Forrest Spaulding - Advocacy For Access To Information

Advocacy For Access To Information

In the article, The Librarian’s Commitment to the Bill of Rights, Berninghausen points out that prior to 1939, censorship did not appear to be a concern for most librarians. He found that “very few pieces on censorship in libraries appeared in the index to Library Literature before that time. Some of those few articles actually supported censorship.” Louise Robbins also mentions in Censorship and the American Library that there was a lack of initial awareness and support stating that only "7% thought threats to the bill of rights were the most vital problem in libraries today." The bill was a focal point for controversy as was the ALA for adopting it. In putting his convictions into writing and bringing them before the ALA for endorsement, Forrest Spaulding took a stand regarding his convictions in an age when it was, in many ways, personally and politically risky to do so. As Dean Shaloup notes in his article, Do you know Forrest Spaulding?, “this is even more admirable when you consider it was World War II-era America, when anyone promoting anything other than apple pie, baseball, target shooting and flag waving were thought of as un-American.”