Intellectual Freedom and Social Justice

Over the past few years, tensions between two core values in U.S. librarianship, intellectual freedom and social justice, have roiled the profession. This conflict was most recently seen in the insertion and subsequent removal of “hate groups” to the list of entities that cannot be denied access to library meeting rooms in the American Library Association’s Meeting Rooms Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. This paper is intended to provide context for this conflict. It begins by situating its arguments within ethical philosophy, specifically the study of values or axiology. It then provides an overview of the theoretical foundations of the values of liberalism. Next, the paper discusses the values of truth and freedom from harm in librarianship. Finally, it suggests that a fuller understanding of the library’s place within the public sphere is a possible model for mitigating the tensions currently found in American librarianship. The paper is intended to provide a theoretical foundation for further research.

Axiology · Censorship · Context (archaeology) · Economic Justice · Harm · Intellectual freedom · Library science · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Sociology · Computer Science · Ethics in Business and Education · Ethics in medical practice · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics

• What Is the Point of Equality?

  Elizabeth S Anderson, Liz Anderson•Ethics•1999

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• Axiology--Theory of Values

  Samuel L Hart•Philosophy and Phenomenological…•1971

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• Theoretical Foundations of Liberalism

  Jeremy Waldron•The Philosophical Quarterly•1987

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