The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) in a statement last week recommended U.S. libraries resist a request by Cambridge University Press (CUP) to remove Alms for Jihad from their shelves. As part of a settlement to a threatened libel suit CUP agreed to ask the nearly 300 libraries around the world with the book in their collections to return it to CUP or destroy it themselves. Libraries, however, “are under no legal obligation to return or destroy the book,” said OIF deputy director Deborah Caldwell-Stone. “Libraries are considered to hold title to the individual copy or copies, and it is the library’s property to do with as it pleases. Given the intense interest in the book, and the desire of readers to learn about the controversy firsthand, we recommend that U.S. libraries keep the book available for their users.”
Media coverage of CUP’s settlement with Khalid bin Mahfouz has been extensive and mostly outraged, condemning what is largely perceived as CUP’s self-censorship and yet another case of the stifling of free speech in the West by Saudis. As of mid-August, Alms for Jihad was not available through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or Alibris. About 1500 copies of the book were sold worldwide.
All of which means libraries suddenly have an incredibly rare book in their stacks. A WorldCat search shows the book at many U.S. libraries is on hold, at the reserves desk, or “in search"—missing. “I imagine that many of the copies of Alms for Jihad are being borrowed, put on hold, etc. by readers interested in learning about the controversy,” Caldwell-Stone observed.
As a result, rather than discard the book per the publisher’s request, many libraries now want to safeguard it. “I have recalled the copy of this title…in order to place it in our Rare Books collection, where it may be read by anyone but not borrowed,” said Dona Straley, Middle East studies librarian at Ohio State University’s Ackerman Library. “I felt this action was warranted given the publicity over this book, given that there are now a finite number of copies of the book left in existence, and given that several of my colleagues at other institutions have reported their copies as missing.” That may be the case at University of North Carolina’s Davis Library, whose catalog reveals that Alms for Jihad is “in search,” meaning “someone has gone to the shelf to look for the book and not found it,” said reference librarian Carol Tobin. “The people at circulation are currently searching for the book.”
At Columbia University’s Butler Library, several measures are being considered. “We are in the midst of deciding whether or not the book should be held in a reserves collection as a means to safeguard it,” said librarian Barbara List. “We may decide, instead, to send it to our offsite facility where it will be fully available for users to request it or for ILL [interlibrary loan] to lend it.” Peter Magierski, Middle East studies librarian at New York University said he will likely move the book from the general stacks to special collections.
On the other hand, Los Angeles Public Library has no plans to alter its normal circulation policies or take special measures to protect its two copies, according to a library spokesperson. Both copies were most recently checked out last week. As of press time, there were 11 holds on the title.
