Library censorship: A content analysis and a pictorial model for the continued existence of school library censorship

A content analysis procedure was designed for the analysis of library censorship in public school libraries. First Amendment court cases from 1954-1982 were examined to determine speech patterns, and types of words used to express displeasure in library materials.;Methods. The review of the literature consisted of searching through court cases which dealt with school library censorship and First Amendment judicial activity where the final decisions affected public school libraries. These cases were analyzed according to the judges' discussion as to what ideas, concepts and opinions were found objectionable by the litigants. The context of the discussions were composed of the facts as presented in the official court documents. Additional articles and books on school library censorship were used to supplement the discussion of literature in the problem area. A content analysis procedure was developed to analyze the communication in the court documents. A coding procedure was developed for assigning variables to the classification system of the cases. The final phase was the assignment of the content to the four broad categories of politics, religion, sex-obscenity, and objectionable language for the purpose of quantitative analysis.;Conclusions. As a result of this study it can be concluded that school library material continues to be challenged in the courts. Although one of the major roles of the public school is to prepare students for full participation in society, the evidence gathered shows that many people still believe that students should only be exposed to ideas that will enhance their admiration for and belief in our society. Other conclusions from this study show that books representing contemporary community standards are not usually subject to censorship, more than one-third of all school library censorship cases have been taken to the Supreme Court for a final decision and the most frequently attacked books are those that contain objectionable language followed by political words.