> > Can this be considered a question of censorship, exactly? Is anyone stopping the books from being written, printed, or purchased? This appeared to me as more a case of librarians bowing to certain interest groups and/or community pressures.
>
> censorship is also denying the public access to the material. Libraries are funded by taxes. That means you and I pay for them. That means that they cannot deny access to any material that they buy with tax dollars. Of course, they don't have to give you access to EVERYTHING ever written because it's generally understood that few libraries could possibly afford to buy everything. But once they buy it, with OUR tax dollars, they cannot deny us access to it. What people don't realize is that the books do not belong to the library. They belong to everyone who paid the taxes that bought them. To refuse to let us have access to them would be the same thing as waiting for you to buy food and then refusing to allow you to eat it. Because of this, censorship in and of itself is immoral. In fact, it's a form of theft, not only because they're taking away that which you bought, but also because they're robbing you of the freedom of choice.

This is a good point, but what if I don't pay taxes? If I don't have a job for whatever reason and I haven't paid taxes to buy the books, can the library tell me I can't check out a book?

-eric sleator
Thu 14 Sep A.D. 2000