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Did you know an Iowa librarian wrote the original Librarys Bill of Rights as a rebuke to book banning during the rise of fascism, and it became the basis of library policy across the country?

The late 1930s were a dark time for free speech and expression. The specter of fascism and war in Europe was prominent in the minds of Americans, and in both the US and abroad books were being bannedsometimes burnedfor subversive topics.

Watching this, and recalling similar panic and censorship efforts before and during the First World War decades earlier, Forrest Spaulding, the library director of the Des Moines Public Library, responded with a short, four-point list of what he called The Librarys Bill of Rights in 1938.

Spaulding wanted to protect the librarys integrity as a space to find resources and promote the freedom of information. He wanted to keep it free from political interference, growing intolerance and the censorship he noticed creeping in, so the library could continue serving the people of Des Moines.

He was specifically focused on how censorship and intolerance affected the rights of minorities and individuals.

The document was presented to the library board and passed as library policy in November that year, apparently without issue.

But censorship wasnt a problem only affecting Des Moines.

In America, Hitlers Mein Kampf, Ernest Hemmingways For Whom the Bell Tolls, John Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath, and Karl Marxs Das Kapital were among the books banned. Othersboth fiction and nonfictionwere banned for depictions of racism in the American South and/or for sexual content.

A whole series of American social studies and history textbooks written by Harold Rugg, which put more emphasis on class inequality in American history, was frequently challenged and banned across the country.

In June 1939a few months before World War II would officially startat a meeting for the American Library Association (ALA), Spauldings friend and a member of the association moved for a more universal version of the Des Moines document to be used for all American libraries. It was adopted easily.

Prior to Spaulding, censorship wasnt a big concern for many librarians, but the changing culture made the ALA more responsive to an explicit stance against censorship and having information freely available to anyone.

When pushed about his opposition to all censorship, Spaulding replied, If more people had read Mein Kampf, some of Hitlers despotism might have been prevented.

That was the principle which fueled Spauldings advocacy.

Close to 84 years later, the universal Library Bill of Rights now has seven points, but it still revolves around the idea that public libraries are for everyone and no idea should be restricted or censored. In fact, the most current bill of rights declares public libraries have a responsibility to actively fight against censorship, not only resist it.

Spaulding was also appointed as the chair of a special ALA committee on censorship, the Intellectual Freedom Committee.

In addition to his work to fight against censorship, Spaulding used the library during the Great Depression to create spaces and programs for men to continue learning. The reading rooms he created contained books to read for recreation, but also technical and vocational books.

Spaulding spent the rest of his life fighting censorship, and advocating that free information was key to a healthy society.

Spaulding died in 1965, and the Des Moines Register wrote:

Ordinarily a community is not greatly stirred by the death of a man who has been away for 13 years, but it is different with Forrest Spaulding. He made himself so much a part of the life of Des Moines that the thought of him is still warm and pleasant.

He went far beyond the role of librarian to help out in every cultural and intellectual phase of city activityHe was a friendly, social man, with a mischievous love of a pun or humorous phrase. Among those who knew and loved these traits of his, it is as though he never left Des Moines at all.

Almost 84 years after the first draft and over 100 years since Spaulding first came to work in Des Moines, hes honored with a painting, a plaque, and an illustrated version of the first ALA version of the Library Bill of Rights in a meeting room at the Central branch of the Des Moines Public Library.

Nikoel Hytrek4/28/23

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Have a story idea or something I should know? Email me at nikoel@iowastartingline.com. You can also DM me on Twitter at@n_hytrek.

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Iowa Librarian Pens 'Library's Bill of Rights' in 1938 (And It's ... - Iowa Starting Line