Censorship and Choice

THE STARCHY schoolmarms and would-be censors who hold sway on Loudoun County's Board of Supervisors have pronounced themselves opposed to spending public money to stock R-rated DVDs in the public libraries. Luckily, these Guardians of the True G-Rating do not call the shots at the county's seven library branches when it comes to determining acquisitions policy; the county's library board does that, and, being independent, it wisely decided to ignore the priggish directive from on high. Still, the supervisors, whose fusty tastes evidently run to "Lassie" reruns, or, in their racier moods, the latest installment of "Wallace & Gromit," do write the checks that keep the libraries in business. So, for argument's sake, let's consider the merits of their Puritanism.

The facts: Neither the libraries nor the supervisors have reported any public complaints about the fact that 440 R-rated movies are available as DVDs in Loudoun's library system. In fact, as The Post's Amy Gardner reported, the titles are so popular that they are usually checked out. Nor are youngsters getting their hands on the DVD versions of movies that they cannot see in the theaters; the libraries have a policy of not lending R-rated flicks to minors. Nor are the bookshelves exactly bare as a result of the library board's policies. Of the $1.8 million spent annually on acquisitions of all sorts -- books, magazines, databases and so forth -- less than 2 percent is devoted to buying DVDs.

It seems that what the supervisors really object to is choice. Since burning books is beyond the pale, they would resort to sanitizing the DVD shelves. For its part, the library board intends to stick by its "freedom to read" philosophy, which in practice means a catholic approach to acquisitions. By casting a wide net and catering to as broad a range of tastes as possible, the library board will ensure that county residents -- of all ages, backgrounds, tastes and sensibilities -- keep coming back for more. That's the right way to defeat the would-be censors.