From: Susan Daugherty <susaninaruba_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:03:25 -0700 (PDT)

All librarians probably have some embarassing incidents in their past.  I know I do.  Once a mother asked me to remove a Tintin book from the libr ary.  I know that these are the most stereotypical books out there, but I had a sizable group of second-grade boys that were crazy about them.  Th ey wouldn't check out anything else.  Unthinkingly I agreed to remove one of them from the shelf.  Afterwards I could have kicked myself, but I de cided to put it back on the shelf after the kid graduated and the family le ft the school.  In other words, I didn't follow the selection policy. I think I was intimidated by the woman who came on very strong and seemed q uite threatening.  Tintin books are interesting examples of books that ar e offensive to just about every minority group, and intelligent people disa gree greatly about them.  There are people who treat them as cult classic s, and others who wouldn't have them anywhere near their kids because of racism they supposedly contain.  (Trying to be neutra l here.)

I've been criticized by parents for having The sisterhood of the traveling pants and for not having The boy in the striped pajamas in my school librar y.  I didn't know anything about the former and didn't purchase it, but I kept it because it was popular.  I didn't buy the latter because I read that Jewish groups were highly opposed to its depiction of the Holocaust, a nd the unit for which it would have been read was on the Holocaust.  I fe lt it would be irresponsible to promote it as a realistic portrayal.  In a school library, you are primarily supporting the school curriculum, but y ou do buy a lot of books for purely recreational reading.  I generally tr ied to err on the side of books that are excellently written and provoke th inking.  But I did buy the Twilight books although I didn't think they we re particularly well done.  I strongly believe that you must have controv ersial books in your library, and you should promote discussion of their points of view when possible.  Often, however, i t is not possible to do so.

This has been an excellent discussion and many important points have been r aised.  Librarians are on a tightwire when selecting and deselecting book s.  There are no easy answers, but in a way it makes a great job even bet ter to have such tricky issues to deal with!

Susan Daugherty (on vacation but couldn't resist adding my two cents)
Received on Thu 30 Sep 2010 03:03:25 AM CDT