My first experience with censorship in library settings was in library school. I had gone to the public library in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was looking through some books to read and I found several books in the section had words blacked out. I looked at the book carefully in the upper right hand corner of the cover of the book were the words, this book is safe to read. Someone had gone through the book and crossed out all the objectionable words. They left it on the shelf for others to read. I put the book back at the time.
I had an even more odd experience in a childrens room of a public library. There was a religious sect where I was working, I'm not going to reveal exactly which one, and they would go through the childrens books sometimes and draw little black suits and hats on the pictures to make sure that the pictures of men and women were completely covered. You could see faces, but no bodies. At first, I thought it was amusing, until I really thought about it.
These are two examples where people defaced books. This happens occassionally. What happens more often is that the library patrons steal the books or take the books out and never return the books that they find objectionable. It is quite hard to challenge a book in a library setting. You have to bring in a complaint form about the book. Then the library board and the director will review the title to see if it should be removed. Quite often it is not removed.
We have a really hard time keeping certain titles. The hardest books to keep aren't the books on sex, but the books on politics that people find objectionable. We have trouble keeping Karl Marx Das Kapital, or Hitler's Mein Kampf. They disappear quite quickly from the adult room. Other subjects also disapear like books on abortion, birth control, and sexuality. But, it is the political books which disappear most quickly.
Another problem is that people revere certain people and really want to be close to the books about them. Or, they prefer to own than rent the item. We put certain books as reference to limit thievery. This in a way is a kind of censorship. It is book protection. We have copies of books on Marcus Garvey or Haile Selassie in both the reference and the circulating sections. The books in the circulating section tend to disappear very quickly.
We also keep most of our books on the music business, and the law dictionary behind the reference desk as well. They will leave quickly and never come back if we don't do this.
I think protecting books is a kind of self censorship. Librarians also do self censor. I honestly do find some of the material on a personal level objectionable, but I know people want them. We have to be careful considering ordering books for teenagers and children. The idea of "community standards" sets the tone sometimes for what we are ordering.
A thing to consider is that a person might be reading it for other reasons than supporting a particlar viewpoint. A nurse might ask about how abortions are performed along with pictures of the operation. I've had this question asked more than once. For a while we had a person asking for every book on prostitution which we could possibly get. I have no idea what he was doing with them.
I had an even more odd experience in a childrens room of a public library. There was a religious sect where I was working, I'm not going to reveal exactly which one, and they would go through the childrens books sometimes and draw little black suits and hats on the pictures to make sure that the pictures of men and women were completely covered. You could see faces, but no bodies. At first, I thought it was amusing, until I really thought about it.
These are two examples where people defaced books. This happens occassionally. What happens more often is that the library patrons steal the books or take the books out and never return the books that they find objectionable. It is quite hard to challenge a book in a library setting. You have to bring in a complaint form about the book. Then the library board and the director will review the title to see if it should be removed. Quite often it is not removed.
We have a really hard time keeping certain titles. The hardest books to keep aren't the books on sex, but the books on politics that people find objectionable. We have trouble keeping Karl Marx Das Kapital, or Hitler's Mein Kampf. They disappear quite quickly from the adult room. Other subjects also disapear like books on abortion, birth control, and sexuality. But, it is the political books which disappear most quickly.
Another problem is that people revere certain people and really want to be close to the books about them. Or, they prefer to own than rent the item. We put certain books as reference to limit thievery. This in a way is a kind of censorship. It is book protection. We have copies of books on Marcus Garvey or Haile Selassie in both the reference and the circulating sections. The books in the circulating section tend to disappear very quickly.
We also keep most of our books on the music business, and the law dictionary behind the reference desk as well. They will leave quickly and never come back if we don't do this.
I think protecting books is a kind of self censorship. Librarians also do self censor. I honestly do find some of the material on a personal level objectionable, but I know people want them. We have to be careful considering ordering books for teenagers and children. The idea of "community standards" sets the tone sometimes for what we are ordering.
A thing to consider is that a person might be reading it for other reasons than supporting a particlar viewpoint. A nurse might ask about how abortions are performed along with pictures of the operation. I've had this question asked more than once. For a while we had a person asking for every book on prostitution which we could possibly get. I have no idea what he was doing with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment