Subscribe to trusted local news
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
03
Jul 2023
Harrogate district libraries will not ban or censor ‘offensive’ books
North Yorkshire Council has said it will not ban or censor books that readers find offensive in its libraries.
Novels have increasingly become tangled-up in the so-called culture wars, particularly in the United States where thousands of books have been banned in school and public libraries due to complaints about race or LGBTQ+ themes.
The trend has spread to the UK with research published this year by the UK’s library association, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, finding that requests to ban books in the UK have increased significantly in recent years.
Its survey of librarians reported a third have been asked by members of the public to censor or remove books and 82% said they were concerned about the increase in the requests.
But North Yorkshire Council, which runs libraries in the Harrogate district, has said it has only received one request to ban a book in the last five years.
Boroughbridge Community Library
The book in question was Hilary Bonner’s crime thriller Deadly Dance and the request related to graphic descriptions the reader found upsetting.
The council declined to remove the book on the grounds that it follows the approach of CILIP, which says access to information should not be restricted. Its guidance states:
The council added that its own policy does not permit the removal of any books at the request of an individual or group and that library staff do not label items to warn customers about potentially offensive or harmful content.
Read more:
- Council spends £2m on consultants for Harrogate’s Station Gateway
- ‘Ripon did not want a Tory and now they have one’, claims councillor
0