A Fine Balance: Tangible or Electronic?

As the government documents librarian, I was appointed to an ad hoc library task force in the spring of 2010. The task force was to determine if our library should remain in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) as a selective depository. Ultimately, the group recommended that we remain in the FDLP, and the library administration accepted our recommendations. The recommendations included shifting from tangible government documents towards electronic documents wherever possible. However, tangible government documents of significant historical and/or research value were to be retained. In addition, a special weeding project to reduce the size of the current collection was implemented. The library task force’s assessment and analysis of Rod Library’s participation in the FDLP, the information gathered and utilized throughout the process, the potential benefits and drawbacks of our depository status, and the criteria used to determine retention or withdrawal will be addressed

Obscenity and pornography: A historical look at the American Library Association, the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, and the Supreme Court

There was a time when accessing pornographic and obscene materials was much more difficult than it is today. Prosecuted in 1868, Regina v. Hicklin was the first known obscenity case tried under the Obscene Publications Act in Great Britain. The United States Supreme Court first addressed obscenity in the 1957 case of Roth v. United States and grappled with setting standards or creating criteria by which obscenity could be defined. In the 1960s, multiple proposals for federal legislation to crack down on obscenity were offered. The American Library Association (ALA) stepped in to voice its concern and provide professional input in the debate over obscenity. The ALA\u27s central tenets of librarianship are freedom of speech and freedom from censorship. This was evident with the creation of the Library Bill of Rights in 1948 and the Freedom to Read Statement in 1953. To address the various facets of obscenity and pornography in a comprehensive way, Congress enacted legislation that established the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography in 1967. This thesis will explore the political and legal impact of the creation, the duties, and the findings of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. It will examine the final report issued by the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography in September of 1970 and probe the myriad reactions to the Commission\u27s most controversial recommendation: that federal, state, and local legislation prohibiting the sale, exhibition, or distribution of sexual materials to consenting adults should be repealed. Why did this specific recommendation cause such controversy? What impact did it have on later Supreme Court opinions involving obscenity and the First Amendment? What impact did it have on library practices and how did the ALA respond? By examining these issues, this thesis will help to define the effects of obscenity and pornography between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. In addition, this thesis briefly discusses the 1986 Meese Commission and the current definition and regulation of obscenity and pornography