Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has told Parliament that the Department of Culture, Media and Sport has begun drawing up guidelines to standardise which Islamic texts are stocked by public libraries. On 14 November, he told the House of Commons:
“The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport is working with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council to agree a common approach to deal with the inflammatory and extremist material that some seek to distribute through public libraries, while also of course protecting freedom of speech.”
The initiative comes after the Centre's September publication 'Hate on the State', the first in-depth study of public libraries' collections of Islamic books, found that several libraries were potentially fostering Islamic extremism by stocking numerous pro-jihadist texts at the expense of more moderate authors.
Margaret Hodge, the minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism, has also written to Jeremy Hunt MP and Michael Gove MP to say that she is planning to publish guidelines which will enable libarians to make more informed decisions about which books to stock. She writes:
"I have commissioned the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) to work with the public library sector - primarily through the Society of Chief Librarians - to prepare and publish guidance for library authorities on this issue, building through best practice."
"The objective of the guidance will be to refresh the thinking of this sensitive issue and how it relates to libraries, to raise sector awareness of the Terrorism Act of 2006; to agree guidance for management and operational activity regarding the selection of controversial stock; and how to share best practice, including how to build a balanced stock to reflect a wide range of views."