The Censorship Phenomenon in College and Research Libraries: An Investigation of the Canadian Prairie Provinces, 1980‑1985

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Schrader, A.M.
  • Herring, M.
  • de Scossa, C.

• Although college and research libraries in North America are generally thought to be immune to censorship pressures, no impartial research has been undertaken to date to verify this perception. A five-page questionnaire was mailed to the libraries of 68 postsecondary educational institutions in the three prairie provinces of Canada in order to determine two things: first, the extent of pressures to remove, relocate, or reclassify library materials between 1980 and 1985; and second, to determine the effectiveness of written selection policies in dealing with such pressures. Among the 47 responding libraries, 14 (30 percent) reported that they had experienced some kind of censorship pressure during the six years under study. Almost all of these libraries served student populations under 5,000, but some of the larger institutions also reported challenges of one kind or another.

• Date created

  1989

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Censorship
  • Academic libraries
  • 1980/1985
  • Canada, Western

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3125QM5X

• License

  Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International