“Freedom of the Press: An Annotated Bibliography" is a scan of Ralph E. McCoy's reference book, Freedom of the Press: An Annotated Bibliography, published by the SIU Press in 1968. It is often mistaken as a list of Morris Library Special Collection's holdings, as explained below.

Dr. McCoy spent over thirty years compiling this book, which contained a distillation of tens of thousands of items that he had seen over many trips throughout the United Kingdom and United States. His annotations are mini-essays of great scholarship on the history of democracy in the English-speaking world. Freedom of the Press is available in Morris Library, Reference, 1st floor, call number: 323.445016 M131f, and LC Books, Basement, call number: Z657 .M3.

Dr. McCoy’s personal collection of books and materials on freedom of the press was acquired by Special Collections in 1981. At the time, however, he owned fewer than 50% of the items in the bibliography. Because the scanned bibliography is linked to the Special Collections web site, many people mistake it for a list of their holdings. Morris Library does not own everything in the bibliography; therefore, patrons who find interesting books listed in the bibliography should first look in SIUCat to see if Morris Library owns them. Patrons looking for specific journal articles from the bibliography should search Morris Library's periodical holdings. 

Why might you use this resource?
Because of its great index! If you are interested in freedom of the press or even American or British history, Dr. McCoy’s detailed subject indexing will take you to all mentions of your topic or person within the book. The index is far more minute and user-friendly than standard subject headings, and it searches the complete text. You will find a heading for “British Museum censorship charged,” separate headings for “Burial of heretical books” and “Burning of books,” as well as citations to precise legal cases.

• Searching Thomas Paine, for instance, will not only lead you directly to a source for a portrait of Paine, (all index citations are linked to the text of the bibliography) but also to all items that mention him, no matter how briefly.
  
• The Thomas Jefferson index will link you to the item for James Callendar’s scurrilous attacks on him, and will also lead you to a libel case in which Jefferson is the libeled plaintiff.
• Where else can you find information on the banning of a book because a “certain Congressmen objected to the pictures of a little red school house, a dust storm, and a quotation from Thoreau” [See D38].
  

For sheer information and detail on all of the controversies surrounding freedom of the press and censorship, only Freedom of the Press: An Annotated Bibliography work can give you so much information so concisely and lead you to sources that you would never find any other way.

Anyone unsure of this process can visit Special Collections during regular hours of operation, and their staff will endeavor to locate the item, whether it is in Morris Library or elsewhere. Those looking for information after hours can e-mail Joseph Ripp, Rare Books Librarian.  The McCoy Collection is a great collection, but it can never match the thousands of rarities found by Dr. McCoy in his years of intrepid research!

Learn more about the Special Collections Research Center on its webpage.