CHALLENGING LIBRARY MATERIALS

ERIE COMMUNITY COLLEGE LIBRARIES

Challenged Materials Committee

    The function of the Challenged Materials Committee is to review the patron's complaint form and read/view the material in question.  The committee will then discuss the complaint and determine the fate of the challenged material within the library, i.e. - retain the material or discard it.  The committee will then write a reply to the complainant.

    The following is a list of items to consider:

  1. Each committee member should read/view/listen to the entire work in question.
     

  2. Members should bear in mind that the ECC Board of Trustees has approved the selection policy for the libraries including the Freedom to Read Statement and the Library Bill of Rights, both of which are recommended by the American Library Association.  Please be familiar with them.  If you are not in possession of any of these items, please contact a librarian at any of the three ECC campus libraries.
     

  3. Censors almost always challenge materials on the basis of one or more of the following five criteria:

  1. Politics

  2. Blasphemy

  3. Obscenity

  4. Science

  5. Objections of women/minority groups


Challenged Material Committee

Timetable

1st Meeting – Distribution of challenged material, copies of request for review, and material reviews.

 2nd Meeting – Discuss request for review of material in light of the First Amendment, our selection policy, and the Library Bill of Rights.  Determine whether to discard or retain the material in the Library in question and respond to the complainant.

 Each committee member should read/view/listen to the entire work in question.

 For Further Reference

American Library Association, Office for Intellectual Freedom. Intellectual Freedom Manual. Chicago : ALA, 1996.

Busha, Charles H.   An Intellectual Freedom Primer.  Littleton, CO. : Libraries Unlimited, 1977.

Oboler, Eli M.  Defending Intellectual Freedom : The Library and the Censor.  Westport, CT : Greenwood Press, 1980.

Robotham, John S. & Gerald R. Shields.  Freedom of Access to Library Materials.  New York : Neal Schuman, 1982.