Obscenity and Freedom of Expression by Haig A. BosmajianReview by: David K. BerninghausenThe Library Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 2 (Apr., 1978), pp. 230-231Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4306953 .

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230 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY

The chapters vary in style, coverage, and tenor, but each author supports the position that there is a shortage of minorit) librarians. The shortage is depicted by statistics showing the relationship between the percentage of each minority group in the population and the percentage of that particular gr-oup available to serve its population as librarians.

Several reasons are given by the writers for the shortage of minority librarians. Among them are the absence of libraries in the traditional culture of the group; insufficient numbers of role models within the ethnic group; and the small percentage of group members who, in the past, reached the educational level required for a career in librarianship. But the two reasons given most consis- tently are ineffective recruiting efforts by library schools and discriminatory policies in libraries which have too frequently hindered upward mobility for minority librarians. The authors make pronouncements with some bitterness. Nevertheless, they acknowledge the efforts which have been made in recent years by the federal government and some library schools to remedy the situation.

The authors contend that because there is a need for minorities in librarian- ship there are opportunities for them, and some take the position that librarians of a given ethnic group are more effective in serving that group, particularly when language and cultural differences are involved.

Opportunitiesfor Minorities in Librarianship is instructive, giving a good overview of librarianship for the uninitiated. It is persuasive in its attempt to influence because its authors write with contagious enthusiasm for the profession and with an intimacy which is foreign to the typical career book. Most of the essays are followed by extensive bibliographies which enhance the usefulness of the publication.

Avery W. Williams, Roosevelt University

Obscenity and Freedom of Expression. Compiled and edited by HAIG A. BOSMAJIAN.

New York: Burt Franklin & Co., 1976. Pp. xvii+348. $27.50. ISBN 0-89102-034-9.

Stamp collectors were pleased when the post office issued its American Credo series of stamps, including the one bearing Jefferson's words: "I have sworn hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Some collectors were not so pleased when they found Postmaster General Summerfield's cancellation stamp obliterating Jefferson's words with a conflicting invita- tion:"Report Obscene Mail to Your Postmaster."

As censors often do, Summerfield had arrogated to himself the power to determine what all Americans could not read. His invitation encouraged other volunteer censors to get into the act of protecting all citizens from what they considered obscene. But what is obscene?

Bosmajian's Obscenity and Freedom of Expression is a useful reference for librarians who must deal with attempts to suppress materials that some members of the community view as obscene. For example, one helpful quotation is Judge Jerome Frank's opinion in the Roth v. Goldman case, 1949:

... If anyone regards as precise the standard in the obscenity statute, he cannot have read the pertinent cases. For see: At one time, the courts held that the existence of obscenity turned on the subjective intention of the author, regardless of the book's probable effect on readers. This test has now been abandoned; now the courts consider solely the author's "objective" intention, which equates with the book's effect on others ... Also, at one time,

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REVIEWS 231

a writing was held obscene if it would probably have a socially undesirable effect on the abnormal; but now the test has shifted and become that of the way the words will probably affect normal persons. A standard so difficult for our ablest judges to interpret is hardly precise. Nor are there any Supreme Court decisions which clarify it. [P. 58]

Few librarians are so knowledgeable about laws and courts that they should try to serve as their own attorneys. Bosmajian's book fills a gap in the literature useful to librarians, however, for it illuminates the significance of various obscenity cases. The book is organized under the following headings: "Books, Periodicals, Pamphlets, and Obscenity"; "Films, Photographs, and Obscenity"; "Drama, Dance, Nightclub Performances, and Obscenity"; "Obscenity in Political Speech"; "Broadcasting and Obscenity"; and "Obscenity in Education." There is an appendix, a bibliography, a table of cases, and an index. In each section the compiler has selected key cases and presented pertinent documents which help the reader to see the principles illustrated in this history of our courts. For example, every librarian can profitably review the first famous case presented: Queen v. Hicklin.

In 1867-68 a British court ordered Henry Scott's 250 copies of a pamphlet titled "The Confessional Unmasked; Shewing the Depravity of the Romish Priesthood, the Iniquity of the Confessional, and the Questions Put to Females in Confession" to be seized and destroyed. Recorder Benjamin Hicklin stated that while the material was "obscene," the purpose of Scott was to expose the evils of Catholicism, not to corrupt the morals of youth, and hence the Recorder found for Scott. The higher courts disagreed and overruled his decision, producing the famous Hicklin test: ". . . The test of obscenity is this, whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall . . ." (p. 3).

This case is especially significant, for until after 1913 it served as a precedent in American courts. Judge Learned Hand in 1913 heard a case in which he felt compelled to follow the Hicklin precedent, but his opinion stated that, neverthe- less, the "average conscience" was a better basis for determining obscenity than the most susceptible person, and that we should not ". . . be content to reduce our treatment of sex to the standard of a child's library in the supposed interest of a salacious few . . . " (p. 10). This "average conscience" rule became the "average person" rule twenty years later when Judge John Woolsey used it in the Ulysses case. Half a century later it became a part of the Roth test.

Bosmajian notes that the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision of 1973 permit- ting local courts to variously define obscenity has overtones of a turn back toward the spirit, if not the word, of Hicklin. In his excellent introduction the compiler says that whether a film, periodical, or book is obscene is very much a question of the judge's or juror's personality, habits, inclinations, attitudes, perceptions, and individual characteristics. He quotes Justice Black in his Ginzburg dissent: "It seems quite apparent to me that human beings, serving either as judges or jurors, could not be expected to give any sort of decision on this element which would even remotely promise any kind of uniformity in the enforcement of this law" (p. ix).

Bosmajian's book reminds us that, ultimately, continued free access to what some citizens regard as obscene depends upon our legal system. No civilized society can exist without courts of law, and free access to information cannot effectvely be preserved by librarians who fail to understand this fact.

David K. Berninghausen, University of Minnesota

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