committee, The Public Library Mission Statement and Its Imperatives for Service (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1979), p.7. 35. Oliver Garceau, The Public Library in the Political Process (New York: Columbia Univ. Pr., 1949), p.147. 36. Celeste West, "The Secret Garden of Censorship: Ourselves," Library Journal108:1651- 53 (Sept. 1, 1983). Marketplace of Ideas 505

37. Kenneth E. Dowlin," Access to Information: A Human Right?" Bowker Annual of Library & Book Trade Information 32:64-65 (1987). 38. Laurence L. Tribe, American Constitutional Law, 2d ed. (Mineola, N.Y.: Foundation Pr., 1988), p.578. . 39. In Gitfow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652, 673 (1925), Holmes made it plain that he was prepared to accept market outcomes that he found highly undesirable. "If in the long run the beliefs expressed in proletarian dictatorship are destined to be accepted by the dominant forces of the community," he wrote in that case, "the only meaning of free speech is that they should be given their chance and have their way." 40. See, for example, David Hamlin, The Nazi/Skokie Conflict: A Civil Liberties Battle (Boston: Beacon, 1980); and Donald Alexander Downs, Nazis in Skokie: Freedom, Community, and the First Amendment, Notre Dame Studies in Law and Contemporary Issues, vol. 1 (Notre Dame, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Dame Pr., 1985). 41. See summaries of the controversy in Arthur Plotnik, "The Speaker: Step or Misstep into Filmmaking?" American Libraries 8:371-78 (July-Aug. 1977); and John Berry, "The Debate Nobody Won," Library Journal102:1573-80 (Aug. 1977). 42. See Susan Kamm, '"Holocaust Hoax' Publisher Barred ... ," American Libraries 16:5-7 (Jan. 1985). 43. John Swan and Noel Peattie, The Freedom to Lie: A Debate about Democracy (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1989), p.119. 44. Ibid., p.101. 45. Ibid., p.15-16. 46. Alexander Meiklejohn, Political Freedom (New York: Harper, 1960). He first presented his views in Free Speech and Its Relation to Self-Government (New York: Harper, 1948). 47. Alexander Meiklejohn, "The First Amendment Is an Absolute," in The Supreme Court Review, ed. Philip B. Kurland (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1961), p.256. 48. Robert Bork, "Neutral Principles and Some First Amendment Problems," Indiana Law Journa/1:20 (1971). 49. U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Nomination of Robert H. Bork to Be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States: Hearings, vol. 1, 100th Cong., 1st sess., 1989, p.270. 50. Stephen M. Griffin notes this as one of Bork's many problems in "Politics and the Supreme Court: The Case of the Bork Nomination," Journal of Law & Politics 5:570 (Spring 1989). 51. Public Library Association, Public Library Principles TaskForce, "The Public Library: Democracy's Resource: A Statement of Principles," Public Libraries 24:153 (Winter 1985). 52. Martin H. Redish, Freedom of Expression: A Crztical Analysis (Charlottesville, Va.: Michie, 1984), p.11. 53. See, for example, Thomas I. Emerson, The System of Freedom of Expression (New York: Random, 1970); C. Edwin Baker, "Scope of the First Amendment: Freedom of Speech," UCLA Law Review 25:964-1040 (June 19'Z8); and Paul G. Stem, "A Pluralistic Reading of the First Amendment and Its Relation to Public Discourse," Yale Law Journal 99:925- 44 (Jan. 1990). 54. David Beminghausen, "Antithesis in Librarianship: Social Responsibility vs. the Li­ brary Bill of Rights," Library Journal 97:3675-81 (Nov. 15, 1972). TAilORED Why Blackwell is the Approval Plan leader.

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