Résumés
Abstract
This study examines materials challenges in Canadian libraries as compiled by the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) with the intention of identifying demographic trends in patron challenge behaviour. By cross-referencing the CFLA data with five demographic fields from the 2016 Canadian Census of Population (median age, city size, educational attainment level, median income, and political representation), the study aims to determine whether challenges of a certain nature are more likely to occur in communities with certain demographic profiles. The study identifies twenty-two challenge categories derived from user complaints and three ideological alignments of challenges based on the political ideology standards set by moral foundations theory. Though the available sample is too small to draw any definitive conclusions, some strong trends were apparent. The most common challenge types—challenges to racist content and sexual content—are fairly consistent throughout demographic groupings, but notable correlations were found between demographic profiles and challenges related to LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and more) issues. Progressive-leaning communities were far more likely to challenge homophobic/transphobic materials while conservative-leaning communities challenged more LGBTQIA+-positive works. From an ideological standpoint, young communities tend to be the most progressive in their challenge behaviour, while communities with a low level of educational attainment tend to be the most conservative in their challenge behaviour.
Keywords:
- public libraries,
- censorship,
- intellectual freedom,
- challenged books,
- CFLA,
- demographics
Résumé
Cette enquête examine les documents contestés dans les bibliothèques canadiennes tels que compilés par la Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques (FCAB) dans le but d’identifier les tendances démographiques dans les comportements de contestation des usagers. En croisant les données de la FCAB avec cinq champs démographiques du Recensement de la population canadienne 2016 (âge médian, taille de la ville, niveau d’éducation, revenu médian et représentation politique), l’enquête vise à déterminer si les contestations d’une certaine nature sont plus susceptibles de se produire dans les communautés ayant certains profils démographiques. L’enquête identifie 22 catégories de contestation dérivées des plaintes des usagers et trois alignements idéologiques de ces contestations qui sont basés sur des normes idéologiques politiques fondées sur la théorie de la fondation morale. Bien que l’échantillon disponible soit trop petit pour tirer des conclusions définitives, certaines tendances fortes sont apparentes. Les types de contestation les plus communs - des contestations de contenus racistes ou de contenus sexuels - sont assez homogènes dans les groupes démographiques, toutefois des corrélations notables ont été observées entre les profils démographiques et les contestations liées aux enjeux LGBTQIA+ (lesbien, gai, bisexuel, transgenre, queer, intersexe, asexuel et autres). Les communautés à tendance progressiste étaient plus enclines de contester les documents homophobes ou transphobes tandis que les communautés à tendances conservatrice contestaient davantage les ouvrages positifs sur les communautés LGBTQIA+. D’un point de vue idéologique, les jeunes communautés ont tendance à être plus progressistes dans leur comportement de contestation tandis que les communautés ayant un faible niveau d’éducation ont tendance à être les plus conservatrices dans leur comportement de contestation.
Mots-clés :
- bibliothèques publiques,
- censure,
- liberté intellectuelle,
- livres contestés,
- FCAB,
- démographie
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