Istanbul University Central Library (IUCL) users' attitudes towards book banning and censorship

Intellectual freedom is at the top of the fundamental rights and freedoms. Indeed, intellectual freedom is a have to for the library institution. Libraries can only perform their functions by protecting and improving the intellectual freedom and contribute to the development of the society in which they serve. The aim of this thesis is to examine intellectual freedom in the context of university libraries, to address the limitations of intellectual freedom in university libraries, to measure the attitudes of library users towards book prohibitions and censorship, and to reveal the intellectual freedom. In this context, a questionnaire was applied to the users of Istanbul University Central Library (IUCL), which is the sample of the research and is a deposit, university and research library. The survey data of 680 participants were analyzed and findings were obtained. The result of the analyzes, three basic dimensions were found in the survey: intellectual freedom, censorship and harmful publications. Consequently, it has been observed that the attitudes of IUCL users towards the dimensions of intellectual freedom, censorship and harmful publications in the survey not differ according to age, gender and educational status. In addition, although IUCL users have a sense of intellectual freedom, it understood that they have a position that limitations are necessary, according to a number of value judgements. At the end of the surveys conducted, it was determined that censorship of publications which seems harmful by the participants was not seen as a situation to prevent intellectual freedom.