This blog has been created, along with many others, as part of a course on intellectual freedom in libraries. To support intellectual freedom, we must needs offer up our own expressions, freely, but with the awareness of the impact our words may have on others and a willingness to respect their opinions.
I've never worked in a library, but was employed for over two years at MUNFLA (the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive) where similar considerations are relevant. Housed as it is, within the confines of a Canadian university, and established for a specific purpose, the exact tenants of intellectual freedom that we see as vital in American libraries were not applied, but the study and collection of Folklore has long grappled with freedom of speech and thought. For example, the primary consideration behind accepting a personal donation into the collection, was how much value it had to the person donating it.
Which I think is crucial to intellectual freedom: that of the value placed on any given document (either positive or negative) by any given group. As has been noted elsewhere, the definition of what should be allowed under intellectual freedom is not a static concept. It has changed in the past and will change in the future and probably will never make everyone happy, but allowing for evolution and accepting challenges as part of the growth of our culture helps to make us what we are.
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