It's obvious that all the recent hoopla about banned books is really just a review of the appropriateness for some books in specific environments. It's interesting seeing it being constantly referenced otherwise.
It's obvious that all the recent hoopla about banned books is really just a review of the appropriateness for some books in specific environments. It's interesting seeing it being constantly referenced otherwise.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
It's obvious that the right wing has a cover story of age appropriateness, when I've seen people objecting to books objecting to the content, never mentioning age appropriateness. Like the one I shared the other week that you didn't comment on. The parent just didn't want the material to be accessible to /anyone/.
They don't like the ideas for anyone, has nothing to do with the age of the child.
As one of those librarians who was challenged, I’ve always thought that citizens in an open society have a right to question what their tax dollars go for and question the appropriateness of —for instance —books in their public library. And the American Library Association agrees with that, and even recommends that public libraries have a transparent policy that lays out the path a local citizen may take to “challenge “library material.
In my large public library there were a few staff members who were reactive in a challenge, but they tended to be the non-professional staff. My process in managing a challenge was to form a temporary committee of two other people and me, and we all reviewed the material, and if it was a book we read it, and if it was a video, we watched it, made written comments, and I then decided to keep the material or pull out from the collection. Usually we kept the material but every couple years there were something that after every review, we decided it wasn’t appropriate for our collection. Once in a while, we moved something from one location to another, or from one age collection to another, if it was youth material.
I wish I could remember some of the titles of the more interesting challenges. One of them was the film In The Realm of the Senses about a Japanese prostitute in the 1930s, who killed her lover, and then cut off his penis and carried it around with her for several days. That film is tricky because it was X-rated at the time because it was made in the days when the rating X was given to films, but it was an art house film. I think we pulled that one from the collection and I talked to my boss about it. She was the administrator in charge of the film collection. That challenge was especially tricky if I remember correctly because the person who originally ordered the video refused to consider the challenge in the “I am right/do not question me” vein and that right there is a problem if you don’t go into it with an open mind.
I remember the moral panic of rap music when it frst hit big, popularity. We ordered directly from Billboard charts, which means we bought a lot of raunchy rap music. There are a couple titles that the Director of the library put a hold on while he considered whether we would add them to the collection. Boy that was in the early days when we were all very innocent. It was before the NC-17 ratings were slapped on rap CDs, before the days when the rap artists made two versions, a clean version, and a not so clean version. Tipper Gore was a lead censor figure in those days if you all remember back then.
I got pressure for my staff to put “labels “on these music CDs that indicated strong language, and I fought that because I simply didn’t want the burden of defining a standard of raunch and then determining which music met that standard. I don’t mind if the artists themselves do it, that’s up to them.
Last edited by iris lilies; 6-12-23 at 12:03am.
https://www.kcur.org/news/2023-02-23...reds-of-titles
I was just reading this article yesterday before flowers everywhere started this thread. I think we’ve talked about this before but I’ll add comments later.
I'm sorry for not commenting on your post. At this point I'm assuming it's the one in the 'Why Not To Vote Republican' thread regarding the poem one Florida school moved from one shelf to another. I'm also assuming my non-response has to do with the link you posted to give more information taking me to a page that no longer existed.Originally Posted by herbgeek
If I'm correct in those assumptions, all I can say is that one parent in Florida probably doesn't represent the entirety of the "right wing", and if I recall correctly the complaint in that case did have to to with age appropriateness which resulted in the book being removed from the 'elementary' section of the library and placed in the 'middle school' section. I think most people would agree that it had nothing to do with removing the book from all audiences but rather ensuring it was curated for an appropriate audience. But maybe that's just me.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
Finished another one currently under review in some Florida districts. "All the bright places" by Julia NEVIN. Sorry for the caps but kept correcting to Kevin. Anyway, this is a young adult novel. There is some mentions of sex going on between two seventeen year olds, and mental health and suicide are some of the themes. Another very well written book. Obviously not written for young children, but I really don't know what is considered appropriate reading for high school. I thought it was very good.
I remember very disturbing stuff being not just available but assigned reading in high school. We read Crime and Punishment. Do you know how disturbing that book is to a teenager? Very.
Trees don't grow on money
That is a troublesome film. It's "pornographic" upon casual inspection. It's also a "significant film", "art", and biting political commentary. The Criterion release contains some useful supplemental material, including Tony Rayns' observations.
There are a fair number of films and books that are deliberately edgy and provocative like this.
What is the purpose of a public library?
What material is appropriate for a public library?
Is curation-by-age-appropriateness appropriate?
Is deciding which art/political/technical/... material should be allowed to adult readers appropriate?
Should materials be presented with some sort of "trigger warnings"?
Etc.
I'm not sure I have a clear idea here, but I bet Iris could help us understand what the state-of-the-art understanding among library folks is. My mother works at our local library on the procurement side, but they basically order everything anyone in the community asks for without too much pre-judgement.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ools-rcna12986
An interesting article about books that have been requested to be removed from the school libraries in Texas and why. My favorite was the one about Michelle Obama which was requested to be removed because it portrayed Trump as a bully. I kid you not.
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