The Wyandotte news-herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1943-1963, 1945-02-22
| Notes From
Bacon Library
Continued from Page -

nationality or the political or
religious views of the writers.
Further (and this sentence was
added in Oct, 1914, following
the above described Detroit
EVENT. books believed to be
factually correct should not be
banned or removed from the Ii
brary simply because they are
disapproved by some persons.
:. As far as available material per-
mitS, all sides Of questions on
which differences of opinion ex-
ist should be represented fairly
and adequately in the books and
other reading matter purchased
for public use"
Says Jens Nyholm. ASsistant-L-
brarian at the University of Califor-
mia: This recent endorsement given
by the Council of the ALA. would
indicate that leaders in our pro-
fession accept, at least in principle,
such q stand. 1t is consequently
our duty to direct our efforts to-
ward the realization of this ideal.
The public Libraries are for the
people. established by their means
and for their development. To erect
arbitrary barriers that will exclude
from the public Libraries the battle
Of ideas on the political. social and
economic fronts, as well as on the
religious, moral and aesthetic ones
10 do this and to turn the Libraries
into tame institutions for harmless
and prettified conventionalism, is to
act contrary to the spirit of the
civilization on which Libraries are
founded and to the progress of
which they are dedicated :.
-It Is the right and duty of the
public library to function freely and
unhampered within the whole sphere
traversed by the human mind and
the human imagination. But in
charting this sphere, in mapping it
out for the readers by the land
marks Of books, the library cannot
cover all details or all regions equally
we'll It Is here book selection comes
In and the criterion for this
should be the TEST OF SIGNIFI-
CANOE. The library has no right
to squander public funds on incon-
sequential material. it must con-
centrate on the material that is of
real Importance, especially in rela-
ton 10 the particular composition
and predominant needs of the COM
munity it serves"
Archibald MacLeish, Librarian Of
Congress and now Assistant TO Sec
rotary Of State Stettinius insists
that the public library has definite
obligations to the democratic gov
eminent which created it. The Ii
brary, he says, must aid citizens
Of . democracy to understand, then
TO value the history of democracy
and its literature and its science
so that they may understand and
value democracy" The library must
be o living protest against untrue
propaganda, an active force of edu-
cation.
Karline Brown of the Cincinnati
Public Library warns us not to for
7.t that "compsDnity mores and con-
ventions are constantly in a state
Of flux, that new days bring new
ways and standards. that it is as
absurd TO try to keep the old ones as
It would be to travel by stagecoach
today or to send a messenger when
there Is telephone nearby. The
prescribed books Of yesterday be-
come the glorious ones of our litera-
turs. History bears articulate testi-
mony against censorship and the
sagacity Of the cenSors."
Libraries throughout the country
win, I believe, strive to the best of
their ability to uphold these prin-
ciplee and to be worthy of the trust
. community like ours places in its
librUy and the personnel which is
guiding and operating it.
In the words of Archibcid Mac
LeiSh let me say that do net
believe libraries, any more than any
other institution created by men,
can be set above change; that Ii