Exploring Users'' and Librarians’Perception and Attitude Toward Intellectual Freedomin Public Libraries from the Perspective of Challenged Books

• Main Authors: Hou-Yi Chang, 張厚儀
• Other Authors: Shiao-Feng Su
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/q7bn42

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 圖書資訊學研究所 === 106 === Public library is the first place to provide people education, entertainment, and information. Users have rights to choose and are free to express here, those are parts of "Intellectual Freedom". Collection Development Policies show the aims and vision of a library. At the same time, it is also the basis of purchasing collections for librarians. What’s more, it protects the rights of users. Therefore, if there is no appropriate collections, the libraries could not be what they should be to the public library. Due to the changes of the times and law, many controversial issues were caused in different ages. And it also extends to writing. However, in our country, there are no exact descriptions of the definitions, standards, and methods about Collection Development Policy. The research is based on the research topic above. Moreover, the main issue of the research is intellectual freedom. Through the views of challenged books of users and librarians to understand their perception and attitude toward the issue. The background of the research was based on public libraries, using semi-strustured interviews and questionnaires to collect data. Totally, it recalled 485 effective questionnaires and interviewed three librarians. The research shows: (1) Users think that they know the rules of selection policies. Libraries should purchase the books that according to users’ needs and follow the book rating system. The restricted books should be tagged. (2) The users know what the challenged books are and have concept of the relating issues. Most of users think that libraries should avoid buying challenged books. However, if any challenged books are already in the library, there is no need to be obtained. (3) As for intellectual freedom, users do not agree that government should impact the libraries by their perspectives. Moreover, collection development should be clear. Libraries should classify collections by ages and teach users the concept of intellectual freedom. (4) Librarians think the report from parents and non-ageable reading are the main reasons to cause challenged books. If there is any questions about challenged books, it will be submitted to the review team to do the final decisions. (5) Librarians agree with the implementation of the book rating system. Also, they think library should teach parents and guardians to understand the meaning of free of reading. (6) Librarians do not agree with the censorship. When they face the external opinions, they usually try to communicate with skeptics initiatively. They also try their best to realize intellectual freedom through purchasing. (7) Users think that they have freedom and privacy of reading in library. Although they are not sure whether the challenged books are in the libraries or not, they highly recognized that the rich collection of the library they stay can support the users'' information needs. (8) Both users and librarians think the users in libraries have freedom of reading. (9) Users actually do not understand the censorship. However, when librarians purchase the collections, they try their best to avoid censorship. The study proposes the following suggestions for piblic libraries in Taiwan: 1. To educate users about the concepts and issues which related to intellectual freedom, and expect them to face the collection with an opened-attitude and respect the freedom of expression and reading of others. 2. The book rating system increases the level of minors. It is recommended to add “PG 15” and “PG 12” in public libraries to provide more appropriate choice and protection for underage users through relevant rules. At the same time, it is more convenient for parents or the guardians choose the suitable collection for reading.