Week 13 Prompt Response

Yes, as librarians, we should work to ensure adults have access to YA literature and graphic novels. The Intellectual Freedom Committee further extrapolates upon the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights in the article, Labeling Systems: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. In this article, they differentiate between two types of labeling devices. To clarify any misunderstandings about the difference between these two labels, the Intellectual Freedom Committee provides the following explanations: “An example of a viewpoint-neutral directional aid could be a genre label, such as romance, historical fiction, and mystery. A prejudicial label would be a label that tries to persuade or establish an institutional preference for something. An example of this would be a genre label of Christian fiction with a cross as the symbol, which would indicate a preference of Christianity over other religions” (Intellectual Freedom Committee, 2007). Censorship in this form, as with all others, whether implicit and explicit, are “a violation of the First Amendment and Library Bill of Rights” (Intellectual Freedom Committee, 2007). Their explanation made me ponder how public libraries use spine labels and often section off materials intended for a specific age range to differentiate between, in this instance, books for children, teenagers, and adults. In the Materials Selection Policy for the library system in which I work, it states, “[t]he library does not advocate labels or rating systems for Library materials except for the use of directional labels for ease of finding items in the collection” (Indianapolis Public Library, 2022). Despite the Intellectual Freedom Committee’s explanation of how the two labeling systems differ, reflecting upon the prompt for this week, I am perplexed as to whether a spine label or even a sign on a bookshelf indicating that the materials underneath are teen fiction, or teen graphic novels, compared to adult or children’s fiction or graphic novels constitutes a directional or prejudicial label. Although these labels and signs assist users with wayfinding, it is also possible that adults who enjoy YA fiction or graphic novels might feel intimidated or embarrassed by having to enter into a space, whether that is another room, an area of books separated from those books for other ages, or see a label classifying a book as being geared toward an age group in which they do not comprise the target audience. Depending upon the answer to this question, I think adjusting the sort of labels that libraries use to categorize their materials might be one way to ensure that adults who enjoy YA literature or graphic novels can access these items. More generally, the core tenets of the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights and Code of Ethics—"fighting censorship and safeguarding the right to intellectual freedom by not limiting access to these materials” (American Library Association, 2017 & American Library Association, 2006)—can help librarians to make certain that adults who enjoy YA literature or graphic novels can read them.

 References:

American Library Association. (2017, May 19). Code of Ethics. Professional ethics. https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics

American Library Association. (2006, June 30). Library Bill of Rights. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

Indianapolis Public Library. (2018, October 22). Materials selection policy. https://www.indypl.org/plans-policies/materials-selection-policy

Intellectual Freedom Committee. (2007, May 29). Labeling and rating systems q&a. American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/labelingratingqa