Censorship challenges to books in Scottish public libraries

Censorship challenges to books in UK public libraries have received renewed attention recently, partly due to press coverage regarding libraries stocking ‘extremist’ material. Guidelines for dealing with these types of challenges and the general management of controversial material have been published; however there has been little recent research into the phenomenon of challenges to books in the UK. In light of this, the current study sought to establish the incidence of censorship challenges to books in Scottish public libraries in the years 2005-2009 and the actions taken in response to these challenges, using Freedom of Information requests submitted to Scottish local authorities. It was found that eight local authorities in Scotland had received formal censorship challenges to books, with a total of fifteen challenges throughout the country. The most common action taken in response to these challenges was for the book to be kept in stock in its original position with the rationale for this explained to the complainer, with the second most common action being taken to move the title to another section of the library. Two books were removed from the library in response to a censorship challenge. The largest numbers of challenges were made against books on the basis of sexual material. While these responses generally agree with research from other countries, the rate of challenges to books in Scottish public libraries is lower than that of North America