The Bearing of the “Faurisson Affair” on Librarians and Their Responsibility to Intellectual Freedom

What has come to be known as the “Faurisson Affair” has wide‐ranging implications for librarians concerned with their function as caretakers of intellectual freedom and, particularly, the generally recognized obligations of librarians to provide access to all points of view on all controversial issues. I intend here to sketch the circumstances surrounding the “Faurisson Affair,” show how this ‘affair’ impacts on librarians and intellectual freedom, and suggest how librarians might best handle issues of this nature which contemporary events indicate will be occurring with increasing frequency. The issues involve nothing less than the question of the right to distort, fabricate, and falsely revise history in a free society where, for the purposes of this paper, the librarian represents the medium through which a concerned citizenry seeks accurate information. In brief, should the librarian provide access to patently false information surrounding controversial or otherwise highly emotional issues in the name of intellectual freedom?