University library director denies censorship accusations

Ellul was reacting to accusations by university lecturers and the Front Against Censorship that the university library is keeping controversial titles under lock and key, the latter also accusing the library of “lying” to the Students’ Council in justifying its position.

Contacted by MaltaToday, Ellul justified the restriction of certain books because “some of these books might be out of print, or very fragile, or might be in such high demand that, once placed on open shelves, pages might get torn out, or stolen entirely.”

But only 13 out of a list of 33 controversially themed books are more than 20 years old, some of which are still in print and freely available commercially. The list includes titles like “The Silence of Sodom” (Mark Jordan, 2000), “The Way Of The Cross” (Escriva, 2004), and “Manga; sixty years of Japanese comics” (Paul Gravett, 2004).

FULL list of books sectioned from main collection

Asked however to justify the restriction of new books that are also commercially available, Ellul said another reason could be that “books of this type” are likely to be vandalised or have pages torn out.

“In our experience, publications with this degree of ‘humour’ or ‘sexuality’ are more prone to vandalism,” he said, adding that the prominence or notoriety of a given publication also factors into the decision. But when pressed to clarify, Ellul was categorical: “If we believe that we need to safeguard that publication, we will put it on the restricted shelves.”

He insisted that the sexual, religious, or controversial theme that seems to be common to the restricted books has nothing to do with the fact that they were put aside. “We believe in freedom of expression,” he said, claiming that many “similar” books are on open shelves.

“I see these publications as part of the university’s assets,” he maintained, emphasising that “the library does not censor books at any point because these books are viewable on the library’s online catalogue and students can make requests to view them.”  MaltaToday can confirm that the books on the list are all accounted for on the University of Malta’s online catalogue section.

He said that any such requests have so far never been denied. “Access is provided for all books, while within parameters that protect the collection,” Ellul said, referring to how photocopying particularly old manuscripts is now allowed, for example.

Ellul pointed out that entire sections of the library are restricted from general access, such as the Melitensia section, the Archives section, and many manuscripts. “Would this mean that we are censoring these too?” he asked.

“If I truly wanted to censor a book,” Ellul said, “I wouldn’t even put it on the online catalogue to begin with.” He reiterated that the books are all viewable online, and any requests to see books, “whether on open shelves or not, are given to students there and then.”

Asked about the inherent difficulty in students asking for a book they might not know the existence of, Ellul maintained that nobody searches for books by perusing the shelves anymore.

“That time is over. Today’s students seek out books through the online catalogue – it is their first stop the moment they walk in.” He conceded that while one might not know a particular title exists “judicious use of keywords in the online catalogue would still ‘turn up’ the title.”

An official statement by the University library issued on today Friday echoed Ellul’s position. In the statement, the University claimed that “these closed access collections cover all the Library's Melitensia (Maltese publications), the majority of the fine arts books, and all the rare, particularly out-of-print, and manuscript holdings. 

“Such material,” University said, “which includes a tattered copy of Irvine Welsh and a rare reprint of DeSade, is kept under closed access for added custody against mishandling and possible theft or misplacement, but definitely not by way of censorship.” It maintained that “other notorious works, including works by De Sade, are in fact on open shelves.”

The statement came hot in the heels of accusations by NGO Front Against Censorship that books on the list revealed by the group “are neither hard to find, nor are they of any intrinsic value whatsoever.”

“The book '101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History' is available from Amazon.com for $13.49,” the group said, “whilst 'Hollywoodblue: The Tinseltown Pornographers' can be found on the same site for the measly amount of $12.25.”

“Nor do these books need to be safeguarded; in fact the above two books, which were retrieved from the cabinet by Front members, are brand new and exhibit no damage,” the Front maintained.

The Front reiterated earlier claims that of a pattern involved in the choice of these books for isolation; “they are either of a sexual nature, or they criticise the Church or are somehow unpalatable to the present social order.”

University and Junior College lecturers called for the discontinuation of the sectioning off of selected books from the University’s main library collection, including the Marquis de Sade’s Justine and Opus Dei founder Jose Maria d’Escrivà’s The Way Of The Cross.

In their letter, the lecturers said it was an inversion of education to block intelligent debate by shrouding books in secrecy. “It attempts to repress the option of an educated decision – the decision to read a text or study photographs and reach one’s own conclusions about them rather than being spoon-fed a fixed, authoritarian judgement by someone else.”

These include Prof. Kenneth Wain, Prof. Peter Mayo, Dr Carmen Sammut, Prof. Carmel Borg, and other senior lecturers.

On Tuesday, a university student stuck posters on campus protesting the practice of keeping controversial books “under lock and key” in the library. The posters called on students to “vandalise” their university by “breaking lock” and reading the books.

The accusations and counter accusations that deal with the University library come in the light of similar controversies at how certain books were banned from Secondary School Libraries – most notably Mario Azzopardi’s Vampir.

The full list however includes seminal literary works such as D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Sant’s Silg Fuq Kemmuna, and Voltaire’s Candide.

MORE: ‘Four to five’ books are being withheld each week from school libraries