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Books do contain ideas which will upset some people
• MIKE Clarke, Camden’s new head of libraries, was reported (Any book will do? September 4) as stating that librarians have discouraged book donations because they feared they would be swamped by religious or politically motivated donations.
This argument is new to Camden. In the past, the reason given for being unenthusiastic about donations was that it was expensive to make these books “library ready”.
It is understandable librarians should be unenthusiastic about being given large numbers of one particular book.However, to suggest that librarians were particularly against religious or political book donations is to raise the spectre of censorship.
Camden’s library service has an honourable record in this respect. It refused to bow to an orchestrated campaign to ban the books of David Irving from the borough’s libraries. While accepting that the views of Irving were not shared by many people in Camden, it believed he had the right to express them and the residents of the borough had the right to read them. Because you do not agree with the message in a book, it does not give you the right to deprive others of the right to read and think about that message.
Has this policy been quietly changed by Camden?
It can be argued that most books contain ideas which will upset someone. So, they can be viewed as dangerous things. Is this the reason why Camden has consistently reduced its library book stock?
ALAN TEMPLETON
Chair, Camden Public Libraries Users Group, NW6
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