Electronic Brown Wrapper: Hustler via ILL

[Byron C. Mayes]

On Fri, 6 Jun 1997, Gilbert, Richard A wrote:


> >Three of the above libraries are indentified as ILL suppliers, so a
> >public library could fill an ILL request for <<Hustler>>. 
[SNIP]
> 
> How many libraries would actually go ahead and request this for a patron
> (or for that matter, even check on OCLC to see if it was available for
> loan)?

What self-respecting ILL department would *not* attempt to fill a
legitimate request from a patron? Obviously the library might have to take a
few extra steps to determine that the request was "for real" and not a hoax
or prank and there would have to be a specific citation to an article (most
libraries don't lend random issues of any periodical), but beyond that there
is no reason not to try. 

> I would have to agree that many libraries and librarians practice a form
> of censorship based on society's perception of the value of certain
> types of information.  This censorship has been justified in the past by
> budgetary restraints or lack of patron interest in such materials.  For
> many this is an uncomfortable thought, and may explain the many violent
> reactions to the suggestion.

This addresses why a library wouldn't *buy* Hustler for itself, or (to keep
it germaine) wouldn't stick a pointer to "Babes in Toyland" (not the one we
read as children) on their list of suggested sites to see. It doesn't
suggest why a specific request for an ILL of Hustler shouldn't be filled
(ILL exists to cover those areas in which the library is weak while not
devoting development time and money in areas of small or passing interest).

Hmmm. For that matter, ILL seems more a parallel to having a patron ask you
how to find specific "dirty" (or "White Supremacist"** or "anti-gay" or
"bomb-building") sites. You get what the patron wants and you don't ask why.
It's easy enough to go to the closed stacks to get the dirty books (for sex,
see librarian), but how do you find that site that the patron wants to see
when your blocker is on? (Obviously you turn it off, but doesn't that in
itself raise more issues? ... this doesn't seem to be simple black and
white)

Byron

**I'm a Black librarian who's worked in predominantly white settings and
I've actually had to help more than one patron find "good" White Supremacist
information. Oddly enough, it was probably the best reference service I ever
gave.

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