Re: [LM_NET] Is this censorship?

[Lynn Butler <Teri.Butler@SAISD.ORG>]

My personal opinion is that librarians are the first line of censorship
but since so many take exceptions to that idea, let's change the
phraseology and must say that IMHO librarians are the END of the
selection process.  A book is written, published, reviewed by numerous
sources, chosen by certain vendors, promoted and advertised until it
comes to the librarian's attention.  Using our knowledge of our client
base, customer preferences, social mores of our community and other
factors, we librarians then choose to purchase a book or not.  If we
choose NOT to purchase a book, does that mean we are censoring it?  No.
It means we are making an education decision based on various mitigating
factors about whether a book would be good for our community.  That's
called selection and that's one of the things they pay us for.  No
machine can do that.  We all make mistakes with book selection on
occasions, one of the factors of being human.  In my elementary library
I've often bought books then when I received them and read them,
discovered they were not exactly what I thought and not suited to my
particular audience.  I've shipped many off to our junior high and high
school.  The Coretta Scott King award books are prime examples.  They're
in elementary catalogs but definitely NOT elementary material.

You take that book off the shelf and don't have another thought about
it.  Who knows your patrons better than you?

Lynn Butler, LMS
Lamar Elementary School
San Angelo, Texas
"Reading is a window to the world"



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