Let me start off by saying that I adore librarians (being the daughter of two, including a children's librarian), and have immense respect for the fights they've been fighting to in defense of free speech and access to controversial content, as well as all they put up with from people who think they know how to do a librarian's job better than the librarian.
But I couldn't quite write off this post by small-press author Joe Ekaitis charging that library policies that limit purchases to books reviewed in high-profile journals are limiting the range of what kids have access to just as much or more than moralistic wackos who rarely succeed in getting a book banned in more than one or two individual places. In fact, he argues that celebrity-penned books with bad reviews get bought, while books that got published on merit alone are being overlooked.
And ayway, he asked, "how does a book build up a readership without some exposure, beginning close to home? Isn't the library the place to discover books you can't easily find elsewhere? Everyone knows where to find best-sellers. They're at Wal-Mart."
There's clearly some sour grapes tone to the argument, but also a worrying charge. It shouldn't take more time to read and judge a picture book donated by a local author than to read a review of it. (Or maybe the donation is the problem, since a librarian doesn't want to feel obligated to shelve something she doesn't like because it was free.) And yes, I don't want my library to just replicate the shelves at big box bookstores. (For the record, I don't feel like mine does.)
What you do think? How are the shelves in your library? Are you worried about defacto censorship by publishing monopoly?
Strollerderby's recent banned books week coverage:
James and the Giant Peach; Kama Sutra for Kids; Smother the Fire and Read a Banned Book
In the Night Kitchen; Little Women; R.L. Stine's Goosebumps; Sarah Palin; And Tango Makes Three
Shel Silverstein; Where's Waldo?; Judy Blume and 'Forever'; Is Racism Packaged as Children's Literature Defensible?
Roald Dahl's The Witches
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